💭Inspiration is Everywhere

Do you have a writer's journal?

Inspiration can come from anywhere. It is our life experiences that sculpt the writers we become. This can happen in several ways. Our education and childhood will have an impact on the mechanics of writing. Our parents and friends will shape our beliefs, affecting our writing.

But, can you remember why and when you started writing, because I can. At 30, I accompanied a friend on a one-day writing retreat. During this, I devised a killer first line that never left my head.

Black coffee and paracetamol were not going to be enough to cure the banging in her head.

From that whole line, a book emerged. Characters came and introduced themselves to me, and over the next month, I wrote and wrote.

This first line started my writing career. With no clear plan of where to take this book, and no plot outline, I kept writing. That book sits on a shelf; I have never published it. But it has a special place in my heart because it was my first.

As writers, we must be open to inspiration wherever it happens. I have an ideas folder jammed with single sentences that intrigue me.

Observations while sitting in a cafe and the strange things I have seen on television. All these everyday occurrences have inspired my writing and have been the basis for many of my short stories.

A writer's journal of ideas, is one of the most valuable possessions a writer can have. It might be you combine several ideas in one story; it might be the idea is never more than one line. You will not know unless you write it down because I promise you, you will not remember it.

Do you have a way to collect ideas?

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Until next week stay safe

Sam 😊

Quote of the week

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. - Dave Allen

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