Anyone who writes professionally will tell you: finding inspiration to write is an essential part of the craft. Once every thousand years, the muse comes down to us to enlighten us, as if the heavens had decided to reward our years of effort before a blank slate. But this is not normal.
What is normal is that we are the ones who have to search heaven and earth for this muse, for the inspiration we need if we want to write a text that meets our own expectations. But it’s not just writers, editors, and copywriters who search for inspiration. And you know that, don’t you?
If you’re a student, you also have to write my essay on various topics, research papers, and college theses, and among the tools, you have to play with are pen, paper, and a word processor.
Oh, and I forgot the most important thing, the thing that will make those three tools sound in tune: the inspiration-seeking tool.
You may have it tucked away in a case, long forgotten and gathering dust in a dark corner of your mind. So in this article, I want to talk to you about this tool. I’m going to share with you 6 proven habits to tune it, fine-tune it, and put them to work for your ultimate goal of writing fluent and inspired texts that connect with the heart and values of your audience.
These 6 habits have already become part of my routine. By putting them into practice, I have gradually begun to connect with an inner source of inspiration that I could only access as a child, when I was not yet conditioned by fears, limiting beliefs, and doubts about my talent.
If you gradually incorporate these 6 habits into your routine, you will begin to see amazing results not only in terms of inspiration to write but also in terms of inspiration in any area of your life: professional, personal, relationships, etc.
Habits to Find Writing Inspiration
1. WRITE YOUR MORNING PAGES
There is a course book, “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron.
“The Artist’s Way” begins with the premise: We are all creative people… But some of us have forgotten that. That’s why the book offers a 12-week process in which, through various reflections and exercises, you gradually reconnect with your creativity.
One of the required exercises during the course is to write morning pages. What exactly do they consist of? Well, it consists of writing as soon as you wake up and before you do anything else – you can wash your face if you want 😉 – three pages of what’s on your mind at that moment. In other words: three pages of automatic writing.
Julia Cameron says in her book that this exercise will help you put down on paper anything that worries you, blocks you, or limits your creativity. That’s why she wants you to do it right after you start the day: so that the rest of the time you are free of conditioning and open to the inspiration that comes to you both from the outside world and your own inner self. Only then can you see, hear, smell, and feel that inspiration and transform it with your creativity… and in this case, you will transform it into words.
2. PUT YOUR DREAMS ON PAPER
Have you ever had a dream so crazy that you woke up wondering how your mind could create such a setup?
Ah, my friend. Blame it on your mind if you want, but your mind, after all, is yours, so the ultimate developer of this mental paranoia is you.
Your unconscious creativity expresses itself through dreams. Although it’s still not entirely clear what their origin and function are, all indications are that through dreams you process and organize the information you receive during the day, linking some ideas with others, categorizing and discarding what your unconscious has decided it won’t need to use in the future.
Dreams are one of the greatest manifestations of your creativity, even though you may feel that you had nothing to do with your creation. So writing down your dreams will help you become more aware of all the associations of ideas that already exist in your mind and that you can use in your writing.
It’s not really about turning your dreams into texts, or yes, who knows? but rather about exploring your creativity and your unconscious through writing those crazy movies you project in your mind while you sleep.
3. TAKE A WALK WITH A CREATIVE MINDSET
Many of history’s great writers, philosophers, and artists have said this before: when they were looking for inspiration, they went for a walk.
Sometimes you can be stubbornly obsessed with writing something while sitting in front of your computer or making endless sketches and drafts in a notebook. You think that through effort and persistence you will eventually write something worthwhile: find the inspiration you so desperately need.
But you don’t. Inspiration rarely comes if you struggle with yourself. Especially if you don’t move away from your desk and tell yourself that you won’t get up until you’ve written something worthwhile.
When you feel blocked in front of a blank sheet of paper and inspiration doesn’t come, take my advice: go for a walk. While it may seem like a waste of time because you’re unproductive, the reality is that it’s unproductive to stand with all your stubbornness in front of a word processor, unable to write anything that convinces you.
Walking is an investment. You spend thirty minutes or an hour connecting with your creativity and increasing your chances of finding inspiration to write. And why is that?
Because when you go for a walk, you change your familiar work environment to a different landscape that brings you different stimuli. Suddenly what you see is no longer a computer, a blank piece of paper, or a wall in front of your desk. Now you see strangers, trees that change depending on the season, deserted or crowded streets; you smell aromas coming from restaurants, traces of rain; you hear scraps of other people’s conversations, the constant movement of traffic, the violin of a street musician…
It is there, in a new setting full of lively stimuli, that your ideas flow and begin to connect. It doesn’t matter where you go, how fast you go, or what you pay attention to what matters is that you change the scenery, that these sceneries are moving and unstable, and that through body movement you mobilize those ideas that before when you were in front of a computer screen, were locked and separated from one another.
