Blogger: Wendy Lawton
I spent last week in the giant redwoods of California with about 300 other writers, editors and agents. An inspired location. As I saw the creativity that grew out of that week it made me wonder, what inspires you?
I decided I’d lean on the collective wisdom of our blog community to share some of the things that inspire creativity and motivate us to write or create.
For me, there are a number of things that I can count on for inspiration. When I was designing and sculpting, a trip to a favorite museum– like the Oakland Museum here in California or the Metropolitan or the Frick in New York– always made me long to get back in my studio and find ways to interpret what I saw and loved.
Books and poetry also became the impetus for many an idea for a doll or a series. I can remember hours spent reading James Whitcomb Riley, fairy tales or folk stories. Even magazine layouts would yield color palettes for me.
When I was writing historical fiction, it was research that would spark a story or a character. The deeper I’d dig into a time period, the more inspiration I’d find. Some of my clients who write contemporary fiction find their inspiration from current newspaper articles. Nonfiction writers often hear sermons or lectures that become the seed out of which their book grows.
We’ve heard of many who get their best ideas in the shower or sitting beside a running stream. Science says it has to do with negative ions or some such thing. I do know a number of writers who have whiteboards in the shower with waterproof markers for those brilliant ideas.
My friend and partner in crime, Janet Grant and I have found our most creative ideas and solutions while sitting beside each other on a coast-to-coast flight. I haven’t decided whether it is the enforced time– time to dream and plan that is so scarce in the busy everyday– or the pure oxygen we are breathing at 38,000 feet. Regardless of the cause, inspiration is the happy result.
Does setting inspire you? My client, Julie Klassen, spends time in English villages every chance she gets. These Austen-like settings inspire her wonderful regencies. Lauraine Snelling wanders all over the midwest, especially the Dakotas. She collects stories, characters, and even character names wherever she goes. Judy Miller visited potteries in West Virginia for her book set there. When setting inspires, it makes the resulting book come alive.
Do you have a magic elixir– a special tea or coffee that does the trick for you?
How about music? I can’t write to music but I would always get appropriate music as a sort of soundtrack to the book I was writing. When I wrote the story of the young Harriet Tubman, I listened to slave music collected by anthropologists, sticking to rhythms and call and response spirituals. It helped me catch the distinctive speech patterns as well as providing pure inspiration.
What about your own setting? I know that I need a beautiful room or a bright studio with everything in it’s place in order to write or create. Other friends need a gentle, homey space, surrounded by all the materials of their research spread out in front of them. Do you need a window onto a garden or a windowless cloister?
So I put it to our collective brain trust. What inspires you?
It’s not what . . . it’s who. God. And where? Usually in my car, on the drive to work. I have a long commute, light on traffic and heavy on nature.
*God dropped the whole outline of my WIP into my head within the few miles between my turn off Route 206 and the bridge over I-80. I had no idea then that it would take years to learn the art of actually writing it.
When God hands you the bag of rice-shoots, it doesn’t look like too bad a job…but the paddy’s awfully big when you’re working bent-double, pushing them into the mud…the view’s limited…and did they REALLY have to fertilize with a water boo?????
Yep. The romance of any endeavor usually disappears just about the time the hard work begins.
Perfect inspiration!
Nantucket! I wrote the entire 1st draft of my memoir on grief in 18 days in 2014. The remoteness, the ocean, the flowers, the history…. I go back every summer for more. 3 hours writing each morning, then long walks afternoons to reflect & soak in the peace & beauty of the place.
Good morning, Mrs. Prichard, and thank you for sharing the peace you found in solitude upon a distant shore. I have never been so fortunate as to visit Nantucket, but shall endeavour to do so when I am next on the East Coast of the United States.
* In return, may I suggest that you would be well to consider a visit to Amritsar, and the precincts of the Golden Temple? You will not find physical solitude, but there is a special silence in the presence of so much reverence that you may find both soothing and invigorating.
Those hushed spaces are inspiring indeed. I have always loved the sacred spaces of St. John the Divine in NYC. (Where Madeleine L’Engle was writer-in-residence.)
Reminds me of one of my favorite books, Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It was written as she shared a cottage on the beach with her sister, I believe.
