Inspiring Yourself to Write

A major cause of writer’s block is being uninspired to write. You want to write but can’t get in the mood to actually create or find your mind drifting.

The solution rests in determining why you feel uninspired. Are you bored with writing the story? Do you believe that what you’re writing just isn’t publishable, so you feel like you’re wasting your time? Maybe you just have the blahs.

In fact, this is less a block then “writer’s blahs.”

Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to inspire yourself to write.

Approach Story Sideways
If blocked while writing the opening of your story, approach the story sideways. Start in the middle or with a scene that is more fully formed in your mind. A sculptor, after all, doesn’t have to start with the feet or the crown of the head but can begin at any portion of the statue. He then allows the other sections to coalesce and grow clearer in his head. You can do the same with a story.

Conduct a Mock Interview with Your Main Character
Perhaps your main character’s background and their motivations need to be further developed for you to continue the story. An interview will help you evolve the character.

Create a “Playlist” for Your Characters and Story
Select songs that help you get into your character’s frame of mind or the scene’s tone. Then play those songs as you write.

Go for a Walk
Walk someplace that always has inspired you to be creative. Maybe it’s a hiking trail, maybe it’s an art museum, maybe it’s a walk along a wharf. Walking, especially in nature, helps refresh your mind, scientific studies show. Along the way, you even may encounter something that gives you just the right words to use or that helps you come up with the next scene. Just be sure to bring a pen and notepad with you so you can jot down the idea lest you forget it upon returning from the walk!

Play Music
Select songs that help you get into your character’s frame of mind or for the story’s tone. Heavy metal or industrial works if writing cyberpunk, classical if writing about a moment of triumph, or Simon and Garfunkel if your character is in a reflective mood.

Play Write
Sometimes guitarists play around on their instruments until an idea for a song evolves from some of the chords they’ve played. Certainly writers should play around with words until an idea for a story evolves from some of the lines they’ve penned. For example, select a random word from a dictionary. Suppose you selected moon. Now open to another random page and look at the first word in the upper left. With that word can you come up with a metaphor or simile about the moon? If the word were lemon, you might write The moon hung in the air as if a slice of lemon had been pinned to the night sky. Could that be the opening line to a new story? If not, repeat the word game and see what else you come up with.

Research Your Story
Is there a part of your story that involves something you’ve never experienced? A stagecoach robbery? A firefight during war? A refugee camp? Read a book about the topic, using the research to inform your writing. The more you “immerse” yourself in your story’s setting, the more you’ll be inspired to write.

______________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks: