How to find inspiration and banish writers block (temporarily)

So, first off, I should start by breaking the bad news to you; there is no formula. Sorry if I led you on there. If there was a formula then writers block would be a legend of old and everybody would be releasing incredible, deep and moving stories, films, songs, poems, you name it; it’d be out there. The second thing to remember is this: everybody suffers from a lack of inspiration sometimes. It’s not a sign that you can’t write a good book or movie script and it’s certainly not a sign that you should just screw it all and take up another hobby. Inspiration doesn’t tend to come when you tell it to come, but, there are things you can do to ease the creativity in a little.

 1. Stop trying so hard

Have you ever had that feeling of desperately trying to think of what something is called, but no matter how hard you think you keep coming up with the same two words but then, later on, when you’ve forgotten all about it you suddenly remember what it was bloody well called? It’s that ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomenon and it’s caused by a form of mental blocking where once you’ve thought of a wrong word then it’ll keep blocking out the correct one and stop you from accessing your mental lexicon. Remove the blockers – stop trying to remember it, and it’ll come to you. Inspiration works in a similar way and if you strain, stress and force it then it’s not going to come. Great ideas don’t come to people in designated slots and you’re more likely to block out something good than encourage it in. By rushing into matters you may also end up with sloppy, incomplete ideas that were not properly thought out so as a starting factor I’d recommend you relax and not go looking for something so hard. If you find yourself looking around at objects and things around you that are generally uninspiring and you’re trying to make them more interesting; then stop. You want something that’s already interesting; something that could have a deep meaning or that stirs an emotion within you. That is true inspiration.

2.  Get a change of scenery

So nothing around you is very inspiring, it’s all rather flat and boring actually. Well, I’m not suggesting you should start putting up new wallpaper (though that may have worked for Charlotte Perkins Gilman) or jet off around the globe to search for that one, amazing story that’s out there just waiting to be found. If you want to do that then that’s great, it sounds fun, but let’s be a little more practical for now. If you spend all day inside the house and you’re sitting there chewing off the end of your pencil then maybe you should just get up and go for a walk. I mean it; get the hell out of here. When you’re out and about your mind is going to be significantly more stimulated and that’s a great start; stimulate your mind, enrich yourself, experience as much as possible and inspiration will almost always hit you as long as you keep an open mind. A negative atmosphere such as one of frustration and monotony contained generally around the designated ‘computer and coffee’ region is going to keep you in an uninspired, featureless rut and you should do your best to break out of that.

If you do the same things over and over again you're limiting your experiences and limiting your options when it comes to finding something inspiring. A new perspective on life will guarantee you something new to write about and, failing that, you'll probably enjoy yourself along the way. As an additional note I'd also recommend to try doing things on your own as it is usually solitude that bares fruit (thank you William Penn) due to the tendency to retreat into your own mind and allow things to come naturally to the forefront. A lot of social interaction tends to push that away as you're more concerned with who you're around than yourself and, unsurprisingly, this isn't a good environment to try thinking up some good ideas.

Hey, we all fall out at some time or another.

3. Read everything with words on it, listen to everything that produces sound

“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”  - William Faulkner

A change of scenery isn’t just limited to your physical surroundings. I mentioned just now that you should stimulate and enrich your mind and this is probably the most important thing you can do. You need to read as much as is humanly possible and to not just limit it to the genre that you’re writing; you should be reading everything and anything. The more knowledge you hold within you then the more opportunities and doors you’ll be opening for yourself which will lead to not only a greater understanding of life, people, whatever the hell it is you just read about, but also a greater understanding of language, thinking and mental processes. ‘Mental processes’ is an odd thing to recommend you to improve on and I’m not accusing you of being unable to form coherent logical thoughts or simultaneously breathe and pump blood around your body, it’s more, a way of thinking. 5 years of Philosophy has beaten this into me and I recommend some Plato to get you started, it's fabulous stuff.

I also get a lot of my inspiration from music; there’s a lot of emotion within it that I otherwise cannot describe or express and it’s very easy to connect with. I don’t know why us humans love music so much but we always have done and it’s usually down to the general sound or lyrical content of the songs. My general theory is we appreciate music that we can understand, connect with or feel represented by. Since music isn’t always a story it’s also quite open-ended in how you’d like to interpret or continue it on in the form of prose and this open-ended-ness is always very beneficial when you’re looking for inspiration. Listen to music, whether that's music with or without lyrics, and imagine what it is expressing in the form of a story, scene or event. If you are able to connect with the emotions expressed within music, films or books then you're halfway there.

Lastly; I like to read the backs of shampoo and body wash bottles. It’s quite amazing how creative people can make those 100 odd words and frankly I don’t think I could ever write as emotively as Herbal Essences or Original Source. In all seriousness, nothing is beneath you when it comes to reading as it will teach you what is good writing and bad writing whilst simultaneously expanding your awareness, vocabulary and, hopefully, your creativity. If you find yourself reading a book and then thinking ‘I wonder what would happen if…’ then you’ve done it, go grab a pen and write that shit down.

4. Write something – yes, really.

It seems rather mean to tell you to write when that’s what you’re struggling with but, honestly, it works. When I lack the inspiration to continue with my novel I go and write something else for a bit; a short story, or the beginning of one, or some non-fictional things like an article (even if I never submit it) or maybe a small scene that I’d like to use later on for something I’m not quite sure of yet. Watch a film you’ve seen before and sit at your computer or take a pen and paper with you; now describe what’s going on on screen but in a nice, creative, descriptive manner. Watch something emotional happening on screen and write the facial expressions as people break down in front of you. Describe the view outside your window. Write down the feeling of hunger, of coming into the house from being out in the cold wind, of something beautiful and of something ugly. This is called freewriting and people like to recommend that you don’t stop or edit or do anything of that sort. I don’t think I could not edit if I tried but that would still be after a good 400 words or so. Bare in mind that everything you write down is golden as it can stay forever on your hard drive to be summoned open again whenever you need it. Once you’ve written down the sensation of banging your head against a wall; a sort of dizzy numbness, then you can use that later on if one of your characters ever has a frustrating lack of inspiration.

Once you start writing again you’ll rid yourself of writers block. It’s important to remember that writers block is partly accidental partly self-inflicted and you need to be kind to yourself to get rid of it. Like I said earlier; you need to remove the blocking atmosphere to help ease you out of it and writing just anything is good for that. As you write you may get little titbits of inspiration and you can jot those down as they come; however small they may be. There’s no need to get a little idea and then overthink it and try to turn it into some incredible storyline or scene, of course, if this all comes naturally then by all means write it down as quickly as possible before it goes again.

One day, if you work hard enough, you'll be as greater writer as this lady.

                                                  

These are just a handful of ways that I find to be really beneficial in simultaneously finding inspiration and overcoming a bad case of writers block – there are many more which I may post in the future but for now these are the ones I find to be most important. Of course I’ll add in a silent no. 5 which is quite simply; don’t give up after you’ve tried for a bit, even if you stop writing for a month, as long as you come back to it; as long as you think about it and keep that notepad relatively close within your reach then you’re doing just fine.