A very interesting and timely post for me, Wendy, because I have to nurture inspiration. I’m very tired, very downhearted, and feel like giving up. The path is steep, and handholds and secure footing are few. It hurts to move.
* The nurturing process starts with small appreciations. The taste of a Lo-Carb Monster Energy Drink, or a small bite of sourdough bread can be savoured, and that choice – to ‘commune’ with it – is step one. (And that is now about the sum of my diet!)
* The next step is around me now. The dogs are still asleep, and they are snoring, that gentle peaceful sound which belies the mayhem to come after breakfast-time, and how can I keep from smiling? (I can keep from singing, for mercy upon their ears.)
* Step three will come in about 90 minutes; I try to watch the sun rise over the Manzanos, to see the corona flicker briefly in the gin-clear air for that magic second tat heralds the day’s beginning.
* Next, appreciation of the Mad Minute of the Dogs’ Breakfast. They are so grateful and eager to eat, and noisy (and don’t get in their way!), and since Barbara’s workplace has a Free Food Day once a month, it always makes me think of my wife and her colleagues. (And when she reads this, I’m toast.)
* Fifth, ‘good reading’; when disheartened, I abandon books that build character and go to those that support hope. I always found a paradigm of faith in flight, so I read the best aviation authors I know – P.G. Taylor, Alex Henshaw, Pierre Clostermann and their fellows. It doesn’t matter that I’ve read them before; there’s always comfort, and always something new to find.
* Then there is good work. Not writing…I’m not ‘there’ yet. I can now do very little work upon aeroplanes, but I can do some, and even though what used to take 30 minutes can now take a whole day (with required rest periods) there is still something worth doing, and a small steel bracket, made well and correctly, is a source of satisfaction (and when I die, Barbara can sell the stuff to another aeroplane-building madman).
* And now, at last, writing. I find that the inspiration in writing is based on the foundation I’ve just described…which has to be built, maintained, and repaired…but the superstructure is largely formed of community, the people who live here, and those who read my blog and comment. You, and they, are fundamentally why I write.
* This comment became longer than I had intended, and I apologise. I won’t shorten it, because it may help someone else, and because it points out that inspiration is not serendipity – it’s responsibility.
Andrew, I especially love the sensory aspects of how you nurture creativity. Being aware and savoring the taste of what you can eat. The sense of peace that comes from being in the room with the sleeping dogs . . . I could feel the peace and enjoy the tastes. It seems like sometimes, just slowing down (for me, anyway) and being in the moment and feeling are the beginnings of inspiration.
Funny, that, Andrew, because so many of us find inspiration in your words. Your body may be letting you down but your spirit and intellect are vibrant and inspiring!
I may have already shared this with you, but having rheumatoid arthritis I know about it hurting to move during a flare. (My last flare lasted a year– all of 2015) For that reason I chose to explore the word “weak” this year. I am constantly amazed to discover how important this concept is in the Bible. God chooses the weak, over and over. My friend summed it up by saying “weak is the new strong.” When we are weak, there’s no question that it’s God beneath all we do.
All that to say, you may feel tired and downhearted but we see the Lord in you and your words every day.
Wendy, thank you so much! Inspiration is really all about community – the hands feet, and warm heart of Christ wirt small, but writ in multitudes.
* And you have been, and are in my prayers. I don’t know what Rheumatoid arthritis feels like…the closest extrapolation I can make is having a couple of crushed disks in my back. They will flare. It’s not pretty.
Wendy, you share so many great ways people get inspired. Ultimately, it is God who inspires me. I’m learning He uses different means to do this.
*For me, taking pictures can be very inspiring. Looking for a different angle, a certain light, silhouettes with splashes of color behind them . . . they make my heart happy. And they free something up within me that leads to inspiration.
*Reading certain blogs make me dig deeper within myself to respond to their thoughts and words.
*And yes, water. The shower, a stream, the waves crashing onto the shore . . . it seems like when something externally can move me to a peaceful or open place internally, inspiration follows.
I love the idea of taking pictures to get inspired. I think art is a great motivator.
