Learn how to do anything: How to Get Inspired to Write

All writers need to refresh their inspiration from time to time. Daily life is full of writing inspiration, and inspiration can be found in books and stories as well. Boosting your creativity will help generate fresh ideas and beat writer's block. Almost anything can be a muse, so try different methods and inspirations to get inspired for your next masterpiece!

EditSteps

EditHelp with Starting to Write

Ideas for Where to Seek Writing Inspiration

Paragraph Elaboration Prompts

Sample Freewrite

EditFinding Daily Inspiration

Carry a writing journal or a recorder with you at all times. If you always have your journal and recorder, you'll be prepared for any time time inspiration strikes. You can jot down a note when inspiration comes, and you can record interesting dialogue you overhear.
- Record things like interviews with interesting people, unique dialogue suggestions, or personal notes to revisit later.
- Select a notebook that suits your style, whether simple and plain or fancy and elaborate.
- Keep a page just for quotes.
- List writing prompts or themes you’d like to write about to come back to later.
- Journal every day to use your writing muscles and find inspiration.^[1]
Change your scenery or environment to freshen things up. Switching up your environment can boost your imagination and loosen up ideas. Make small changes, like in writing location, or travel somewhere different. This will give you a fresh perspective and offer new ideas.^[2]
- Work in another room of your house, visit a nearby coffee shop, or go outside and write.
- If you write on your computer, you can change your desktop background.
Write about what you observe. If you are lacking inspiration, picking something in your environment is a good place to start.Whether in public of private, pick an item or an interaction and write about it. Include details on who, what, why, how, and when. Mention as much detail as possible.
- Writing about what you see helps put you in the present moment and works on your attention to detail.
- Choose an object in the room, like a grandfather clock. Write about the appearance of the clock, about the history of the clock, and about the clock's origins.
Visit a busy place and people-watch for ideas. Human beings can be great writing inspiration, and they are easy to find in a busy, public setting. Travel to a public place, find interesting characters, and watch them for inspiration. Write about their appearance, actions, and words.^[3]
- Visit places like an airport, shopping mall, or outdoor park.
- People-watch interesting, unique people and simple, normal humans. Both can give you inspiration.
Listen to others’ dialogue when in public. Innocent eavesdropping can make for great writing inspiration. When you are in a public place like a mall, restaurant, or movie theater, listen for interesting lines people say. Write them down and use them in your next story.^[4]
- For example, if you overhear a couple fighting, use this for your own story.
- If you hear someone passionately ranting about politics, jot down some of their lines to revisit later.

EditStimulating Your Creativity

Try word association to get the ideas flowing. This will help you think of different ideas and work your imagination. Open a dictionary, pick a word at random, and write down everything that comes to mind on the topic.^[5]
- Choose something like “freedom,” and write everything that reminds you of freedom, such as birds, flying, or open sky.
Freewrite to generate ideas. Freewriting helps you get words on the page, regardless of theme or intention of the piece. Choose a topic, open up to a fresh page, and write. Don’t worry about what you are writing, just focus on filling the page. You can come back to your writing and expand upon it later, or do this just get the gears turning for your next piece.^[6]
- Write a narrative or free associations.
- You can write for a certain amount of time or until you fill up a certain number of pages. This is your choice.
- An example includes writing on tigers. Write everything that comes to mind about tigers, such as when you saw them at the zoo when you were 5, or what it would be like to be a tiger in the jungle. Perhaps you use this for a blog post on tigers, or simply to get ideas for your new novel.
Listen to music to think of new ideas. Music can help you concentrate as well as give your mind space to think of new ideas. Turn on your favorite music, or try a new genre, like folk, classical, or instrumental. ^[7]
- Use headphones for an intimate listening experience, or turn up the volume on your home speakers.
- Sometimes giving your mind the space be, rather than to think about words, helps you think creatively.
Use writing prompts to get you started. Writing prompts help you get focused when you are lacking ideas. Choose a prompt that interests you, write down the prompt, set a timer for 30 minutes, and write in reference to the prompt. After the time is up, go back and polish up what you wrote.^[8]
- Feel free to set your timer for shorter or longer time increments.
- Use these prompts to write a poem, short story, article--whatever inspires you.
- Writing prompt ideas include “The best day of my life was…” or “Write about the color black.”
Write about your hobbies and interests. Write about sports, art, animals, travel, medicine, cars, people--anything that strikes you. Write a fictional account or a true piece. Using things you already enjoy makes for easy inspiration because you are already interested in the topic. ^[9]
- For a fictional story, write about your favorite sports hero as if you were them.
- For a blog post, expand upon your favorite recipe. Describe the ingredients used, cooking time and temperature, and why you the dish.
- For a nonfiction piece, write a biographic account about your backpacking trip.
Reflect on a past memory or event for ideas. Writing about past experiences is a great place to find inspiration because it gets you thinking. Revisit past experiences to find creative inspiration.
- Remember a time when you were so angry you could burst.
- Write about that time you broke your arm on the monkey bars.
Write from various perspectives, like animals and inanimate objects. Instead of writing from your perspective or the perspective of another human, try animals, insects, or objects. Think about what they would think, feel, hear, or say, and use these to describe your piece.
- Write a story from the perspective of a household item, like a stapler or thumb tack.
- Tell a tale from your pet dog or cat's perspective.

