Whether you are writing a college essay or an article for your personal blog, you need not only a topic, but also a particular force to help you develop it. In other words, you need inspiration or muse, call it as you like.
In old times inspiration was considered a power with which gods endowed only selected mortals. Greek Muses were the respected goddesses who protected a particular science or art. Even today romantics would still believe that the power of inspiration has a divine origin, and its nature is beyond scientific explanation.
To put it more or less simple, inspiration is an effect of some of your impressions. These can be your memories or dreams, current events, people you know or have met by accident, or even an ad on a billboard you’ve passed by.
Some say that it’s better to write when inspiration comes itself, but not when you are looking for it in vain. However, a good and creative writer should know how to find something really inspiring either in his or her past, present or even future, regardless of the muse’s wish to come and help.
Where Can Your Inspiration Come from?
Inspiration is worth considering both a skill and an exercise. It’s just perfect if you know what can impress and, therefore, inspire you, as well as how to look for it. In its turn, the very process of searching for inspiration is a good way to train your abstract thinking and creativity. Let’s have a look at a few reliable bases your inspiration for writing can be built on.
Your Personal Issues
Each writer is unique, with his or her own life experience, memories, feelings, dreams and hopes. Your own world outlook and life perception are powerful generators of that mental energy you call inspiration. Just listen to yourself carefully.
People
Has your granny ever told you stories from her past? We bet, sometimes you caught yourself at thinking that some of them could be nice plots for novels or movies. Or, probably, you have a few friends whose personalities are definitely going to become legends. Even a short phone talk of a man sitting next to you on a bus might become a lavish source of your inspiration.
Current Events
Can you imagine that in each and every corner of our world something is happening right at this moment? Sometimes even the news isn’t powerful enough to cover all these things. The scales of life are balancing between great and terrible deeds of your contemporaries. So, whether your inspiration is caused by a happy or tragic event, it still has the right to exist.
This Very Moment
This is a little challenge to see if you are able to live here and now. Cast a quick glance at the place you in, the people around you or your fluffy cat in case you are at home. Every second you can find something impressive and inspiring in everybody and everything that surrounds you.
Sometimes you may find it really difficult to find inspiration in things or people you are so used to. Routine is an inspiration-killer, definitely. However, there is a scientifically proven point of view that today’s you are different from yesterday’s you. Sounds a little bit like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? However, if we assume this, we can stick to the idea that the little change can help to discover something new and special in who or what we see every day.