The Writing and Marketing Show
The Writing and Marketing Show
Chasing Inspiration: Practical Tips and Strategies to Reignite Your Writing Motivation
Ever felt like you're chasing inspiration with a club, only to watch it flutter away just out of reach? You're not alone. We've been there, and in this podcast episode, we share how we overcame it and how you can too. We offer practical tips to keep your motivation and inspiration alive, drawing from the wisdom of writing giants like Jack London and Ray Bradbury. We also delve into my personal experience of writing in a scriptorium in Arbroath Abbey, proving that a change of environment can do wonders for your creativity.
But what if the creative well runs dry? Fret not, we've got you covered. We explore a variety of strategies to reignite your creative spark, from diversifying your reading list to experimenting with new writing forms. Connecting with other authors and readers is also crucial. That's where platforms like Patreon come in. We discuss how to leverage such platforms to showcase your work, connect with like-minded individuals, and create a supportive community around your work. All these and more, await your eager ears. So, buckle in for an enriching ride filled with inspiration, motivation, practical advice, and real-world experiences. Keep writing and enjoy the journey!
Hi and welcome to the Writing and Marketing Show brought to you by author Wendy H Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. It's jam-packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast. So it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to episode 179 of the Writing and Marketing Show with author-entrepreneur Wendy H Jones. What a pleasure it is to have you with me again this week.
Speaker 1:This week, for various reasons, i'm going to be talking about motivation and inspiration, because at the moment, i'm writing in a scriptorium in our both Abbey, and more about that a bit later on in the show when we're actually talking about the content. Other than that, i'm still sorting out my trip to the States. There's more dates being added for things that I'm doing. I'm getting ready to travel all over the place out there. I'm beginning to get everything All my ducks in a row, as they say, and what lovely ducks they are And I know it's only four in a week still till I go. But I've started to look at what I'm taking with me and the usual let's pack, let's unpack, let's put things in, take them out again because there's not enough room The usual story. But I can tell you that there will be books and there will be notebooks in there, as always, because a writer cannot travel without those and of course, my laptop, my iPad and everything will go with me as well. So I will not be short of things to write on, that is for sure, and it's been a great week so far, although the weather has changed a bit and it's now battering down with rain. You get a different sort of vibe when you're writing when it's raining and when it's sunny. It's been lovely and sunny for the last week and I've got lots of lovely writing done, but I've got just as much writing done in the rain. You just don't feel quite so motivated or inspired in the rain, which is why I thought I would talk about motivation and inspiration this week. So I mean, i know I've talked about this before, but one of the things that I've never done really is what exactly is inspiration? How do they describe it?
Speaker 1:So I looked up the dictionary and what it says is, with the first one, is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative, and I thought that is a really good description of inspiration. It really is. But then I looked at the next definition of inspiration and it says the drawing in of breath, or inhalation, and I thought, well, you know what that could be equally added to writers, because your inspiration for writers is drawing in, creative, taking a deep breath of creativity, and that you know what that really struck me today and I've never thought about it in that way before. And being inspired is important to us just as breathing is important. Being inspired is what brings our writing to life, it's what keeps us writing, it's what makes us writers. So I love both definitions.
Speaker 1:I then thought I'd look and see what some of the famous writers had to say about inspiration and motivation and everything like that. You know, and there are some brilliant, brilliant, you know descriptions. Then one of the ones I particularly liked, in fact I loved and I'm going to pin this above my desk, i really am And it's by Jack London, and he says you can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club. And I think that is brilliant And that just describes what I'm doing here today. I'm helping you to go after your inspiration with a club. If you don't feel inspired. I'm going to give you hints and tips of how you can be motivated, how you can be inspired when you really do not feel motivated or inspired. And then I love the Ray Bradbury idea of inspiration. So once you've got inspiration, you need to you know, keep it going. You need to keep your story moving. And Ray Bradbury actually said first find out what your hero wants, then just follow him. And again, i think that is brilliant And very often that is what I do.
Speaker 1:I will let my hero or heroine take over and steer the story, and I believe that the story is much better, the actual tale, the mystery, is much better with those when I let the hero or my heroine should I say Di Shona McKenzie or Cass Claymore take over. And it's going to be the same when I write my historical book. When I'm writing my historical book, i need to let Thomas Graham tell his story, and he really is telling his story, but I've got his letters and things, so he's telling his story. But I need to really let him tell his story. I need to get him so that he is in my head and it's him telling the story and he may take me to places that I never thought the story would be going.
Speaker 1:So I you know, i really love those definitions and it really helps me to be inspired, and especially the one about you can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. So one of the things you can do to make you more inspired if you're feeling a bit demotivated, you're feeling like you can't write yet another word, you're feeling that there's, you know, something pressing in on you. There's nothing you can do, you're staying at a blank screen, you just can't, haven't got an original, creative thought in your body. Well, one of the things you can actually do is you can move places, and that's what I have done this week.
Speaker 1:Now I'll explain what the scriptorium at Arbroath Abbey is. Arbroath Abbey is a ruined abbey that was built in Arbroath in 1178 and it was where the declaration of Scottish independence was signed in 1300, so it's got a lot of historical significance and about a year ago they launched a new scriptorium there. Obviously, it's now ruins and there hadn't been a scriptorium there since the monks left hundreds of years ago. And I was very fortunate to be the first person in the modern era to write in the new scriptorium and I just felt like I was part of history. Anyway, i've got a chance to go back and spend several days there writing, and I'm doing three days this week and the three days this week I am there with a friend of mine called Sheena McLeod, who also is writing historical fiction, and we are writing in the scriptorium. So I moved there.
Speaker 1:Now, it was bad down in Morayne. It would have been nicer if it was sunny, but it wasn't. It was raining. So so be it. And there's picture windows so you can look out of the ruins of the abbey. Now that really inspires me because I feel like I'm a part of history. I feel like I'm a part of literary history, because the original scriptorium was where the monks would copy the bible and would write them out by hand, all those beautiful hundred and bibles. And I mean I'm just. I mean all of the fact that I am now writing somewhere where the monks would have done that and that really inspires me. Looking out on the ruins, even in the rain, inspires me And I mean I know I keep going on about rain, but the weather must have been bad when, during the times when I'm writing books, it wasn't sunny all the time. So you get a real feeling of history, you get a real feeling of being somewhere different there, and that has inspired me And it really has given added impetus and I feel so much more, you know, motivated to write because I've moved.
Speaker 1:Now, i did take my laptop with me and I did some. I did write on my laptop, so I was still typing. Which brings me on to the next thing you can do. By the way, before we get on to that, i will say you do not have to go to a scriptorium in an abbey, going anywhere, going down to the park and sitting. You know, if it's sunny, sitting in the bandstand or sitting in a cafe and writing, or, you know, doing it by the beach. I've done that. I've been by a beach in Antica, but it could be a beach in Vrotti Ferry, as long as it's not raining, because your laptop is going to get wet.
Speaker 1:There's lots of different things. You can do lots of different places. Just move. Even if you can't get out of the house, move somewhere else in the house. I'm fortunate in that I've got a lot of places you might not have, but find somewhere else. Sit on the bed and write, or go to the kitchen table and write, or, you know, sitting your armchair and write. Just do it somewhere different. That can really help to motivate and inspire you, just because it gives you a changed perspective. Going back to the other thing I was saying about laptops, you don't always have to write on a computer. You can try long hand writing and long hand writing again. It gives you a different perspective. It makes your brain work in different ways, so that's a really good way of changing it up.
Speaker 1:I often will grab a sheet of paper. It doesn't have to be a notebook, it can be a sheet of paper. It's scrap paper, it can be anything, just write in a different way. Use a different colour of pen. That can motivate you. If you always use a black pen, try a blue pen or a green pen, or just shake things up. Shaking things up is really important when it comes to being inspired and channeling your creativity.
Speaker 1:What else can you do? Well, there's, as I say, there are a lot of different things you can do. Just start writing, do free writing, whatever comes into your head, write anything, write down your shopping list, write down what you did that day, what sort of night sleep you had, whatever, and just keep writing And your subconscious will take over And it will start to write what you actually want to write And you will find that there will be something in there that's usable material. You might want to give yourself a time limit to do that 10 minutes is usually a good length But that can really loosen your creativity. Make you more creative.
Speaker 1:Another thing was I was in a writing group the other night And somebody asked us to think about where are you putting pressure on your creativity? And I thought what a brilliant question And I think that is a really good way of thinking about where you're putting pressure on your creativity, which may be sucking all inspiration out of you. And I mean some of the things I came up with was juggling too many balls, too much time on social media, burning the candle at both ends, not taking a day off, not reading enough, not reading the right things, not prioritising what I'm doing, and I only got a couple of minutes to think about that. So I would ask you to think about where you're putting pressure on your creativity. Then you can think about what you can do to make yourself more creative and to be more inspired. So what a brilliant question and I think it's a really, you know, good question to ask yourself and expect if you're not feeling inspired. One tip I was given was a really good one, and I've never thought of this before and I think it's amazing Why not watch a documentary?
Speaker 1:And you're probably thinking what? But what it's doing is it's actually filling your mind up with new things. It's making you think in different ways and you never know You might find a character in there or an event or some tiny little nugget that you will think, oh, that would make a really good article or it would make a really good blog, or it would. You know, it would be a good short story or a good piece of flash fiction or a poem, whatever. And talking of poems, why not write in different forms? If you always work in as a poet, why not try doing prose? If you always do prose, why not try doing some poetry? And you're probably thinking I never want to write a poem or I never want to do prose or I never want to do flash fiction. Because, again, if you always write novels, doing flash fiction can really help you in numerous ways. It can help you be more inspired, it can help you to get words down, because you've only got a certain amount of words, so you know it's limited. It can help your writing in that you can not only be more inspired, but you're more able to write, to cut down your word count and to pare it down, and that's a really good way of doing things. So shake it up, do something different, do things in a different way. All of that can inspire you because it makes your brain think differently, and that's what you're trying to do. When you're wanting to be inspired, when you want to be motivated is take your brain out of the spiral of demotivation, of not being motivated. You want to take your brain out of it and you just do something that will spark your brain differently, and that's what it is.
Speaker 1:Another great idea is to interview yourself. Now, i've never heard of that one before. Why not interview yourself And you could? I mean, you might not be wanting to write a memoir. I'm not saying, do it for that, but if you want to interview yourself, then you will find out a lot about yourself. That will help you think about the ways that you can learn a lot about your characters. You don't have to share it with anyone. It's just for you. You're not going to write about it or share it, unless you want to. But you know, doing that will make you think as well, more about you as a writer. And when you think more about you as a writer, you will realise just how good you actually are.
Speaker 1:Because very often, when we're not inspired, it can be because we don't think we're any good And the little voices in our head are telling us you're no good, you can't do this, you know. So you can When you go somewhere else as well. The other thing I would really really encourage you to do is people watch. People watching and listening to what they have to say can absolutely inspire you 100%. You will see what they wear, you will see how they act, how they walk, how they run. Are they all listening to music? Are they looking around them? Are they preoccupied? This can really help you start to flesh out your characters, and the more you flesh them out, the more you will actually be able to write about them And you will be inspired to write about them again And you won't have boring characters. If you've not got boring characters, then you're more likely to want to write about them, And you know, and, as I say, try reading something new.
Speaker 1:Reading something new, something different, can really inspire you in different ways. Now I can fall into a rut of reading crime fiction, and I love crime fiction. I write crime fiction. But I will change it up. I write I read historical fiction as well, but I will read different types of crime fiction. I will read different types of historical fiction. I will write historical. I will read historical fact. I will write, i will read crime fact. All those things can help me do it. I will read literary fiction. I try to do lots of different things. I run a challenge on on Facebook and that's about a reading challenge that you do for the year And it's 36 different books and it's just things like read a book with a yellow cover, read a book from the 1960s. I'm making these up, by the way. I don't know what is in it. One of them is Read a Book by Sir Walter Scott And why not read a book by someone who wrote years ago one of the classics? And I started reading Weatherly by Sir Walter Scott And that really inspired me. I mean really and truly. That inspired me, because I've forgotten how good a writer he was And it made me think about the ways I can write. Now I'm not saying I'm going to write like Sir Walter Scott, but it gave me different ideas of how can I approach things.
Speaker 1:Go out for the day, don't just go and write somewhere else. Take yourself out for the day. I mean, if you can travel, that's marvellous. If you can go abroad or you can go to a different country, hey, how about it. But if you can't afford that, just take yourself off for the day somewhere else. And that is a really good way of seeing things from a different perspective. Because even if you only go for example, i was in our broth today even if you go from Dundee to our broth, which is 20 minutes up the road, people are different, they do things in different ways. The buildings are different, the streets are different, and that difference will give you fresh creativity, will give you fresh inspiration.
Speaker 1:Why not go to the library? spent a morning in a library, look at the books on the shelves, flick through them. You don't have to read them all. You don't have to borrow them all. Talk to the librarians, talk to other people. If you can talk to people from different groups, i spent time talking to people in the library and they were part of the local history group And I learnt so much about local history Now. I thought I knew a lot about Dundee and Scottish history, but these guys are amazing. It really is amazing. They know so much about Dundee and Scotland's history And I learnt a lot from them And that helps me to bring my historical books. It gives me fresh impetus, it gives me fresh ideas, makes me more motivated for my historical books. So there's lots and lots and lots of things you can do Attend debates, listening to debates on both sides of the argument.
Speaker 1:Go to local law court and listen to some of the. Just sit in the gallery and listen to the cases that are going on. If you can go to your parliament building and listen to the debates, because you get to know what's going on in your town At the time again it gives you fresh inspiration. I went to First Minister's questions at the Scottish Parliament, holly Roode House, and I went there and I listened to the debates that were going on. The questions were being asked of the First Minister And I learnt so much about what was important in Scotland that week And a lot of it's still important now And that again will give you fresh ideas of what you can put into your actual book, so, or a short story.
Speaker 1:It will give you ideas for short stories. Remember, change names. Change names of the mentioning names, don't do it word for word. So I hope this has helped you. I hope this has given you a lot of inspiration and ways you can get different inspiration. Hey, listening to podcasts is another one. You can get a lot of inspiration listening to podcasts.
Speaker 1:So, on that note, i will stop and I will be back with you next week. I hope you've enjoyed the show. Until I come back to you next week, keep reading, keep writing and keep enjoying the writing journey. Have a great week. Bye, that brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H Jones and you can find me at wendahjjonescom. You can also find me on Patreon, where you can support me for as little as three dollars a month, which is less than the price of a tea or coffee. You go to wwwpatrioncom. Forward slash wendahjjones. I'm also Wendy H Jones on Facebook, twitter, instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week and keep writing, keep reading and keep learning.