EditUsing Books or Stories for Inspiration

Find a news story for inspiration. If you can't think of your own story topic, open up a newspaper or Google an interesting subject. Find a headline and read the story. Write an entirely new story based on this topic, or use this existing story in a new, creative way.
- Ask questions like, “Who was the man and why did he act this way?” or “What about our current political system made this new policy change?” and write your responses.
- Expand upon the story by writing your own take of what happened.^[10]
Read a book, blog, or magazine for new ideas. Read other work to find new topics to write about or angles on similar topics. Then write a poem about what you've learned. Learning about something new is great writing inspiration, and seeing what inspires others may inspire you. ^[11]
- Read works by writers you love or hate, or by writers you’ve never heard of.
- Find a magazine on a topic you are interested in, and skim the pages.
- Open up a copy of National Geographic and look for a new discovery.
- Read one of your favorite poems and look at it with a fresh perspective.
- Pick out a book from your library. Skim the pages to get an idea of the theme and characters. See what ideas you generate based off of this unread book.
Watch a movie for inspiration. Look for characters to build off of, dialogue to work with, or landscapes to set your stories in. Then, use these elements to write your own story or novel. Movies can offer great ideas on dialogue, characters, or scenery. ^[12]
- Watch a movie of your choice and look for details to write about. Is there a particularly interesting character? Are there artful camera angles that inspire you to look at something a new way?
Look at a piece of art and write about how it makes you feel. View artwork in person or online, and write out details of the artwork. Include your thoughts and feelings. Then, expand upon what you wrote in a short story or poem.^[13]
- Visit a nearby art museum or search of famous art pieces online. Contemplate the artwork. How does it make you feel? How does the subjects of the piece feel?
- Writing about another creative medium can help trigger your own inspiration.
Try creating "blackout poetry" from a page of text. Select a page from a newspaper, magazine, or book and grab a black permanent marker. Glace at the page, and look for words that strike you. Make a line through the words you don't want to use with your marker, leaving just a few words. The remaining words make up your poem.^[14]
- You can experiment with blacking out many words to make short poems, or only blacking out some words to make longer poems.
- You can write a broad narrative using nouns, verbs, and adjectives, or create a more coherent story using words like "is," "of," and "the."

EditBeating Writer's Block

Set a deadline for your writing. Sometimes it is easier to find inspiration when you are under pressure. Make yourself accountable by setting your own deadlines. Sticking to your deadlines helps keep you writing!^[15]
- Set the goal to write 1,000 words a day, one article a week, or one poem a day--whatever works for you and your goals.
Exercise to stimulate blood flow and generate ideas. Exercise boosts brain activity by increasing blood flow, which is helpful when looking for inspiration to write. Giving yourself a break to get moving will help your subconscious make connections, so when you are finished you are full of fresh ideas.
- Try running, swimming, cycling, or yoga. Play a sport like tennis or soccer.^[16]
Meditate for 5 or 10 minutes to clear your mind. Take deep breaths, focusing on your inhale and exhale. Step back and relax so you can approach your writing focused and attentive. Give your mind space to reduce stress and increase your focus. The less stressed you are, the easier it will be for your mind to focus on writing.^[17]
Immerse yourself in nature to find peace and inspiration. Taking a step back and changing your perspective will help you focus when you return. Nature can promote intelligence and creativity, offering you a space for connection and reflection.^[18]
- Go for a walk or hike in a nearby park, focusing on the trees, landscape, and animals.
Daydream to gain a new perspective. Let your mind wander on new subjects and ideas to refresh your perspective. Find somewhere quiet, close your eyes, and let your mind generate scenarios of different people and places. Focus on the images that arise rather than associating words with them.^[19]
- Think about that interesting character you sat next to in the airport. Imagine what their life is like. Where do they live? What do they do for a living?
- Contemplate what it would be like to be an insect. Think about what it would be like to live in a hive and how strong you would be.
Join a writing group to find like-minded people. Discussing work with other writers is helpful because it helps you think of subjects to explore. You can also receive feedback for your previous work, so you can expand upon.
- Search for writing communities in your area, or gather peers interested in writing.
- Meet up at a local coffee shop or cafe and discuss your writing ideas. Exchange work for feedback.^[20]
Learn about your favorite writers and their writing habits. Some writers always write in the same location, drink a lot of coffee, or research butterflies. Regardless of the particular habit, many writers found their own ways to get inspired and be productive. Research some of your writing role models to find out what worked for them.^[21]
- For example, Ernest Hemingway used to write first thing every morning. Kurt Vonnegut used to do sit ups and push ups in between his writing.^[22]
Start writing a new story if you are stuck. Sometimes a fresh start is all you need to get the creative gears turning. Open up to a new page and work on something else.
- Instead of writing your autobiography, write about the interesting man you met in the supermarket.
- If you are stuck on the ending to your murder mystery, try writing an inspiring account of your hero.
Experiment with different writing mediums. Your brain will think in different structures when you use different writing mediums, which helps inspiration flow.
- If you have been working on a novel, try to write a poem instead.
- Instead of completing your poetry collection, try writing a short story about your recent vacation.