What inspires me is being in a room with kids. Not little kids, but tweens. I love to listen to how to talk to each other, how they move around a room, how leaders emerge and followers respond. It always inspires me to write.
Sheila, what’s a “tween”? I keep seeing the word, and have no clue.
Andrew, I may have it wrong, but I think it’s the kid in between child and teen … around the ages of 10-13. I’ve got to write an article later this year on “postmoderns” … I don’t even know what that means. 🙂
Andrew,
Shelli has it right. It is that kid who is pre-teen. Starting to understand the world, but still not the jaded high-schooler or even the angsty middle-schooler (but I must admit a love for those angsty middlers)
Actually I love kids of all ages. Yesterday I got to go with a group of 40 from a prospective church plant at my local University and I LOVED randomly approaching college students and engaging in conversation!
Goodness, Sheila! Being with junior highers inspires you. All I can say is God bless you. 😉
Poetry. Truly. I read it every day.
Mee too, Hannah! May I suggest Housman? This poem is one I run through my mind every day, as reminder, inspiration, and in memoriam…
“These in the day when Heaven was falling,
the hour when earth’s foundations fled,
followed their mercenary calling
and took their wages, and are dead.
***
“Their shoulders held the sky suspended,
they stood, and earth’s foundations stay.
What God abandoned, these defended
and saved the sum of things for pay.”
Thanks for that. I read widely when it comes to poetry, partly because I have my own favorites (Mary Oliver is one), and partly because I homeschool my kids, so that I end up reading different poems to them than I read for my own pleasure. The upshot is that there’s a lot of poetry going on in this house! We all write it, too, for better or for worse. 🙂
Love it Hannah! Me, too. Gerard Manley Hopkins
Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Yes, Andrew, Housman–“The Grizzly Bear”
The grizzly bear is huge and wild,
It has devoured the infant child.
The infant child is not aware
That it was eaten by the bear.
Rather brutal, but I’m told it refers to the old Soviet Union and the smaller countries absorbed by it.
My husband loves to drive and I love to ride in the car. A long ride helps my brain unwind and roam free. I get some of my best ideas then
Us, too, Jane. I call it blowing the cobwebs out of my brain.
Inspiration has been difficult to come by of late.
>>>Usually it comes from reading. I immediately want to leave the reading and get to writing on whatever the inspiration is.
>>>At other times it’s something I observe while driving. Retaining those the thoughts till I get somewhere to write is a problem.
>>>On my noon walks, as I’m just observing or if I’m singing (I sing rather than use a passive listening device), I’ll often get ideas for poems or short pieces. Sometimes I even remember them when I get back to my desk. I have a folder somewhere with lots of ideas written of random pieces of paper. Whether these will make sense when the time comes to look again at them and make them into something is a big question.
>>>As I say, inspiration is dwindling of late. I have no works-in-progress, but have plans for three novels and two non-fiction books. They await the day when inspiration will overcome the world’s array and I won’t be able to not write. Until then, I seek inspiration in budgeting and yard work and house maintenance and civil engineering.
David, I hope that you may take some inspiration…or at least comfort…from this thought. It’s helped me.
* A field has to lie fallow for a season. It needs to rest under the open sky, with no thought for what may be planted on the morrow, but secure in the trust that there will be another planting, and that the time of solitude will allow a joyful and refreshed awakening.
Andrew,
I like your thought about the fallow field. I’m going to put that in my writing notebook of quotes and tips. Right now my field is not fallow, but when it is I’ll need the reminder.
*Thanks very much!
Thanks, Andrew. That reminds me of the couplet in a villanelle that a friend wrote:
“I sit around and watch my fallow field
and wonder what unplanted crops will yield.”
That’s a lovely couplet, David. Thank you for sharing it!
There’s a simple engineering solution for you, David. There are cigarette-lighter-sized digital voice recorders that would be perfect for capturing those thoughts. Once you have them turned on, recording is a one-button job that would be safe even while driving. I have a small Sony that can upload MP3 files directly to my computer. My husband wants me to record my completed novels so he can listen to them on long trips. I plan use it to record audio selections from my own novels for my author website as well.
