If you want to write a novel, the first thing you need to do is find inspiration! But how? If you ask 10 writers how they find inspiration, you’ll probably get 10 different answers. That’s because inspiration comes to people in different ways. In this blog post, I’ll include a few of my favorite ways to spark inspiration.
The Silver Screen
A good way to find inspiration is to watch your favorite movies or tv shows and ask yourself, “Why do I love this?” From here, you can take aspects from different movies and shows to make a new idea. However, make sure you don’t completely steal someone’s idea.
My personal go to for inspiration is Pinterest. I like to look at character art and try to write the story behind the picture. I also like to look at exotic names and build a character who embodies the meaning of that name. These are only a couple ways to use Pinterest for inspiration. However, the sky is the limit with this method.
Music
I like to use YouTube and Spotify to find cinematic playlists. Listening to dramatic music is how I get inspiration for specific scenes (for a new story or a story I’m currently working on). There are thousands of writing playlists on YouTube that can help you get into the right headspace for writing. A couple playlists that I’ve made are Preparing for Battle and The Dark Before the Dawn.
Go on a Walk
Yes! You heard me right. Sometimes all you need to do is go out into the world and look at nature. There’s endless inspiration waiting for you to discover it. There are beautiful landscapes, animals of various kinds, and also people. In most cases, stories involve people, so it’s good to get out there and watch humans go about their everyday lives.
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If you enjoyed this post, you might also like my post “Desk Essentials for Productive Writing Sessions.”