4. DO ANYTHING BUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW
This point is closely related to the previous one. As I said, there is no point in trying to write anything if you have reached the limit of mental saturation. Once you have reached a state of blockage, it is impossible to reverse it by trying to get out of where you have entered. The door, my friend, is closed.
To cross the tunnel of blockage and find inspiration to write, is not enough to change direction. You have to get to the other side through the exit, not the entrance.
So when you’re completely blocked and you feel the inspiration going further and further away, don’t try to chase it: get up from your chair, leave your computer or pen alone, and start doing something else besides trying to write what you wanted to write.
Open a book, draw a mandala, cook, play with your kids, have an inspiring conversation, and give a lecture on YouTube…
In this case, you’ll do the same thing you’d do during a walk: your brain will find a space where it can breathe, distract itself from the script it associated with blocking, and get other cues that your unconscious will sooner or later convert into inspiration.
This is important: Don’t try to write when you are blocked. Don’t fight yourself: in my opinion, struggle, suffering, and effort are overrated when we talk about creativity and writing.
5. READ A BOOK A WEEK
Have you read the above and shuddered? Do you think it’s impossible to read a book a week?
Reading a book a week is more than affordable. It takes about 6 hours to read a 250-page book. That amounts to one hour a day Monday through Saturday, and you can even excuse yourself from work on Sunday.
Can’t think of a time and place to read? I’ll tell you: during breakfast, while riding public transportation, in lines and waiting rooms, during siestas, in your free time, before bedtime…
Books are inexhaustible sources of inspiration. Cinema and theater, of course, too, but the difference is that in these two art forms the image is already given to you: you don’t have to create it yourself. However, when you read, you imagine the setting, the appearance of the characters, and the tone of voice.
This creates in your mind a collection of sounds, images, smells, tastes, and sensations that, guess what will later help you find the inspiration you need to write.
By reading, you can not only find ideas that inspire you at the moment; you are also making an investment that will come back to you exponentially in the form of creativity and inspiration.
6. AND ONE LAST THING… WRITE, WRITE, WRITE
Don’t think I’m contradicting myself and that I’m going to advise you, when you get tired of not finding inspiration, to start chasing it until you manage to catch it and consume its blood as if you were a vampire?
No. You know, I think the best thing to do when a blockage occurs is to move on to something else or go for a walk.
But there’s a third option: write. Write without stopping, automatically, for 10 or 20 minutes. More or less what I told you about with the morning pages, only now they are no longer morning, but afternoon or evening, it’s up to you to decide.
When inspiration leaves you and you start blocking out work, take your pen and paper and go somewhere else, not where you were trying to write. Once you’re there, start pouring out whatever comes into your head on paper. What does this have to do with the text you’re holding in your hands? Perfect. What doesn’t? It’s also perfect. There are no rules here, no good or bad, right or wrong.
This strategy is based on the same idea as almost all of the habits I talked about in this article: when you practice it, you change the scenery not only physically, but mentally as well. You stop fighting with yourself and just let yourself follow what your mind is telling you at that moment, but without getting involved: just observing and witnessing through writing. This is how truly inspiring ideas, those that remain hidden in your unconscious, forming endless chains with other ideas, can finally emerge in your consciousness: and this is inspiration, no more and no less.
Try These Habits and Finally Find the Inspiration to Write
Do these habits seem like a lot to you to find inspiration to write? I’ve incorporated them into my routine and I can assure you that since I’ve had them, inspiration no longer leaves me, and when I get stuck, I know what I need to do to reconnect with my writing.
But I can say mass and you will still believe that inspiration shuns you. So the most important thing is not to read about these and other strategies, but to experience them for yourself. Try them out. Incorporate them one by one into your daily life. See what results they give you and realize how they help you to find more easily the inspiration you need to write your texts.
The more inspiration you have, the more you can write texts that truly align with your values and touch the hearts of your audience by appealing directly to their worldview.
This is a collaborative post. A full disclosure is available from the main menu.
- How To Make Your Room Cozy & Aesthetic: 6 Easy Tricks - September 20, 2023
- 140+ Advent Calendar Filler Ideas For Adults & Kids - September 20, 2023
- 10 Affordable MAC Spice Lip Liner Dupes in 2023 - September 14, 2023