How do you find inspiration?

Inspiration plays a big part in the life or a writer in two main ways. The first is when inspiration kindles the desire to write, and the second is when it gives the writer focus on what to write about. Finding inspiration on demand is not an easy feat, but you can improve your chances of achieving this goal. For most people this will require a journey of self discovery to find what motivates you, where your desires lie, and ultimately the revelation of the true reason why you want to write in the first place. You will know you have reached the end of this journey when you know yourself and you can answer the questions, what are your fears, your hopes, what makes you smile, laugh, and cry; when you can answer these questions, with answers that are truly honest, not flippant, but answers that make you uncomfortable, make you feel vulnerable, that alter your mood, then you will be ready.

When you reach that point you are equipped with the foundations needed to find inspiration when you need it. In truth, inspiration comes from our mood, our thoughts, our feelings, and our emotions. Inspiration is not something limited to the thought of writing, it knows no boundary in our lives and can find its way into every corner and every crevice, it is what guides our thoughts however malicious or benign. When we know the things that influence our thoughts, we can consciously invoke them in an attempt to guide their flow and channel that into something we can harness creatively.

When you know what makes you happy, and when you want to write about happiness, the two naturally go hand in hand. When you know what makes you sad, and when you want to write about sadness, once more the same applies. Time and again the pattern emerges, if you want to influence your creativity, you need only recognise what influences your own life, your thoughts, you actions, and use it to your advantage. Music influences my thoughts quite a bit so it serves as my first stop when seeking inspiration.

For me personally, music has always been a part of my life, it serves as the easiest method of reflecting my mood, the easiest outlet as a means to transform my external environment into something that is much more in tune with the thoughts and the feelings I have internally. Whenever I experience moments of great sadness or great joy, music offers me a way to process what I am feeling - that can either be as a celebration of positivity or as a reflection of my negativity by using music in an attempt to alter my environment. Whether lyrical or instrumental, music often finds a way to express what we are feeling when we don't have the words to express it for ourselves, but what often follows for me at least, is that the words eventually come.

How far you take this idea in practice is up to you to decide, but for further emphasis think about a student in their attempts to learn a language and the advice that crops up time and again when we set out to achieve that goal - that immersion is the best tool to achieve this goal. The same concept is being applied in that scenario as the one we outlined above. Immersing yourself in a culture and forcing yourself to use that language to express yourself is the application of association. It seems much more obvious to us that learning French is accelerated by immersing ourselves in French culture and trying [even if we fail] to communicate in French as much as we can. It seems much less convincing to us at first to be told in order to write happy stories we need a happy environment. We want to reject this simplicity, we want to believe there is something more, a deeper hidden truth or some secret that others are keeping from us. Often it is our own cognitive bias and our own disbelief that leads us to these conclusions.

The one point in all of this I would like to leave you with, if you still hold onto the rejection of simplicity, insisting there must be something more, is to take a moment and step back and ask yourself how much you can truly trust your judgement in these matters. You are equally as likely to win the lottery with any 6 random numbers you pick as you are to win with the numbers, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, and 06 - our mind protests this fact, we hold on to the mythos that there is something inherently wrong with this series of numbers that makes them less likely. In truth, they are just as likely to appear as any other 6 random numbers. It is our own mind that stands in our way more than any obstacle in this world. It is our belief, our dedication, and our determination that ultimately decide what we accept we can or cannot achieve. If we accept failure as the outcome before we even try, then that's probably the outcome we are going to end up with.