Inspiration: Catching the muse

So you know you want to write, but that's not enough. You have to have something to write about. And this is where the ever illusive idea of inspiration comes in.

The most commonly asked question people have for published authors is “where do you get your ideas from?” Some authors would have you believe it comes from on high – from a vision, a dream or the mouth of god. Well I’m here to put your mind at ease. What those people have told you just simply isn’t true. Sure you have your exceptions – JK Rowling’s train visitation, Meyer’s meadow dream (that is to say nothing of the execution of her story), but they are just that – exceptions.

So now I’m sure you're asking, 'but Fireheart if story ideas aren’t rained down from the heavens where do they come from?' Well here’s the good news. Finding inspiration is a matter of training yourself to think about the world in a certain way. It's about being aware of your surroundings and finding the stories that are hidden there.

For example- while you’re riding home on the subway you hear a woman saying in an annoyed tone to the man sitting next to her, “Yeah well I hope you have a great time in India! I hope you enjoy every freaking moment of it.” You as the writer should easily be able to see the story there. Why is the man going to India? Why is the woman angry? What is their relationship? Is she his girlfriend? Wife? Something else? There’s a story there.

Some story possibilities aren’t going to be so obvious or easy. Maybe a knarled tree in a neighbor’s yard makes you think of ghost story. Maybe the tree will play a large part in your ghost story or maybe it will just be the thing that made you think you wanted to write a ghost story.

Sometimes it’s the stories left untold that leave you wanting to write. Maybe you just came out of a movie and you thought it was going to go in a different direction or maybe an event in a book made you wonder- what if? Those are stories you could write as well (as long as the world and characters you created were different from the source of your idea otherwise you're writing fanfiction).

Finding ideas isn’t as hard as it seems, sometimes it recognizing the good ones that presents a problem.