Inspire Me

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

                                 
Share with us, things that inspire your work.
Could it be a quote, a song, or a picture?
What makes you want to pick up that pen
and draw or write?

Comments

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

So I see this picture HERE (http://samantha-meglioli.deviantart.com/art/Magical-little-World-186497998) , and I wonder; was the bottle dropped as someone was trying to get away? Or how about being left there for someone to pick up? What potion was in it?

[drarryisgreen]

This quote by Anais Nin has always been my inspiration.

#TeamGryffindor

[slashedsilver.livejournal.com]

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison

[darkravenwrote.livejournal.com]

“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.”
“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.”
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

(I'm not sure why I like this quote so much, I haven't even read the book. But it's in my little quote book and, to me, it just sums up how I write perfectly.)

[xonceinadream]

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." by Maya Angelou is one of my favorite quotes about writing. I find it very inspiring.

[dracogotgame.livejournal.com]

While it's not specifically related to writing, this quote had always been my inspiration:


“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” - Walt Disney

To me, Keep Moving Forward means to just go ahead and do it, because you can. It means not being afraid of looking for inspiration in strange places, or writing things that may seem strange to others. It means to write like your life depends on it- because if you don't write you story, who will?

As far as I'm concerned if it worked for Walt Disney, it works for me :)

[kitty_fic]

[obliqueo.livejournal.com]

Came across fire (http://eposicee.deviantart.com/#/art/Fire-Works-164250745?hf=1) and water (http://ermkaybo.deviantart.com/art/Mermaid-101668530) (sort of) while searching for reference. They are both pretty cool! I'm currently working on "water", and come to think of it, maybe start a project with fire later ;D

[brinimc.livejournal.com]

Reading a really good story. It's usually after I finish reading something I think, "I want to put that into art!" or I think, "Hmm, this could have gone a different way." It's only after that when I'm researching do I find pictures that inspire me. If I don't read, I have nothing flowing in this brain!

[eidheann_writes]

Usually getting an email or PM from capitu yelling at me to write more.

Does that count?

[eidheann_writes]

(If it doesn't, going back and reading any of her comments or recs for my fic. It always puts a huge smile on my face and makes me feel like I can actually do this.)

[ashindk.livejournal.com]

What inspires me the most, is looking forward to sitting down at the end of each day and spend just a little time on writing. It's something just for me, after spending the whole day looking after my family and my job.



I write on the laptop, and I use the iPad to read and research. And I need a cup of tea as well. Some cake would have been nice too...

[capitu]

♥♥♥♥

[fantasyfiend09.livejournal.com]

Other people's stories--whether good or bad, my taste or not--inspire me to write.

Good stories suck me into the HP world and I find myself so desperate to stay there that I have to write my own stories.

In defence of really bad fan fiction:
When I read brilliant stuff, I sometimes feel like the work is being done and I can just sit back and enjoy it. But when I read something terrible (and this was mainly when I was back on ff.net and there was the whole spectrum of quality), I start thinking about all the missed potential. Thinking of what could have been inspires me to make something of my own and hope it's marginally better.

[fantasyfiend09.livejournal.com]

This is exactly how I feel as a writer. Without reading, I have nothing.

[blossomdreams.livejournal.com]

Well my dad inspires me to write. Whenever I was feeling down or announced I was going to give up he would tell me "Even if one person reads it, it means you're a writer." I didn't really believe it until I would get a review from a lovely person and decided if it's just me and this one person loving the story, then I can live with that. ^_^

I think about that whenever I get depressed about my writing.

[susannah-wilde.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else keep a commonplace book (http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/)? I do. I put everything in it: quotes, photos, little snippets of conversation I hear throughout the day. It's how I found my fic idea for hd_erised and if I get stuck writing a fic, I search through it until something inspires me.

(A commonplace book is a central resource or depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and didactic pursuits. The purpose of the book is to record and organize these gems for later use in your life, in your business, in your writing, speaking or whatever it is that you do.)

