The Secret to Finding Writing Inspiration

I’ve given you tips on outlining your ideas, (you can find that post here!) but I’ve yet to mention where this great writing inspiration can come from! This can mean completely new stories, or just ideas to help you past some writer’s block. Here are my secrets to finding writing inspiration.

Music

My go-to is listening to music. I will take out a notebook and pen, turn on my favorite playlist at the moment, and start writing! I write down lyrics that speak to me in each song that plays randomly on the page and keep going until the page is full. Sometimes the lines meld together to make a dramatic scene, and sometimes it just seems like a mash-up of sentences. I never use any of these lyrics in my writing, but it does help to give me some ideas and kick-start the creative side of my brain.

Here are two examples of what I do:

Sometimes the page ends up nice and neat like this…

And sometimes it’s a little more random like this!

My favorite bands/singers to listen to when I do this activity are Three Days Grace, Demi Lovato, Eminem, NF, Taylor Swift, and some others. You’ll find if you look into these artists’ songs, they each have pretty emotional lyrics. That is what I need. I like to listen to these songs when I’m writing my own book too. It helps to be listening to a sad song when I write a more solemn scene, or a fun song when I’m writing a party scene, etc.

Read a Book

If music doesn’t give you the inspiration you need, another option is to read a book. It can be any book, preferably in the genre you want to be writing. Not only will this hopefully provide you with some great new ideas, but it will also give you insight into how other authors are writing the genre. It is important to see which techniques work well, or maybe if you don’t enjoy the book, what doesn’t work well.

You can also read something like Stephen King’s On Writing. I mention this book specifically because I read this book in high school and it really helped me realize I could be a writer while giving me some really great tips but in a less analytical way. The book was part auto-biography, and Stephen King told his story about how he became a writer. It was really the first book about writing that I’d read and enjoyed. If you are interested in reading, here it is!

Free Write

Finally, one last option for finding writing inspiration is to just free write or journal. Write about your day, something that’s been on your mind — just unload. Because this could help you to clear your mind and allow for more creative thoughts to flow. Or maybe, a great idea will come out in your freewriting.

The last idea I want to share with you is to use your dreams. Write down your dreams every morning, or as much as you can remember. Sometimes our subconscious comes up with some great material! My current project actually stemmed from a dream. It has morphed into a whole other idea now, but I plan on incorporating that original dream into my book.

There are certainly so many ways of finding writing inspiration for your own writing, these are just a few of my favorites. Let me know if you have a specific thing you like to do to get new ideas!

Here is a list of the songs I used for my writing activity in the two pictures above, with the first picture’s songs listed first:

• Unsteady — X Ambassadors
• All Time Low — Jon Bellion
• See You Again — Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth
• Happier — Ed Sheeran
• Colors — Halsey
• Don’t Let Me Down — The Chainsmokers ft. Daya
• 45 — Shinedown
• Issues — Julia Michaels
• We are One — The Lion King 2
• 8 Letters — Why Don’t We
• I Would Die for You — Miley Cyrus
• Certain Things — James Arthur
• Head Above Water — Avril Lavigne
• In the End — Linkin Park
• Pieces — Red
• Siren — The Chainsmokers
• Helium — Sia

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