5 WAYS TO INSPIRE CREATIVE WRITING

CREATIVE WRITING

Your have homework for a creative writing assignment and drawing a blank? No inspiration?

This is a common problem with many writers, even professional ones.  Willing and able to write a great story – just need that first spark of an idea to get going and, instead, spend half the night banging your head against the wall desperately seeking an inspiration to start.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that hard. Here’s 5 ideas to help get writing a terrific story started!

INSPIRATION BOX

Plan for this type of homework assignment (which I guarantee is coming ) by creating an inspiration box. Cut out random photos, interesting story ideas from the newspaper or magazines and photos from trips or even a day in the park.

You can even include a particularly pretty rock, shell or something else you find in the world. A shell could easily become the home of sad and lonely snail one day. A rock can become something that has seen the world change since it began and only wants someone to listen to it.

You never know what might inspire writing a great story.

Throw it all in a box that is only opened when inspiration is needed. You can either search for what strikes your fancy at the moment or randomly pull out a few items from the box and decide you will create a story from whatever you happen to grab. Sometimes simply by creating a challenge, you can get your creative juices flowing.

INTERNET TROLLING

There are plenty of internet websites that offer inspirational ideas for story writing. Be careful that you don’t let the information on the Internet do your job for you. The point of the assignment is that it is your story, not someone else’s.  Don’t plagiarize! You are looking for inspiration only. Make it your own story.

Click here for an example of such a website.

FAMILY HISTORY

Think about your favorite family stories. Maybe a great story that Grandpa always tells, but, instead of writing it about your family, exchange the characters for a family of frogs or fairies. Once you have the core idea, you can twist it around to become anything you want.

Try to remember a story that truly amazed you.

Feel free to change anything you want about the story – it is your story, after all. If you don’t like Grandpa’s ending, change it!

Remember, the story is just to get you started.

ENVIRONMENTAL INSPIRATION

Look around you. With the right mindset, almost anything can be an inspiration for a story. Maybe it’s a couple of toys that have a secret life when you are not looking or maybe it’s just a pair of sneakers that give whoever wears them superpowers!

A story is made up of a combination of the right inspiration + your imagination. With enough creativity, you can make a story out of almost anything! Squint your eyes a little and look around. There is going to be something around you that you had never really noticed before that will suddenly pop out as a great story idea.

Don’t forget to let you imagination go wild – a simple window can become a portal to another dimension, a bed can become a boat down a raging river and a pencil can magically create drawings that come alive.

THE STORYTELLING BOX

Of course, I can’t resist adding my own Storytelling Box to the list. Inspiring stories is exactly its purpose.

Not only do you receive 100 original story ideas that you can make your own, but you also have 200 Word Prompts and Illustrations to help create stories.

Just as with your own Inspiration Box, you can randomly or selectively pull cards to inspire a story.

I recently led a story circle at Pretend City. What was interesting was how the little girls in the circle used the box in a way that I hadn’t even considered. They reviewed all the illustrations and chose a series that satisfied a story-line they had in mind. They then laid our the cards in order and told the story. It was brilliant!

Experiment and find the inspirational method that works best for you. Creativity is like any other muscle in your body. It gets stronger, the more you use it.

Challenge yourself!