[xenadragon-xoxo.livejournal.com]

I tend to get my ideas while playing chess. In fact, I got my very first fic idea while at a tournament. I might have frightened my opponent a little when I started grinning madly from ear to ear in the middle of the game, but it was worth it in the end. Every time I feel myself running dry of inspiration, I play a round with my friends or the computer.

[a-clairvoyante.livejournal.com]

That's actually a really good idea - I have a common-pile-of-paper-snippets that flies everywhere... Amazing organisation skills, I know ;)

[a-clairvoyante.livejournal.com]

I sometimes get really inspired by music.
And as I play the harp, it's often harpmusic.
(I recommend Rüdiger Oppermann, a German harpner who almost always manages to lead my imagination someplace else)

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

This is so true!

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

This for me as well. Reading often make me want to write.

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to do this for a long time; I have a journal beside my bed for this and sometimes I remember to use it.

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

This for me as well. Reading often make me want to write.

[josephinestone.livejournal.com]

It is probably bad that I'm looking through my journal and most everything in here is from psychology books, but I really like this one:

"Having been raised as the only child of a narcissistic mother, there was no way I could escape my destiny, no matter how hard I tried." - Beverly Engel

I do have this one from one of my favourite YA authors, David Levithan from Every Day: "But the thing about a cry for help is that someone needs to be around to hear it."

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

There are tons of things that inspire me! Some of the most inspirational for me would include music, other people's stories or writings of any kind, and twitter.

So as not to spam you with music, I'll include two videos...

The first is my new earworm of the moment, but it's so catchy and makes me think of all of my young characters!


The second is one of my favourites by my favourite artist... If I'm writing anything and I hear any of his songs I can immediately double my word count in those three-four minutes... No idea why, but his music inspires me!


I follow a ton of writing things on twitter and one of the best is @AdviceToWriters (https://twitter.com/AdviceToWriters). They have quotes and articles all about writing.

Last night I was really inspired in chatzy when someone posted a quote... and I don't remember who, and didn't even copy down the quote itself, but it went something like... "Your worst writing is always better than writing nothing." It's so true...and last night I think all of my words sucked, but it was definitely better than any of the days I didn't write!

[cyn-ful.livejournal.com]

One thing that inspires me is reading other fics or doing roleplaying. In fact, I can say that it was through an assignment at hogwartsishome where my character interacted with Snape. In this interaction I have gotten a huge plot bunny that I am going to have to write out. Definitely not a pairing I had ever thought of, but yeah...That is how inspiration strikes.

Sometimes it can be the words of a song, or just watching the movie. Last night I was watching DH with my girls. Just in watching it, I was inspired to write. Small snippets of scenes.

[tryslora]

So many things inspire me. I think the biggest are the "what if" factor, music, and people.

The "what if?" factor is just the way my brain works. What if this happened instead of that? I'll be off and running down a let's pretend train of thought, and I start scribbling ideas. My stories are character driven, so this works for me.

Music is... I listen to music constantly. Lyrics leap out at me, and I find them worming their way into my mind. I love to leave prompts with music, and I love to get ideas from it. My currently weekly WiP was inspired in part by the line from a Lifehouse song that I am using as its title: "Haven't Forgotten My Way Home" because it made me wonder why they left, and what makes them think of home now.

But most importantly, feedback. Creativity is an energy loop. We write, we share, people comment, we gain energy, we write MORE, we share MORE, and so on. It's a constant learning process, and hearing what people like (and don't like) inspires me to do more. I want to make people smile. I want to make them cry. I want to inspire emotions, and feedback tells me if I've done that. And that's honestly the thing that inspires me the most... the idea that I can reach out and touch folks with what I do.

[susannah-wilde.livejournal.com]

Lol, that's how I started. I pinned everything that inspired me on a bulletin board so that I could just look up when I needed something. Then one day it fell off the wall and scattered everywhere. A book is much better.

[susannah-wilde.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea.