Finding Inspiration

[Tcr]

So, recently, I found that several people around suffered from a lack of motivation and inspiration, myself included.  It's coming back for me, thankfully.

But, my questions, and maybe this can help others, is:

Where do you find inspiration?  What do you do when you lack motivation?  What do you do to get your muse working again (instead of taking breaks repeatedly)?

In my case, a lot of inspiration come from everyday life, movies, books, et cetera.  My motivation...  That, I don't know...  Often times, I just get an idea and want to run with it.

[InBrightestDay]

3 hours ago, Tcr said:

In my case, a lot of inspiration come from everyday life, movies, books, et cetera.  My motivation...  That, I don't know...  Often times, I just get an idea and want to run with it. 

That’s what it comes down to for me, actually.  That, and daydreaming.

No, seriously, when I’m at work and I’m bored (my job is not terribly intellectually stimulating), I’ll often end up playing out scenes from my stories in my head, including scenes I haven’t written yet.  I don’t always remember the exact details of these daydreams, which is a shame because sometimes I really like the dialogue I come up with, but they do often give me a general outline to work with.

[Tcr]

48 minutes ago, InBrightestDay said:

That’s what it comes down to for me, actually.  That, and daydreaming.

No, seriously, when I’m at work and I’m bored (my job is not terribly intellectually stimulating), I’ll often end up playing out scenes from my stories in my head, including scenes I haven’t written yet. 

Lol.  Neither is mine, and I do the same thing.  At first, I struggled to remember the dialogue, too, or even some ideas, but I started bringing a notebook with me and writing things down.  (There's an entire scene in Chapter 10 of LFM that I wrote down at work because it just came to me (NSFW dialogue, lol)).

[JayDee]

Where do you find inspiration?  No idea. Sometimes just talking stuff through.

What do you do when you lack motivation? Twitter, reddit, gaming, books…

What do you do to get your muse working again (instead of taking breaks repeatedly)? I dont’ really. I just wait until I’m motivated to write. Plus, I’ve got one muse it’s better for us all if it doesn’t wake up.

[GeorgeGlass]

I find that working on multiple stories at the same time means that I’ve always got enough inspiration for at least one of them at any given time. Sometimes I’ll get stuck on a chapter for months, so I’ll just work on other stuff until that one day when I’m driving home from work and it hits me exactly what I should do next in that chapter. 

[Tcr]

1 hour ago, GeorgeGlass said:

I find that working on multiple stories at the same time means that I’ve always got enough inspiration for at least one of them at any given time. Sometimes I’ll get stuck on a chapter for months, so I’ll just work on other stuff until that one day when I’m driving home from work and it hits me exactly what I should do next in that chapter. 

Lol.  I always have multiple tales going (even challenge prompts and, usually, have a personal challenge to push the writing and keep it interesting).  Most of the time it works.  Though, I have had that lack of inspiration flowing through all stories at once (especially the last few months (5x publishing rejections and their reasons killed my writing for months...)).  Thankfully, I found a little shred and picked it up, put in the pocket, and tied it down.

[pippychick]

19 hours ago, JayDee said:

Plus, I’ve got one muse it’s better for us all if it doesn’t wake up.

 

Damn it… I’m bloody writing in emoticons. Somebody please put me down. It’s over.

[Tcr]

2 hours ago, pippychick said:

 

Damn it… I’m bloody writing in emoticons. Somebody please put me down. It’s over.

Damn.  Looks like a better Jaws movie than 3 or 4.  Lol

[GeorgeGlass]

If I need inspiration for a story chapter, sometimes rereading previous chapters helps. Or rereading a story that’s in a similar vein to the one I’m currently trying to write. 

[Tcr]

On 3/18/2019 at 9:04 PM, GeorgeGlass said:

If I need inspiration for a story chapter, sometimes rereading previous chapters helps. Or rereading a story that’s in a similar vein to the one I’m currently trying to write. 

I have done that.  It always helps and occasionally a different idea pops in too.  Many times, I just watch a movie (or play games) with similar ideas or actions (for example, Last Full Measure, while I haven't watched Aliens in a while, I have watched Starship Troopers while fighting with a chapter, as well as replaying Mass Effect (two other inspirations for it).  (Have watched videos on YouTube, too, for both historical accuracy and some psychological accuracies too.) 

[SirGeneralSir]

I do a number of things, listen to music, watch related shows, play games or even think about doing some things in the real world (that may or may not actually happen) 

[Tcr]

6 hours ago, SirGeneralSir said:

even think about doing some things in the real world

 The <gasp> real world?  Oh my Goooooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!  Lol.

[SirGeneralSir]

You would be surprised the kinds of things real people are actually into

I also read other peoples stories of X types to get ideas too.