Where Do You Get Your Inspiration?
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Posted by Jenn Lowther
* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity
One thing that this blogathon has made very clear, the hardest part of writing is getting the initial inspiration to pick up your pen and put it to paper (or fingers to keyboards). I’ve always known that inspiration is very important in my writing - from University papers before through to blog posts today.
Once a topic has inspired me, I find myself writing away like a mad woman on a mission. I tend to get hyper focused and can write brilliant articles in very short order. I have always been like this and imagine that I always will be. The best topics are ones that have me fired up and steaming. These posts in particular come to mind: The Problem with Allergy Medicine: Inflated Drug Efficacy and Permission Marketing: How Not to Piss off Your Target Market. As you can see with these articles, I was fired up on the topic I was speaking too and it shows in my posts.
On the other hand, when I’ve not been inspired to write, but need to get something out, it feels like I sit in front of my keyboard for ages staring blankly at the screen. There are millions of things that I can write about, but formulating my initial thesis/topic is the hardest part. Even when I do get around to taping my fingers on the keyboard, it is obvious (at least to me) in my writing that it was forced - like this post. It lacks that certain something that makes writing compelling. I feel a bit like a fraud and am waiting for someone to call me out on it.
This brings me to the point of my post, where do you draw your inspiration from? This isn’t just limited to writing, but everything that we do in our lives. What makes you get up everyday, get ready, and walk out of your front door?
July 30th, 2008 at 8:38 am
vivien, one of my good blogging friends (who i hope will one day join us for the bloggers meetup), did a group writing project about this topic last year: http://www.inspirationbit.com/group-writing-project-results-37-sources-of-inspiration/
it’s interesting to talk about our different writing processes. as i mentioned to you last night at the meetup, coming up with ideas is not a problem for me - i usually have way too many! my difficulty lies more in distraction, and wanting to get it just right. once i took a whole day to write one post!
July 30th, 2008 at 8:38 am
btw, i love the layout of your blog!