Sunday, July 12, 2015

Finding Inspiration When Writing

July 12, 2015

Quite some time back, I said I would blog about finding inspiration as a writer; the act of doing so is unique to all writers. While there is no way to tell someone how to be inspired, I can relate how it works for me.

When it comes to writing, I would refer to myself as a working man’s writer. There are some authors who have the luxury of being able to sit around waiting for inspiration to grace them; these writers, no doubt bestselling authors, who have enough money to do so, can take up to a year or two, or more, to complete a book. I don’t believe, even if I had that luxury, I would do that.

My inspiration comes simply from the act of writing. When I decided to write my first book, I set a daily goal for myself - namely, I wanted to write 1,000 words a day. If you can accomplish this, in three months you’ll have enough words completed for a book-length manuscript. (Of course, the words and story have to be good enough to call it a book).

In setting a goal like this, you can’t guarantee that every day you’ll be inspired, or know where you’re going, so I did what I read in a writing magazine – just write. I remember one day, while writing Tripping on Tears, I really wasn’t inspired, but I had trained myself so well to write 1,000 words a day, that I felt guilty if I didn’t. So, on this particular day, I just sat down and wrote – where I thought the story should go. I remember thinking, as I wrote, that what I was writing was terrible. I knew, in the back of my mind, I’d probably be erasing everything I wrote the next day; what I was doing, was making sure I kept up my routine; that I sat down at my keyboard and tried.

Now I got lucky. The next day, when I read what I’d written, it turned out it was actually good – it had also taken me in the right direction. What I discovered for myself was that the story lived within me, even if I wasn’t aware of it, and by just typing it found its way out. I discovered I had to believe and trust in myself as a writer. I can’t wait for inspiration, but if I put myself in the write environment, doing what I love, it may just find me.

I got lucky that day, and many other days. I just wrote and continued writing. Most of us live in fear of losing what we’ve written. To find inspiration, as opposed to waiting for it to find you, you have to write and write without the fear of it being crap and needing to be thrown out the next day. If you can live with the possibility of mistakes, you’ll discover that great things can also happen. Erasing 1,000 words is not the end of the world, but might be part of the process you need to engage in to find your way in the story you’re telling.


Open your eyes to the world around you, observe, read, interact, and then trust in yourself; sit at your keyboard and write – don’t wait for perfection, but set about trying to find that day’s perfection. Just do it and who knows great things might just happen?

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