This article appeared last month in The Prosperous Writer. Don’t miss the next article like this one, subscribe here.
Writers write. This is what we do. And in order to write, we need material.
And where is your best material hiding? It might just be right under your nose.
Before you head out into the world looking for that ever-elusive fountain of inspiration that is supposed to be out there, make sure you check your own back yard first.
A very wise little girl once said, “There’s no place like home.” And although far-away places can certainly thrill and inspire us, they make the greatest impressions on those who have practiced turning the everyday into the universal…right from home.
If you are creating an interesting life, you will never run out of inspiration.
Here are some ideas of where to look for topics that interest and inspire you close to home:
- The biggest problems in your life that you are trying to solve or resolve
- Your lemons into lemonade stories
- In the bookshelves where you collect your favorite books
- From topics you already like to read about
- Snippets of thoughts from everyday life that you jot on a pad or white board
- From keywords that you use to describe your audience
- From mixing and matching keywords you use to describe your audience
- By updating what you know about yourself to make a new story
- Inside the jar of coins you are saving up
- From the bills you have already paid
- Flowing from ideas you think you have finished writing about but have not yet finished writing about
- By what is created when you collect your old work and see it in a new way
- By zooming in on one subtopic or zooming out on the over-arching general topic
- By flipping through your portfolio and seeing what you’ve already done
- By digging through your tickler file and seeing what you have not done yet
- By looking around the house and seeing how you live
- By looking around the house and seeing how you’d like to live
- By sorting through your old photo albums and scrapbooks
- By creating new photo albums and scrapbooks
- By getting out of the house and going somewhere new
- By paying more attention to the interesting conversations you have
- From news stories that attract your attention today
- By predicting trends in the future
- From eavesdropping live or on social media
- By tapping into the Zeitgeist however you do that best
- After rearranging a room
- While redecorating a room
- By printing and posting questions around the house that help you come up with ideas
- By working with a therapist, coach or spiritual adviser
- By deepening the relationships closest to you
- By paying attention to every moment
- By doing a little research on topics you think might interest you
- By writing lists of ideas and continuing to update and add to them over time
- By thinking about what you already know how to do
- By thinking about what you don’t know how to do but would like to do
- By studying forms and playing around with them in your own writing
- By paying attention to your dreams
- From thinking about what you value most in life
- From thinking about what you’ve done so far
- From thinking about what you enjoy doing most lately
- From thinking about your hard-won expertise
- From thinking about ways you can serve
- By considering what moves you that you also think will move others
Leave no stone unturned…ever heard this expression?
This might just be the best writing career advice ever.
So much inspiration, so little time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative Newsletter for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Join my monthly pep talk video series because all the other prosperous writers are doing it. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!
Comments on this entry are closed.
Thank you, Christina. These ideas are wonderful!
These are fabulous. I’ve saved this post.