I find it interesting about why people are inspired to write what they write.
#jo_vr_pics
Inspiration is defined as i.The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative and ii. a sudden brilliant or timely idea.
My inspirations
I mentioned in my previous post, The Creative Juices are on the Move, the inspiration for one of my stories, currently in the planning process, is a photo I took from Hassans Walls in Lithgow. I pictured my protagonist, sitting on the rock looking out over the luscious green valley.
She sat, her eyes closed, enjoying the quiet. The warm rays of the early morning sun, like the fingers of a gentle lover caressed her hair and face.
Photo by Guillaume Meurice on Pexels.com
A short story I finished recently is about a young lad who received noise-cancelling headphones for his birthday. My inspiration: this photo I found during an image search for my blog post “Social Media is Dangerous!” created for a Tafe assignment.
A small number of inspirations written on sticky notes are stuck to the notice board above my desk. The word ‘procrastination’ is on the list, the Hydro Majestic Hotel in Medlow Bath, the words “What’s the point?” uttered by my son when asked to do something and a story of a ghost lurking in a shop at the Australiana Village is worth looking into. Oh! also a field of meadow flowers was added the other day.
Where do others get their inspirations?
Stephen King’s inspiration for Misery came from a short story by Evelyn Waugh called “The Man Who Loved Dickens”. A man is held captive and has to read Dickens’ stories to his captor. Stephen says on his website that he wondered “…what it would be like if Dickens himself had been held captive”.
J.K. Rowling “first had the idea for Harry Potter while delayed on a train travelling from Manchester to London’s Kings Cross”. Author of Mrs Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs was inspired by a collection of strange vintage postcards.
Where else?
Inspirations can come from a song or the line in a song. They can also come from artwork; remember Dr Who and the Van Gough episode? Actually a lot of Dr Who episode stories are inspired by famous people.
Family history or a family photo. A famous building built in a past era or perhaps a famous train station, or any other building built on or next to a cemetery. Sydney’s Central Station for example, is built on top of a cemetery. imagine the ghost story for that one.
Old spooky cemeteries! Really, the list is endless.
Whether it be a story, song lyrics, screen play or poem or even the moment you decided to be a writer, at the very beginning; there is something, the inspiration, that started that thought process. Happy writing!
What was the inspiration for your last writing, something you’re currently working on or even to be a writer?
4 thoughts on “My Inspiration was…”
Great post, Joanne. It’s strange (but nice) seeing references to places in my local area. Where does inspiration come from? They slowly take form themselves, but the initial spark sometimes comes from real life. Something I’ve heard that I find fascinating and a story evolves around it. ‘Like Ink in Water’ is about gossip I heard from a small town where someone won the lottery and no one knew who it was.
Judy, you’re right about real life sparking the initial thought processes.
Inspiration can come from anywhere and the more open to it you are the more inspiration you will find. The inspiration for my latest blog regarding making a major life decision came from taking pleasure in everyday activities. I decided that I enjoyed the slower pace of life that we have right now and wanted to continue it into the future. I made the decision to write full time rather than cramming writing around a full time job. At least for the next few months, anyway.
Thank you for reading my post. Good luck with the full time writing. I’m working on my writing part-time at the moment, fitting it in whenever I have time.