Where Can I Find Some Inspiration??

By -
Today marks 4 years that Hubby and I nixed that "living in sin" thing. We had the world's shortest wedding ceremony and for one day understood how celebrities feel with the paparazzi. We also had cake.

So with all of this in mind, I'm blogging ahead of time for once. By the time you read this, we will be stuffed with waffles and watching penguins swim as our anniversary date.

Onto business.

There's been a lot of talk about inspiration on The Pie as of late*. I've covered images and WIPs, people who've inspired me, and pictures that have inspired my writing as a whole. Now we add a fourth.



First, some background: this week I decided to scrap my original NaNo plan because I was too trapped in my head. This meant coming up with a new story. No pressure, right? No. None at all. Thank goodness there are some techniques for getting inspiration when you most need it.
  1. Snuggle with the cat. The White One's pliancy makes it too easy to curl up with him and think. A lot of times this results in sporadic napping.
  2. Have conversations. One of my conversations this week included Marcel Marceau**. This gave me another ridiculous scene that would work with my new NaNo project.
  3. Read. A lot of times if I'm stuck, I'll go read. For some reason, nonfiction jangles free the block and ideas pour out of brain. This is the main reason why I installed Evernote on my phone.
  4. Free writing. The ratio of intelligent thought to the word cheese*** is 1:400, but when it works, it really works.
  5. Pull it from the ether. A lot of my ideas (not the current SNI) just show up. The assassin project? Just showed up. Phoenix Rising? Showed up. That random story about the squirrel photographer? Sort of showed up. (You all know about my squirrel problem.)
How do you get inspiration when you need it?


* When you're a chronic pessimist, 3 posts in 5 months seems like a lot.
** Ha, you thought I'd help you on this one. Look him up.
*** Truth: Every free writing session I've done starts out with the word "cheese" written at least 5 times.
_________
Last.fm hit of the day: Something to Believe In by Poison