I just got an Apple watch (love it) and I can talk right into my wrist like Maxwell Smart did all those years ago. (Remember Get Smart, the television show?)
When I was short of inspiration a deadline insured that I worked, inspired or not. The funny thing was that when I was obedient to the work, the inspiration usually followed.
I take my inspiration from Jesus Christ, Guru Gobind Singh, and the simple, decent people who, in the aftermath of the Lahore Easter bombing have borne themselves with grace and love, and have forsworn blind hatred and meaningless vengeance.
I lived in India for three years. This whole situation has been on my mind of late. I agree with you, 100%.
I’ve found that forgiving is the most difficult thing Jesus commanded us to do. When we can forgive those who act to destroy us, what a marvelous example to our enemies of the power of Jesus’s love! Our prayers are with our sisters and brothers suffering for their faith in our Lord Jesus.
Or Surpreet, you are walking a holy road by refusing to harbor hatred and thoughts of vengeance. I think of our Lord, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
It is hard to think of tragedy of those little children unless we picture Jesus gathering them in his arms and saying to the evil doers, “Let the little children come unto me. . .”
Movies always inspire me … I wrote an article based on a quote from the movie Tron–“I guess you could say I’m a rescue.” It was perfect. My daughter inspired my blog post for this week. On the way to church Easter Sunday, she was reading through the Gospels, comparing the Scripture … “Mom, why did the angel single out Peter?” The angel had told Mary to go tell the disciples AND PETER. I told her my opinion … and told her she’d sparked today’s blog post. 🙂 Yes, time alone, in the bath, shower, walk … I always come away with ideas. My setting around me doesn’t help much for writing … though I love soft music, but it’s where I go in my mind that helps. And I’m trying and learning to go deeper into my imaginary settings. 🙂
I call my beautiful bath tub the Think Tank. 🙂
I get my inspiration from those whose faith and commitment to Jesus as Lord is so deep they can embrace a faithful death when denial of their faith might save their earthly lives. They might be Christians dying in a Roman arena 1900 years ago or in the Arab world, Africa, or Pakistan today.
*God began inspiring me a little over two years ago to write romantic historicals about the real power of Jesus to transform spiritually lost, wounded people into saved, healthy ones and the role a faithful follower plays in helping that happen. For the main romantic characters, the ending is happy or at least emotionally satisfying, but the spiritual struggles in getting there are as important to the plots as the romance.
*As in real life, sometimes the faithfulness of some of the characters can cost them up to everything, but what is gained is worth infinitely more than what is lost. I hope I would also make the ultimate decision of faith if faced with the terminal option. In today’s world, any of us might someday face that choice.
That’s an inspiration indeed. Did you know that one of the only three books John Bunyan (Pilgrims Progress) owned was Foxes Book of Martyrs? So you are in good company.
I find inspiration in reading about people. The things people live with and through amazes me. I love sitting in a comfy chair with Earl Gray tea and allowing my imagination to combine real struggles with a fictional character.
Angela, cheers! I didn’t see your post until after I’d posted mine and I see we are kindred spirits with regards to tea. Earl Grey is wonderful!
Vitamin E-G!!! YES!
There should be a “like” button for your comment, Jennifer. 🙂 Cute.
Well, I must disagree here. Green or white tea is the tea of inspiration.
I remember a trip to Canyon de Chelly in 2013. Apparently I was too close to the edge.
Like I’m accident prone?
Ahem. Anyway…
I saw a crack in the canyon wall. Easily accessible, and definitely the size of a man.
BOOM. Story idea about a sniper who is forced into the job and lives to regret the day he was born. Will I write it? Not sure.
Friends of mine have a guest hogan (traditional Navajo home) that I’ve stayed in. Smack in the middle of a pinon forest. Talk about inspiring!
But to write? I need my spot at my dining room table. And total quiet. I can look out into our well treed backyard and go far away. And judging by how untidy my house is, I stay away a while. 😉
Since you’re still here, Jennifer, you obviously weren’t too close to the edge…just close enough. It’s not a good idea to take selfies at the rim of a canyon, but I suspect you already knew that.
