Where Do Writers Find Inspiration?

How do writers get their inspiration? After staring at the four walls for as many days, it has occurred to me that may be I need a change of scenery to get the juices flowing again. Usually, I am at no loss for words-except when I am writing. I stare at the blank page, trying vainly to remember something interesting to share with my readers. I pick up the phone, calling my best friend, who reminds me what an interesting life I lead. The problem-I tell her-is that once I sit down at the computer, every memory has flown the coop, and once again, I am staring at this blank sheet of paper on my screen.

At my most frustrated moments, I minimize my screen, click on Internet Spades, getting all involved in playing my favorite card game for hours on end. When I am finished, I happily close out the screen-and there is my blank piece of paper staring at me in glee, as if chiding me on my inability to type one decent sentence that will lead to another equally decent sentence until a paragraph is written.

Sometimes, two paragraphs later, I have come to a dead end. All that I have wanted to say has been said. In an agony of frustration, I save the half-page, hoping at some point in the near future I will think of something worth adding to clarify and expand upon my original point. Sometimes weeks pass without looking at what I have written. Sometimes I will forget about it, entirely. Then, one day I reopen my files, and presto, I have an idea how to finish the story. But that does not always happen.

Most of the time, inspiration hits me when I am turning the pages of a catalog or thumbing through a home decorating magazine when I come across a photo that tells its own story. At those times, I am usually at the doctor's office, getting my car serviced, or waiting impatiently for a phone call. The resulting daydreams that come from waiting around for someone else fuel my imagination, writing every sentence in my mind because I am so fired up-then the writing flows like a river.

Volunteering your services in community work can add a new dimension to your writing. Then, you will have real life experiences to write about, allowing your fictional character to leap off of the page with individualism that you can easily describe so that readers can relate with realism. In addition, it is helpful to adapt your writing to a style that you admire in other writers, using symbolism, allegories or sardonic humor to give flavor to your writing.

Writers find that certain frames of mind fuel the imagination to a greater degree than at other times. It is a great way to channel anger, longing or regret with words that describe characters thinking in ways that will surprise you. Strong emotion can be used, allowing the writer to "vent" yet creatively find a lucrative outlet to express thoughts and feelings that cannot always be shared when you need to get it out of your system.

Best of all, write what you know about. If you want to write about the middle ages but have not one clue how to go about doing it, then scrap the idea. It will not fly unless you are willing to spend hours, weeks and months researching the middle ages, which you have to document as your source of information, and then there is no guarantee that your work will pass muster. You must be passionately involved in the subject matter in order for your work to be taken seriously. There is no substitute for effort and planning.

If you have problems with grammar and spelling, use your programs' spell-check and grammar tool as aides to help you over the rough spots. If you do not, you may find yourself rereading pages of rambling descriptions that lead nowhere.

Writers usually have a goal in mind, not just a plot and characters. The best writers of the twentieth century have been successful at illustrating a moral rather than just telling a story. Think of fictional characters, like Scarlett O'Hara, who seem frivolous in their actions and motives, yet clearly illustrating her rebellious attitude of having to comply with an antiquated system that said women must behave in a certain manner in order to find success in life. How did she succeed? Or did she succeed, at all? Is there more than one way to look at the ending? If so, show me, do not just say the words. And please do not try to write a sequel.

Sequels rarely have the same punch as the original work. The style of writing usually changes for the worse, even by the original authors. Why? How can one recapture what is lost? Can man recapture his youth? What we think in our teens will not sound the same twenty years later because we have forgotten how we spoke years ago. The same is true of writers who attempt to add to a classic story, forgetting they do not possess the same thought processes now as they did then.

When a woman loses her virginity, she can never regain that sense of innocence that existed when she was a virgin. There exists no method of recapturing what has been lost except through pretense, and then one deludes oneself. If man is to succeed, then he must be true to himself, illustrating integrity in a manner that is thoroughly convincing to one and all.

Aim high. Find a different way to say the same thing fifty million others have said for centuries. Be true to yourself.