Whether you’re looking to get started with your writing career, or you’ve simply always had a passion for telling stories and want to improve your abilities, there are largely two skill sets that you need to work on. Aside from the technical skillset, your creativity is just as important. Gathering inspiration isn’t always easy, but there are a few ways to help you make the process more reliable. Here are some ideas that work for many.
Write Everything Down
You need to get your brain in the right headspace for formulating ideas. One of the best ways to do that is to write down what you notice about your day more often. Keeping a journal, even if it’s of specific moments that stuck with you, rather than the day’s overall events, can get you paying a lot more attention to how you think about things. Writing down your dreams as soon as you wake up is always a great idea, too. Many writers find that when they start writing their dreams, their dreams become more vivid, and it’s not unheard of for people to dream up an entire story or novel.
Engage with Art in All Forms
Writers have to read. That much is vital. You learn so much about the mechanics of writing, language, and story structure by reading widely. However, you should do more than just read, alone. Listen to music actively, while not doing anything else. Browse through the Criterion collection for movies you have never seen before. Take a trip to your local art gallery. You should engage with art in all of its forms, and you will find that inspiration can come from unexpected places, across entirely different mediums.
Consider Altering Your Mind
From Picasso to Basquiat, there is a long and fabled history of artists experimenting with drugs. It’s not just art that can help you expand your range of emotions and ideas. For as long as mind-altering substances have been around, artists have been using them to take their imaginations into new places. Nowadays, its a safer and much easier to buy Delta 8 THC vape carts and similar products, it’s much more accessible, as well. If you’ve never tried it before, try writing or brainstorming while your mind’s in a different place. You might find that you come out of it with some ideas that you would have never expected from yourself.
Engage with People
All stories, when you come down to it, are about the human experience in one way or another. As fantastic, unserious, or otherwise otherworldly as they might be, if you can’t tie it to human emotion, it’s hard to engage with. As such, you should make sure not to isolate yourself. People-watching can be an excellent way to become more observant of people and you can easily find your mind wandering, filling the gaps that their actions alone leave, but talking to people, even interviewing them about their experiences and past, can give you a treasure trove of ideas to mix together.
Where you find your inspiration is largely going to be a personal journey, but it’s certainly worth taking the time to try the methods above and see if they can’t stir things up for you.
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