In the last article, I spoke about allowing inspiration. Now we will talk about where you can source those inspirations to stimulate your imagination.
Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but a list to help you launch your research in the right direction.
Art Fairs or Museums: Art stimulates the mind and soul. Have a walk around with friends or family and explore. Pro tip if you have kids: print out a sheet of paper of some exhibits and ask your kids to find those items. Give them a small prize if they find all the paintings and sculptures.
Books: Published books are a grand source for the imagination. If it’s not an informational book, other storybooks can ignite questions and ideas. Could you have written a better dragon story? Do you have better ideas for a cookbook series?
Conversations: Meet new people, join meet-ups, have meaningful conversations. Join debate groups, discuss the world, etc. This also includes writing groups!
Dreams: Keep a dream journal close to your bed. I’ve often found that with a bit, or a lot, of tweaking, you can turn a dream into a short story.
Exercise: Just getting your body healthy can boost brain activity. Plus, it’s a great time to think.
Find your forest: Find a pleasant park, woods, or forest and enjoy being around nature. The human mind relaxes in nature.
Google Earth: Google Earth can find inspiring places or help with world-building. It’s a great scale to help you map environments and figure out distances. If your characters are travelling in the real world, you can plan a route for them using actual place markers.
Just write: Inspiration doesn’t always come, and sometimes it stagnates no matter how hard you try. So sometimes the only option you have left is to just write. This is the heart of how pantsers operate (more on that later). Just sit down and write. This is also called exploratory writing or freewriting, where you write while you think. Just like putting one foot in front of another, put one word in front of another. You never know what might come out.
Music: Sit down and listen to the suggested songs on Spotify or other music systems. Don’t always listen to what you’re used to. Going outside your comfort zone makes your brain work better. And try to follow the lyrics.
National Geographic: Official scientific magazines always have amazing facts and tidbits about our world to digest.
News: We all know the saying, ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’. Sometimes what you see in the real world is more than enough to jog the imagination. Heck, even writing about actual events makes for significant stories. More on how to do this in later articles.
People watching: When I was a teen, one of my classmates asked me to sit with her at a crowded town centre. I sat down, waited, then asked her what we were doing. She told me she was people-watching. I thought she was crazy at the time but have since then realised what an intriguing way of understanding people. Find a nice, comfortable spot to sit down and just watch people come and go. It can also be a park, mall, cafe, or a library.
Poetry: Poetry stimulates your heart and soul. Read popular poems, read specialised poems, read unknown poems.
Walking or driving around: Take a notebook and walk around your neighbourhood. Sometimes odd stories are just lying around, waiting for you to notice them.
YouTube: YouTube is great for experiencing things from the safety of your home. There are professional documentaries, adventurer’s vlogs, personal channels with insightful information, etc. The best videos are those where the host talks through their experiences and sensations. They will describe in vivid detail what you cannot smell, touch, or taste. Please note that although you have sound, the microphones might not pick up all the minute sounds.
Homework: Go outside for heaven’s sake!
NEXT:
Please look forward to the next post: 1-4 Writing Tools