Finding Inspiration in Your Writing

Hi Papa Bear, hope you are doing well and thank you for reading this question. I have been in a bit of a funk recently and have been clinging to Skype and FurAffinity to help get me through the day these past few weeks. 

I have been trying to write and find inspiration these past few weeks. However, each time I see or try to write a new story I get a pang of doubt or jealousy for some reason and spend the afternoon languishing about being grumpy/sad. 

Do you have any suggestions for clearing my head and find inspiration? 

Trentonfoxbear

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Dear Trentonfoxbear,

All writers go through what you’re feeling right now, mostly due to self doubt (thinking everything you write isn’t good enough), and sometimes due to writer’s block (simply no ideas come to mind). The first thing you need to do is explore your motivation: why do you want to write. Which of the following describes you?

1. I want to write because I want to have to see my name on a book or in a magazine or other publication.
2. I want to write so I can sell my stories and earn an income.
3. I want to write to inspire and bring joy to others.
4. I want to write to be famous and get recognized.
5. I want to write because I enjoy the writing process and creating things out of my imagination (i.e., I like to write for my own gratification).

If you answered 1, 2, or 4, put away your computer right now and abandon all hope ye who enter here, because you are writing for the wrong reasons. Go pursue some other interest. If, however, you chose 3 or 5, then we may continue.

Papabear’s main reason for writing these days is #3. It is for that reason that I write a column 4-7 times a week, and I would do more except my workaday job often wears me out (and sometimes I just run out of letters, or have a lot of people wanting me not to publish their letters). If your answer is 3, as well, then jump-start your creative process by imagining people reading your stuff and the smiles it will produce on their faces. You can do this through the process of meditation. Reconnect to your original reason for writing by contemplating your pure motivation. You want to make others happy and inspire them. Therefore, it really doesn’t matter if, sometimes, your writing might be a bit clunky; the important thing is to get your message across, what you want to convey. What is your message? What are you trying to say? Reconnect to that, and it will get you going again.

Note! And this is very important! You are not writing for approval of your readers; this implies you want some positive feedback and recognition (#4). No, you are writing for them in an unselfish process of giving to your audience without expecting anything in return, including any acknowledgment.

If you chose #5, then it seems you have gotten a bit off track because you’re not enjoying writing at the moment. To get back to writing, do the following:

• Set aside one hour a day to write. Find a place where you have no distractions—turn off all electronic devices! And I mean all of them.
• During this time, write. If you are temporarily stumped about your current project, practice free-flow writing. Free-flow writing is simply putting pen to paper (or typing) and writing anything that comes to mind. Just write it down, without editing, and keep writing whatever thoughts are in your head. Continue for one hour, then stop for the day. That evening, or the next morning, read what you have written. It’s very possible there will be some inspiration there.
• Declutter your head. Writers (and other artists) often become befuddled not because they have no ideas but because they have too many. They start working on multiple projects and never finish any of them because their thoughts and imagination are too scattered. Focus on one piece to work on and concentrate only on that. If—as often happens—a cool idea for something else pops up, scribble down that idea, but put it aside for later and return to your main project.
• Break down large projects into several smaller, bite-size projects, and set milestones for yourself. For instance, if you are working on a novel, make your first project to write down character descriptions; when that is accomplished, make the next an outline of your story; when that is done, your next milestone might be to complete the first chapter (break it down further by promising to write at least 1-2 pages a day). Don’t think of the full book, just focus on writing that first chapter. It’s less intimidating if you break things up.
• Know where you’re going. This one is what helped me complete my novel. A lot of writers begin writing a story with no idea how it is going to end, they lose their way, and get bogged down and frustrated. Writing like this rarely works (the greatest example of it working would be the movie Casablanca, my favorite film), so what I did is I figured out the conclusion of my book first, then, once I knew where I was going, it was much easier to go back to the beginning and write.
• Don't fret, rewrite. Another thing I learned was not to worry about problems with the manuscript because I could always go back and rewrite them. That’s the cool thing about writing—and something that the computer age has made ridiculously easy compared to typing on paper—is you can go back and easily make changes. For example, say you’re writing along and you decide in chapter 20 that it makes more sense to the story if the heroine once had a son who died in a tragic accident, but the earlier chapters have no hint of this. You can go back and make changes to the earlier parts of the book and suddenly it looks like you planned it all along because, heck, readers have no idea what you originally wrote. Rewrites like this can make you look brilliant ;-)
• Join a writers group. Writers groups are a great way to share your work and get feedback, and good writers group help to motivate you to keep writing (e.g., “Hey, we liked what you did in this chapter and can’t wait for the next one. When can we see it?”)
• Experience life. The best source of inspiration for a writer is real life. Go out and meet people and do stuff and you will get ideas for plots and for characters, too. If you read interviews with famous fiction writers, they will often tell you that many of their characters are based upon people they met in real life.
• If you get really really stuck, set aside your writing for 1—but no more than 3—days. Then go back and read what you have written. This can help you get a fresh eye on what you are putting down on paper.
• This might seem unrelated, but it isn’t: get plenty of sleep and exercise, and eat healthy foods. Being tired and sick will always work against you in your writing.

Hope this helps! Good luck! And keep writing!

Papabear