How to inspire and motivate yourself to write creatively

My passion has always been writing creatively since I was a little girl. I loved getting creative, writing my own stories for others to read and enjoy, over other hobbies that most children did. I would have rather spent my time reading to be inspired for my own writing. However, as I grew older, the opportunity to be creative and write stories slipped away from me.

Life became busier with schoolwork, college work, university work and now apprenticeship work. My winding down time became preferring to watch a tv programme. Reading and writing stories for myself dropped to barely anything, yet my dream goal has never faded: to become an author.

Recently, I have started to include reading and writing stories into my downtime so one day I can achieve my goal. I have created and sourced some tips to help others (as well as myself) with the same passion as me, to become inspired and motivate yourself to write more.

Read plenty

Reading more is the best way to start as books have the power to inspire you. Read all different kinds of books in your spare time to see the range and differences within genres. Reading a genre you have never seen before can lead to inspiration for writing. You may find you love writing that genre all from one book you have read!

If you know what genre you love to write, read books within that genre to gauge how you want your style of writing to be. Different books in the same genre can all be unique.

If you are like me, where you go through phases of reading and then not reading due to life getting busier, then research reading groups in your area. Joining a reading group could help motivate you to read in your spare time which will help with your motivation to write.

Brainstorm/mind map

Imagination can spark at any time from anything that has happened, or that you have seen during your day. When creative thoughts come jot them down in a list or mind map. These thoughts could be about setting, themes, characters, or something completely out of the blue. Build the thoughts up whenever they come and reflect on the notes. You will see that you have created parts of a story that you could try writing out.

This helps to formulate new ideas but also inspires to get writing again as what’s the harm in trying out a new idea?

Create fun writing exercises

When I get writers block, my cousin gets me to write about random things to make me start thinking creatively. She will set me one topic or object and it will get me in the mood to write which can lead into me writing parts of a story. I find it super useful, and it helped me with my English and Creative Writing degree too.

Set yourself random objects or reflect what’s happened in your day to try and create these fun writing exercises!

Think about the small details

Observe your every day and pick up on very small details. Something as tiny as the way you pick a cup up and place it down onto a table. This can help bring concrete imagery into your writing which makes a story interesting to a reader. Writing a paragraph of concrete imagery gets the ball rolling to expand into a storyline. It allows you to be motivated to want to write more.

Walk

A really great way to become inspired to write creatively is by taking a walk in your spare time. Go on walks as often as possible in different places to see different settings that can spark your imagination. Places like woodlands can inspire a magical setting for a story, the different trees and plants can give fantasy story ideas. For me, a forest walk inspired a story where there was a magical portal in an oak tree.

Also, whilst on walks sit down on a bench or at a café and observe people living their lives. People can spark ideas for a story and help with character building too.

Travel

Whenever you can, try and travel to other locations. This doesn’t have to be in another country you can just hop on a train to the next city over from where you live. Experiencing new places that you haven’t seen before creates motivation to write. Being out and about really starts the imagination again. Take a pad or use your phone to take some notes of your day out whether that’s an interesting building you saw or an interesting person.

I did this for university as I thought about writing a story set underground. To get a sense of what it would be like to live underground I travelled to some underground tunnels in my own time. This gave me ideas and motivation to write the story as I saw the setting and begun to understand what it was like underground.

Attend events

Research some events about writing in your area that you can join. There are plenty of writing workshops you can join to get you writing creatively, or there are speaking events with authors that can help bring the passion and willingness to write back.

Create small writing goals for every day

Give yourself a structured routine in your spare time by setting small writing goals to achieve. This could be write two sentences every day. You may find that you do more than your daily goal which is great as the goals have given you the motivation that is needed to write.

Doing this lets you build a story every day gradually as well as allowing writing to fit into the limited time we have due to the balance of work and rest.

Have a go at these tips and see if you can get writing again! Remember not to pressure yourself to do it and it’s okay to not write for a while. I am still learning this and trying to get my passion of writing back on track so I can achieve my dream career!

You can try these tips to help write something for work, yourself or just for fun! Even if you don’t like writing have a try as writing allows us to express ourselves freely with no judgement. Plus, it is an outlet for our creativity!

Ebony Feasey, Junior Content Producer Apprentice at Findel Education