Don’t ask me! Hahaha. No seriously, not today anyway, I’m coming up short!
While this morning might be a tough one for me to write a post, that’s just because I don’t have the time to spend hunting around for the necessary spark that will ignite the fire under my butt and get me to write something. The good news is, if you do have the time, inspiration can come from just about anywhere.
Thanks to the internet, there are literally millions of places you can go for inspiring ideas or topics without leaving your desk (or lap). I follow (literally) hundreds of blogs and they are always a source of thought. Be it straight out ideas or discussions on a topic that can lead me in another direction.
If you’re not too much into that, how about a book? If that doesn’t work, why not head to the mall, or down to the local park or whatever. I find that people watching can be a fascinating hobby. With so many people in the world, it can be fun to try and think up exciting stories for the stranger who walks past you (just don’t think aloud as they pass, they might start to form their own opinions).
Creativity is a skill that sometimes has to be honed. for me, I sometimes need to see what else is out there before I can get myself going, other times I already have something ready to go. You may have a totally different way of getting up and running and that’s fine, as long as you don’t trick yourself into thinking you’re doing good and you actually aren’t.
The point is, when people say they can’t find inspiration, that is often a way of saying that they haven’t really tried, or if they have, been looking in the wrong place. You can avoid this mistake by finding what it is that inspires you on a consistent basis and utilising it to the max.
For me it’s about stock piling ideas for future use. Once you get in the mindset of being creative everyday it’s like a faucet you can’t turn off. It’s like you have a direct connection in your brain that sends all signals to a place that recognizes a good idea.
But, the bigger issue people have is not where to find inspiration, although I love your suggestions on that, but, following through on the inspiration. It’s like Jerry Seinfeld’s bit in the rental car lot: (to paraphrase) “Anyone can take a reservation, but it’s holding the reservation that counts.”
Finding inspiration is the easy part, in my opinion because it requires the smallest amount of effort. The hard part is actions: actually breaking the sweat, making the sacrifice to do something with it. That’s the part that weeds out most people. But, it need not be so.
Excellent points, Dave.
I agree, it is hard to put words or ideas into action. In the past, in a situation like this morning, I would have probably given up and not posted anything at all. But I have found such an approach to be extremely defeatist because I then accomplish nothing blog-related for the day.
I freely admit that it can be tough to get ideas going sometimes. My book project is currently on the back burner until I can squeeze it into my regular schedule again and I agree that a stockpile can be a great buffer for when your creativity is low. However, I once got ahead of myself with the posts and then one day I drew a blank. Now I’m back to square one 😛
I agree with all of the above.
One other useful idea is to work out a system to catch and preserve all of your ideas. What you choose to use is immaterial – whether it is a little notebook and pencil in your back pocket or some technological solution like Evernote – its all good. As David Allen keeps stating the human brain is great at coming up with stuff, not necessarily super-optimised to retain all of that stuff.
If you gather notes and ideas effortlessly throughout your day, then when it comes to David’s “point of action and getting started” you are not staring at a blank page, you have something to work from.
I totally agree with all comments above. I’m not a photographer at all, but I do walk around with a digital camera and I enjoy taking pictures usually of nature. I cannot even count the amount of times these pictures have come in handy as references for backgrounds or illustrations or even textures for 3D models. And sometimes I won’t use these pictures for years and suddenly the perfect opportunity arises and I’m grateful to myself for having taken and archived the photos.
Another handy thing is the Notes app on my iPod, whenever inspiration strikes, I write it down in my iPod and revisit them later. It might be something I witnessed or just a conversation I overheard that triggers an idea for a dialogue or story.
Thanks for the comment, Careese!
Taking notes is something I’ve never really done. I’ve had a couple of phones with note-taking abilities but I always end up just filing it away in the ol’ noggin. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed more and more disappearing from that repository recently!