What is Inspiration for a Creative Writer?

Inspiration plays a key role in the success of any writer. Here, we'll discuss strategies for finding inspiration and keeping the balance of discipline and "excitement" needed for your best writing. In addition, new avenues of exploration represent the best defense again the dreaded Writer's Block.

Read on to see what writer's do to keep your ideas fresh and your writing interesting.

Freewriting - Finding the Window to the Soul

Books and Movies - Art Inspires Your Art. See our Recommendations.

Experience - Turning That Crazy Life into a Book

Freewriting and Dreams: Finding Your Window to the Unconscious Soul

The unconscious mind is the place for dreams and echoes. If you listen carefully, you can make out the timbre of your own life in the depths of this mysterious place. Every experience, every memory, every thought - your entire life has left an impression on your mind. But there's too much of it to remember all at once. This is why our brains need regular sleep - through dreams we process this crazy reality, and pulling the important memories from the less relevant. For writing, though, many of the "irrelevant" memories become extremely important for establishing the texture and reality of your story.

This is why freewriting is such an important tool. We'll have more information in the coming weeks about how to freewrite both on your own and in workshop groups. In the meantime, visit our Friday Freewriting Blog for inspirational prompts to keep you going.

Books and Movies - We Recommend Several

There's a real debate about how much a writer should read. Now, I've heard one (unpublished) author at a writing conference say that he avoids reading books because he doesn't want the styles of other authors to dilute his own. This, however, leads to a poor writing life - without continual input, we won't know how stories are being written, we won't see how the modern novel is changing before our very eyes. And, more importantly, it's impossible to develop and expand that highly prized commodity "my writing style" without first seeing a variety of other styles. Although it is true that reading a very good book may cause you to start imitating that style, that's no reason to give up reading. Instead of giving up the reading of one book, add the reading of several. You won't dilute your own style - you'll dilute the dogmatic effects of any one style, allowing you to pick and choose the best writing techniques.

Although I can't provide specific advice on how you should live in order to be a great writer, I do recommend living your life to the fullest. If you see something interesting, go out and try it. That said, certain life experiences can severely hinder your writing. Chronic drug and alcohol abuse, for example, as well as abusive relationships (try writing through "I don't feel like going home - I'm gonna order another drink" or "oh, you think you're gonna be a writer? How about you learn to frakin' cook"). There are many writers who have overcome difficult (and even terrible) experiences to become great writers (consider Elie Wiesel's Night), and even individuals who have enjoyed morally questionable lives who go on to become bestsellers (such as Tucker Max - many students boycotted him when he visited Hopkins as a guest speaker).

Regardless of the life you've lived or want to live, there's only one thing I'd like you to keep in mind - if you write, you are a writer. Even if it's just on the back of cocktail napkins while serving drinks at the bar, you're still a writer (and when I was a bartender, that's what I did to keep from loosing ideas). So write as much as you can, write about your own life and the lives of those who interest you. And ignore the warning below as much as possible...

Number One Sign You May Be Writing Too Much: Dissociation.

Do you ever feel "one" with your characters? Do you ever pull away from your stories wondering if this world is real or if the world you're writing about is real? Then you're beginning to dissociate from your reality and your mind is actually drifting into your fiction. Don't be alarmed - I believe that all good writing requires some element of this. However, it is something to keep an eye on. If you ever feel nervous about it, the best cure is simply to find a friend and to spend some time just talking about things. Generally, human beings crave the reassurance of others - it's one of the ways we center our perceptions of reality.

On the flip side, though, dissociation can sometimes help your writing. When you begin empathize with another point of view thoroughly enough to question your own, that means you have an incredible grasp of the motives and thoughts behind this persona. This isn't something to take lightly - many writers have difficulty progressing beyond their own voice. Reaching the point where you are writing "as a different person," so to speak, can provide an authenticity that wouldn't be possible if you were simply writing about that person.