You just inspired me with a possible thriller plot where a psychopath offers to take tourist pictures at the north rim of the Grand Canyon where there aren’t fences but keeps telling his photo subjects to step back a little more.
But what about the nest of diamondbacks in the crevice, Jennifer?
AHHHHHH!!
Thankfully, I was nowhere within striking range…
But because you mentioned them…I’ll be trolling ebay for Lychee tea.
The nest he accidentally straddles. I think of Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. I miss him.
I’m so relieved to hear that you can’t write to music, either! I read about other authors having a “soundtrack” for their books and wonder how they manage to write without being distracted. I thought it was just me. My inspirations are: Wendell Berry’s poetry, an open window, family stories, and LIFE. All the quirky things I see, hear, touch, and taste that just beg to go in a book.
Family stories– perfect inspiration. And life.
What a wonderful post, and the comments are so rich with ideas! For me it’s fresh air, being outdoors or near a window if possible, a candle burning or fire crackling in the woodstove, and quiet. I can write to instrumental music if I need to block out other noise around– and so I have a playlist of favorite soundtracks (like the 2009 adaption of Emma… what a storied instrumental soundtrack!). Like you, research plays a major role for me– a single nugget or revelation can take a plot on an entirely unexpected route. Oh, and the elixir of creativity and thought: tea, of course! 😉
Yes, tea! I had the very last cup I’ll ever have of the discontinued Amanzi Pomegranate Lychee green tea (a gift from a favorite client) on Sunday. It was a perfect day with the roses budding and the wisteria blooming– positively inspiring.
Reading, especially God’s Word, people, my dog, and 25+ years of teaching children are my inspiration. I have files filled with ideas for blogs, people’s names, inspiring thoughts and quotes, and I always have a favorite book on hand. Sometimes, when I’m stuck, I can read for a few minutes and suddenly a spiraling idea pops into my head. You know, the ones that seem to have nothing to do with what was printed on the page yet it propels me into a different thought pattern.
I also love words. Sometimes a single word can be what forces me to grab a pen and paper and write down what comes to mind. I love that.
Have you ever been stuck on a format decision and gotten inspired by how an author built his or her story? I used to outline books to see how they did it– totally inspiring.
Three years ago I moved to town after spending my whole life in the country where I lived on a farm. It was much easier for me to write, feel inspired, and exercise when I lived in the country.
Nature provides for me a creative ‘womb’ where I can let my words gestate and develop a life of their own. I also sense God’s loving presence when I surround myself with birds singing and blooms bursting and squirrels scampering…you get the picture.
Now I travel to nature, to get that sense of the divine awakening. It is a beautiful thing. Can you tell I miss country living? Yep.
Oh Norma, I can understand. Ten years ago we sold our almond ranch to move to town. I love our modern house but how I miss the country.
Wendy, I love the picture you included in this post. Getting up close and personal with creation inspires me spiritually and artistically. And when I photograph nature, I’m able to sip and savor the whole experience again in my home as if I’ve steeped a portion of the original experience.
Blessings ~ Wendy Mac
You know, I think photographers make great novelists. You know how to frame a “story” and how to see the important things. Plus you know when the micro will be most powerful and when we need to pull out with a macro lens.
A long walk and/or the shower! 🙂
And you do take long walks, Michelle. (Michelle lives in one of the most beautiful places ever– the Napa-Sonoma wine country of California.) Pure inspiration.
I wonder if one of the reasons we enjoy a bath or a shower so much in our “empty nest” days comes from all those years when we’d just get the water turned on and we’d hear little fists knocking on the door, “Mommy, when are you going to come out?”
I often get ideas just before falling asleep at night, or while doing things that only take a certain amount of attention like driving, walking my dog, or (confession coming) while listening to a sermon or lecture.
Yes, my sermon notes this last week included notes for my blog post. 🙂
Do you write them all down, Janet, or do you have one of those steel trap minds?
(It was sure fun to see you last week at Mount Hermon!)
In bed I keep a notepad nearby and scribble a few words in the dark. In church I might write a word or two on the bulletin. But when I’m driving I don’t try to record the ideas and often loose them.
Love this post Wendy, I see many common interests! I take tea at my writing desk as inspiration while working. It is a lifelong treasure my Nana introduced me to at the age of three. Away from the desk ~ I travel and this time of year is my favorite in the lush Amador county where I live. Drives and bicycle rides through the Shenandoah Valley where wineries prevail, but it is the rolling hills, mossy rocks and oak trees that beckon me. My Nikon is strapped across my shoulder wherever I wander. Lake Tahoe is my favorite autumn and summer place for inspiration that abounds endlessly. The dark and cold of winter is another story. Not my season. This is when music both comforts and re-ignites my senses. The soundtrack to Miss Potter takes me back to the English countryside where I lived early in my marriage. I wrote poetry almost daily then. I read other author’s books throughout all the seasons and relish the beautiful prose, usually with a cuppa tea.
I haven’t heard that soundtrack. (Wendy rushes to bookmark this in iTunes. . .)
Lake Tahoe is definitely your happy place, but I have to say it’s no prettier than where you live. Every time I look at photos of that gigantic brick deserted mansion in Ione, I’m inspired. What a setting!
God inspires me. He sometimes drops a little nugget in my mind through a sermon, a song or nature.
I always feel closer to God on the beach, but I also feel His presence in nature. I’d say nature and music are two powerful ways God inspires me.
Yes, nature. For sure. (You notice, Jackie, that no one mentioned dishes or taking out the garbage? I wonder why?)
Wendy,
While I haven’t written any books (as yet!) I do write devotionals. Nature provides a lot of inspiration for me, as well as writers such as C.S. Lewis. (One time I read The Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy, and instantly spiritual applications started jumping around in my head. I could hardly write them down fast enough! I thought I was strange, but a writer friend assured me I was not!)
*Oddly enough, stress provides inspiration. My day job (working in a supermarket) is stressful in many ways. To relieve frustration and tension, I write down ideas for a novel set in an outer space supermarket. I get my co-workers involved (and give them comic relief) when I ask for their ideas for it.
Interesting, Peggy. Stress. I’ve not ever thought of that as inspiration but the escape from stress could definitely be inspiring.
I can’t write to music either! Sometimes I can focus while listening to instrumental music, but anything vocal and I just want to sing. However, I am often inspired by song lyrics, especially if they remind me of God’s work and grace in my life.
Since a lot of my writing flows from personal experience, trips to my family cabin trigger story ideas. There is something about being in a place filled with memories! I also get inspired at writers conferences and while walking in pretty areas like Carmel.
Thanks for this fun post, Wendy!
I’m never tempted to sing– that would not be fair to anyone around me. 🙂
But I agree with you about writer’s conferences. Funny that no one mentioned fragrance, scent or smell as inspiration but as soon as I open my car door at Mount Hermon the air seems almost scented with creativity. Right?
For me, inspiration comes from a thousand directions: the colorful characters I have encountered in my lifetime; the rich, yet understated history of my area; sessions of brainstorming with writer friends; and definitely, prayer times with the Creator, the best source of creativity. For writing humor, my inspiration often comes from my own goofs and weaknesses. When I teach about writing humor, I always begin with the advice to “do stupid things.” I’ve never lacked for that kind of inspiration! As I write, I learn once again that I can laugh because God is God, and I am not.
A delightful posting, Wendy.
Inspiration from: water in motion, particularly when I have my camera at hand, as I look at things to really see them. Time alone (that can sometimes be in a crowd), particularly when I hear rain on a vaulted roof or as I walk thru falling snow or a thick fog–both of which enclose me in my own private world … Isaiah exalts me to God’s presence; the Psalms speak of where I am at any moment; the story of Elijah reminds me of my fragile faith and that God lifts anyone up.
I’m always inspired on road trips. I live in a small town in Texas, and we have to drive five hours or more to get to any major city. There’s just something about the flat land, the wide-open spaces, the fields of cotton and corn that turn into fields with cattle and goats that fuels my imagination for small-town settings.
(I’m also almost always inspired just as I close my eyes at night; that’s when the best line or scene decides to present itself.)
My church bulletins are typically covered in book idea notes! It seems to be during my own devotional hour and listening to Sunday morning service, God floods me with more exciting ideas than I often know what to do with!