Collecting Inspiration

When you’re doing anything creative, there are thousands of places from which you can draw your inspiration. As a writer, I usually pull from my own life and experiences. Mostly from my family, because they’re all nuts. I mean legitimately crazy. There’s enough material there to keep me in books for the rest of my life

You can find inspiration from all around,
if you look at it in the right way.

But that’s the way with all creative pursuits, not just writing. You can find inspiration from all around, if you look at it in the right way. All you need to do is to adjust your perspective – shift your focus – so that everything becomes something you can use to feed your craft. Not only people and relationships, but tangible things in your environment. A leaf, a scrap of paper, a snippet of conversation, the sound the rain makes, all these things can be part of your work. All it takes is being mindful of your surroundings, to be intentionally aware of where you are and what you are sensing. And it doesn’t matter what your work is – that’s the beauty of it. Everything that is absorbed through your senses can be used in your passion.

Everything that is absorbed through your senses can be used in your passion.

It’s important to always carry a notebook or sketchbook with you, to collect the bits of sensory input you have throughout the day. So you can be prepared when that great bit hits you and leads you to your next creative inspiration.

Art is an amalgamation of the different things that the artist has experienced and the media they’ve consumed, expressed in their own unique voice. To create your art, you have to go out and collect your own experiences, your own inspiration, consume your own brand of media, find your own voice. All these things take time and commitment to a creative passion, and the ability to find inspiration in just about anything.