Hello everyone,
Today I went on a mobility lesson to the library here in Athens, GA. I had a very interesting meeting with a lady in the administration office, where I needed to learn about book signings. The people I need to talk to weren’t there at the time of the lesson, but I gave her my contact information, so the right people would get in touch with me. I also learned how to get to the study rooms, where I could go and write when I need to. I am not exactly sure what I am inspired to write today, but I know my inspiration is all over the place today. Please forgive me for going in forty-eleven different directions while writing this post.
The Weather
On this beautiful spring day, the weather was a bit cook, when I went out, yet sunny. As the day wears on, the temperature rises and makes me feel energetic. However, the pollen is rampant, and it messes with my allergies. However, that didn’t stop me from going out on a mobility lesson today.
Let me answer the second part of the writing prompt I found about the weather. Let’s say I have built a world of my own in my novel. I am in the land of Snow angel. Although I don’t like walking in snow, this world is built and it survives because of its snow. However, the weather in this world is all wrong. The citizens see sunshine, instead of snow. The world is white, but too warm for the people to survive. Here’s a writing prompt for you my fellow writers: take your own world, where the weather needs to be a certain way in order for your characters to survive. Change the weather and write what happens when it is changed. Do the people leave the fictional world, or do they become extinct? Take some time to play around with this idea, and feel free to share your creative thoughts in the comments below. Why not shape it into a story or essay for your own blog? If you use this prompt for a blog post, please feel free to link back to this post as a source for your inspiration.
Getting Inspired by Household Tasks
When I was living with my mother, I would wash the dished after a meal, and begin to sing a song that I made up off the top of my head. These little songs have lead to story ideas, that I either wrote down on notepad, or started as a Word document. I always write down these ideas, because there are times when they can be useful in my current projects or in projects that I am planning to work on in the future.
An Inspirational Shower
This also happens in the shower, I will sing a song, or “kick around†an idea that hit me at an odd moment earlier on the day in question. sometimes a story, blog post, or part of a novel comes out of that inspirational shower. For example, I ended up getting the inspiration for part of A Journey of Faith, from time spent in a cool summer shower.
Walking in a Dark Warehouse
One of the writing prompts I saw was to imagine yourself walking through a dark abandoned warehouse. When I let my mind wander into this type of building, there are several things I notice. First of all, the building echoes, due to the high ceilings. The warehouse is opened, with a wall far off to my right, and another far off to my left. It looks like a large open rectangle. The floor is made of either concrete, or some other strange substance. I step inside the building, and the floor seems to bounce under my feet. I am very nervous, walking through there. There are some strange noises in that building. I run through the warehouse, so I don’t have to deal with the weird creatures hiding in there. Write a story set in this old abandoned warehouse. The image you see is yours, but something significant has to happen in this warehouse, for the story to move forward. What happens, and how do the characters solve the problem(s) in your story. Personally, I might write a story like this later on myself.
Staying Silent when You Want to Shout
Let me talk to you about silence. Sometimes it’s hard for me to stay silent, even when the rest of the house is quiet as a mouse. I mean, I have thousands of thoughts going in circles in my head, and I feel I have to verbalize these thoughts, or they will drive me crazy. This only happens when I’m at home, because I don’t want to embarrass myself out in public. However, there are times when I need to stay silent, I let the thoughts run through my mind, and try to hold onto the ones I want to keep and let go of those that are unnecessary. For instance, one night, while going to church, I saw one of my stories playing out, from the truck, to the church, and even throughout part of the service. I had to stay silent, while these ideas ran through my head in total silence. Although I love going to church at night, sometimes I wish I could take a pen and a notebook with me for ideas like this, so I don’t lose them. This is one of those times that I want to talk through my ideas, when I can’t. If that ever happens to you, here’s something you might want to try: I heard this idea in an audio book, read on the Georgia Radio Reading service for the blind and print handicapped. In this book, the author talked about playing a game with her kids. She suggested that her children perform a silent scream. Let me tell you what I mean. Get into your screaming stance, with your feet apart and your fists in the air, open your mouth, but don’t actually scream. Instead, emit a silent scream. You may even want to bounce on the balls of your feet, when you get really excited or angry, but you can’t make a sound. Does this silent scream make you feel better, or does it make the emotion you can’t show even worse?
Conversations You Hear in your Daily Life
We all overhear conversations from time to time that inspire a piece of dialogue, or a scene in a novel or story. However, have you ever sat down, closed your eyes, and listened to your inner thoughts? What conversations come from these silent musings? My friend Zaire was playing his singing bowl the other night, and As I sat listening to the soothing vibrations of the bowl, I heard the following words in my head: “John loves it, but his wife can’t stand it.†I don’t know what that means, or where I need to use this quote, but I do know that it was a thought from out of the blue, as an image dropped away from the inner recesses of my mind. What words or phrases have you heard while in your own silent musings? How did they inspire your writing? Where did you use these bits of dialogue that pop up out of nowhere? Personally, for me, my characters have spoken to me in that way before. I have sat in my chair or on the bed, listening to an audio magazine, while zoning out. One night, I was almost asleep, when Becca Martin began talking to me from out of nowhere. Do your characters talk to you in this way? If so, in which direction did they take your novel or story?
Conclusion
Thank you for allowing me to take this post in different directions. I found several writing prompts, and there were quite a few that actually struck my creative muse. I’ll have to think further on that warehouse prompt, though and possibly come up with a story for this prompt. Has any of these musings been an inspiration to you? You don’t have to go into every little detail, but if so, tell me how I have inspired you, and if you have a blog post that you have written based on these musings, please share the link to this post with your followers.
Until next time, happy writing, and may the muse keep you writing for hours, even if it speaks to you in the middle of the night.