Sometimes the most difficult thing about writing is actually writing. It’s hard to sit down at a computer and produce something, anything. Sometimes the words refuse to come, treating us like a jilted lover in the lyrics of a cruel blues song. We sit, staring at the screen, dumbfounded and pitiful, fingers poised and ready to type but our mental blockage paralyzes our phalanges into curled little claws. Nothing happens. Our thoughts are aimless. Our eyes are wandering. Distractions lurk around us like buzzards ready to rip us apart. The TV, social media, text messages, hunger, the pile of laundry falling out of its basket, our partners, the children, work, or simply sleep is calling. We are waiting for inspiration to sneak up behind us and whisper a sweet new idea into our ear, but we’re stood up again and left to our own devices.
Below are 28 ways to woo inspiration back or to keep on keeping on when inspiration is MIA. Because I am generally all over the place, a creature of creative chaos, I’m going to share these tips in no particular order of importance. I will leave it to you to apply these pointers as you see fit.
1. Eliminate distractions. Turn off the TV. Get off social media. Put your phone on silent. Tell your family to leave you alone for an hour. Stop checking your emails. Stay out of the kitchen. Ignore household chores. There will always be something that needs to be done. We all know there are not enough hours in the day but right now, what you need to do is, focus on writing! Find a quiet place where you can be alone with your thoughts. A place where your family understands that it is off-limits. Gandolf the Grey is standing guard screaming, “You shall not pass!” When distractions are eliminated, you are free to do what must be done.
2. Pay attention to the world around you. Focus on the senses. What shade of green is your lawn? What does a freshly cut pineapple taste like? What does a jagged toenail feel like against the back of your calf? What do your child and their cousins sound like when they laugh hysterically while running in circles in the backyard? What do the garbage man’s gloves smell like? There is so much wonder in the world around us. Inspiration is everywhere. As writers, our job is to describe life as we perceive it and create worlds that readers can experience vicariously through our words.
3. Let your imagination soar! I know this sounds cliché but it’s true. Allow yourself to daydream. Sit back and permit your eyes to glaze over. Believe it or not, boredom is a writer’s best friend. It is a gift. In times of aimless thinking, inspiration dances. Ideas are born. Often, we’re told to sit still and clear our minds. No! Do the opposite of meditation. Don’t still your mind. Allow thoughts to run unimpeded through your head. Let your pen and paper collect them like raindrops in an old bucket. Having a childlike imagination is what keeps us going. It fuels our art. Without imagination, writing is trite regurgitation.
4. Pay attention to your dreams. Dreams can reveal magnificent fantasies, deep emotions, hidden fears, and divine revelations. I have been blessed and cursed with vivid, and sometimes prophetic dreams my whole life; inspiring some of my most original work. Let your dreams inspire your work. There is always more to unfold when analyzing the subconscious mind.
5. Set goals and create a schedule. Goals can be as small as writing for five minutes a day or as big as completing a book or more a year. Whatever your goals are, make them obtainable so you can measure your progress and feel a sense of achievement. Create a schedule so that your writing is prioritized. Make your writing just as important as anything else you hold in high regard. Writing is your talent. You chose to do it. No one is begging for you to share your voice, but the world needs it, and you should make it a priority to share. Make time to do what your soul must do. Make time to write.
6. Talk to other people. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, especially if you know the kind of folks that I know. I once met this fascinating, elderly woman at a book event. She flitted through the room wearing high heels, skinny jeans, and her purple hair pinned into an afro mohawk. This goddess found her way to my table and accosted me with hugs and air kisses on the cheeks. She told me I was her spiritual child and began sharing tidbits about her fabulous life. I learned that she was world traveled, had been married eleven times, and was actively looking for her twelfth husband, that she drove a purple car and lived in a purple house, and that she was a natural healer and a poet. There was no surprise that this sexy seventy-something-year-old woman inadvertently became the blueprint for a character in one of my novels.
Talking to others and hearing about their experiences can produce limitless amounts of content. Listening to different perspectives, learning about different cultures, observing human interactions, watching emotional reactions, all of these things can be collected through in-depth conversation. People love to talk, and writers should love to listen. People can inspire you to write characters who are multifaceted, diverse, interesting, and realistic.
7. Use your personal experiences as inspiration. Personal experience is powerful. No one views the world as you do. Your perspective is rare and one of a kind. Implant a bit of yourself within your characters, take the readers to places you have been, and share the pleasures and pains you’ve experienced through the life and lens of someone your pen has created. You can be your best resource.
8. Start with a sentence. Any sentence. Just write something down. It can be a long sentence or a short sentence. There is something about writing a simple sentence that leads to more sentences then paragraphs then pages then sometimes culminate into a whole book. And it all starts with a complete sentence.
9. Don’t stifle your creativity. Let your ideas go where they may. There is absolutely nothing too silly, dark, absurd, perverse, sappy, or weird to write. Write it down and decide if you want to share it later. Censoring your personal writings is murdering creativity! It’s self-denial. It’s squeezing infinite inspiration into a thimble-sized box and locking it away within your oppressed mind. Liberate your creativity and watch the words flow.
10. It’s okay to be perfectly imperfect. Write now. Edit later. You will always be your worst critic, and you will always think you can write something better. When inspiration is lacking, write whatever comes to mind. Don’t worry about faulty grammar, weird punctuation, repetitive language, excessive adverbs. Just write. All the mess can be cleaned up later.
