Unlocking Inspiration

Have you ever sat down to write only to spend the next hour tormented by a blank screen and blinking cursor? I know this is a plight that I suffer on a regular basis. Burnout is a related problem; being mentally taxed from your day job doesn’t help this situation. I have a few tips for you of what might and what has helped me to get over this problem as well.

If you are a part of a writing group, go to the meeting even if you haven’t written anything. I talked about the value of writing groups in another article, but it is important to mention here as well. Often when I find myself in a writing dry-spell, I will attend my in-person writing group for a few weeks and gain new inspiration to start writing again—or at least to engage in some part of the writing and publishing process. Being in the same room as fellow writers and sharing ideas, even if they are not your ideas, will often cause that spark of inspiration to reignite.

Engage in other creative pursuits. That’s right. Stop trying to write and move on to something else. For me, it is creating and playing a generational campaign with my sibling. I’ve never done an official Dungeons and Dragons campaign or similar, but my sibling and I play our own version of these tabletop RPGs. I go through the process of character creation and story plotting, which is shared equally between us instead of having an assigned dungeon master. Our version of tabletop games has rules more similar to the story game “yes and” where you have to agree with what the other person does and respond. This keeps my mind nimble as curves are thrown at me by the other player and I spend my time coming up with curves of my own to throw. Ultimately, the campaigns we play at will create the foundation of new stories for me to write, but even if I don’t sit down to write these right off, I do feel like writing after a fun session of this.

Other creative pursuits could be painting, drawing, or even knitting or costume design. It is always helpful to connect your endeavors back to your writing in some way, such as using a tablet to draw character concept art, but you don’t have to. You could simply sit down to knit a scarf. This will help your creative juices to flow and you might even start thinking of what to write about next time you plan a writing session while you knit.

Read. This one word says it all. Read books, read articles, read comics, but read anything. I often find that when I am in a writing drought, I am in the mood to read. After all, if it wasn’t for readers, there wouldn’t be writers. Reading opens you to new worlds and new ideas. It is a great activity that you can do on your own that will also help fuel your energy into writing. If you want to write something like a horror novel but freeze up whenever you sit down to outline, read some published horror novels. Get an idea for the feel of the genre and keep yourself open to any inspiration that flows in.

You can also read through your old pieces. Who better to inspire you to write than yourself? Maybe writing isn’t on the table for you at this time, but revision might be. Reading through your old works, ones you love but that need a little more care, can help to inspire you to work on something, even if you aren’t writing something brand new.

These are just a few of the tricks I use to get myself back into a space for writing. What are other techniques that you use to unlock new inspiration for your writing? I would love to hear from you in the comments.