11. Try something new. Play around with different genres. Veer away from your outline or try outlining if you’re a pantser. Throw in a plot twist. There are limitless possibilities to explore. Doing this can prevent predictable, insipid writing.
12. Be original. Admire not imitate. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I disagree. Imitation is a derivative, boring, and craven. Your voice is important. We don’t need two Octavia Butlers or Ernest Hemingways. We Know Mya Angelou’s, Stephen King’s, and James Baldwin’s points of view. The world needs to hear your point of view. Be inspired by writers you love but develop your unique style.
13. Read. Listen to audiobooks. Read to observe different writing styles, to see the world through others' eyes, to understand story structure, to better hone your craft, and to develop a deeper vocabulary. Reading helps you become a better writer.
14. Create a sacred space for writing. A place where no one bothers you. A place where your desk is as you like it, where your absurd amount of pens and journals sit unjudged, where your music plays without interruption, and where your laptop is free from TikTok dance trends and Facebook ads. Create a sacred space for you and inspiration alone.
15. Embrace your writing process. Are you a pantser (a writer who writes with no predetermined plot allowing the story to unfold as it is written)? Do you use outlines? Do you do a bit of both? Do you write in daily, weekly, or monthly cycles? Everyone is different. Do what works best for you.
16. Don’t compare your productivity to others. One time I was doing a panel and we were introducing ourselves. I shared my name, the name of my publishing company and proudly exclaimed that I was the author of fourteen books. My heightened sense of accomplishment soon dissipated when the next author revealed that she had written over a hundred books. Suddenly, I started to wonder what I had been doing with my life. How many books do I need to write to be considered a prolific writer? It’s important to remember that we all work at a different pace and that’s okay. Simply staying productive is valuable.
17. Keep pens, paper, laptops, cellphones, tablets, voice recorders, and even napkins nearby to capture ideas before they disappear. You never know when and where inspiration can resurface.
18. Don’t be afraid to work on something else if you’re stuck on your current project. I have quite a few incomplete novels, nonfiction essays, and short stories on my computer. When I get stuck, I play around with something new. Sometimes just changing it up a bit inspires me to finish the first thing I started.
19. Stay determined. When the muse has filed for divorce, write anyway. He’ll eventually come crawling back begging to be let in. Discipline and determination will not only help you reach your writing goals but will also sharpen your writing skills. Make no mistake, writing is a job, and we must go to work even when we don’t want to.
20. Change your environment. Sit in nature and absorb earth’s beauty. Take a walk in an unfamiliar town. Visit a coffee shop or sit on a park bench and people-watch. Travel as much as you can. I remember when I visited Egypt for the first time. My senses were overwhelmed by all I saw, smelled, tasted, heard, and touched. I was exposed to a world that I never conceived of. It was nothing like the books I had read or the movies I had seen. I was expecting just to see pyramids but what I encountered was an enchanting desert kingdom filled with beauty, ugliness, luxury, and poverty. I was enthralled with the history, intrigued by the people, in love with the art, surprised by the food, and enraptured with the spirituality of the land. When I got home, I couldn’t wait to plop a character into that setting.
21. Tap into things that inspire you like poetry, music, movies, and art. Sometimes, becoming immersed in different mediums will spark new ideas.
22. Write what you love. Writing what you love will heighten the desire to continue. Writers want to earn money for writing, but it is important to stay focused on the art. It’s okay to write for an audience but you also need to write for yourself. You can’t please everyone so please yourself and the people who appreciate your work and inspiration will always find you.
23. Research. If you must take a break, utilize that time by researching. Dig into background information, important facts and more to ensure that your writing project is as layered and impactful as possible.
24. Do something creative. When the inspiration to write leaves me, I paint, dance, work on cover art, make jewelry or soap, create social media content, and experiment with new art forms. I find that creativity begets creativity so it’s only a matter of time before my creative medium will once again be writing.
25. Ignore the fear of failing. You are good enough. Hold on to that.
26. Brainstorm and prepare yourself for writing. Jot down ideas. Create characters beforehand. Play with potential plots so that when you need to write, you have something to build upon.
27. Use AI for writing prompts. Notice I did not say to use AI to write! Many writers and artists view AI as the devil, but it does have some good qualities. You can use it to generate prompts for writing exercises to get your juices flowing. AI can also be good for editing, and creating images of your characters to use for your own reference and research.
28. Take a break but never give up. It’s okay to slam down the laptop and go on hiatus for an hour, day, week, month, or year. Stuff happens. Life happens. Frustration happens. But, we must never walk away from the calling God has bestowed upon us. A writer must write. It is as vital as waking and sleeping. It is what we must do. Never give up on your writing dreams. It’s okay to amend them, just don’t stop.
Writing is often riddled with distractions, frustrations, and moments of doubt. I hope these 28 tips will serve as reminders that inspiration can be coaxed back and reignited through persistence, imagination, resourcefulness, and willingness to embrace the process through all its peaks and valleys. Whether through eliminating distractions, giving yourself permission to dream, or jotting down that first sentence, there are myriad ways to keep the creative spark burning. It’s not about waiting for inspiration; it’s about creating it. Stay diligent, keep exploring, and be courageous. When the muse is hiding. It will come back. It always does. Always remember that the world needs your voice. Write on!