10 Tips to Inspire You to Write Creatively

1.       Images are helpful. If I am struggling to write a poem or story I find that looking at images helps me to get ideas. I am a very visual person; I love art, bright colour and light. Sometimes I go to Google images and think of a topic, say ‘pirates’ then see what pictures there are available. I usually look at the fantasy art ones rather than photographs, because they have something rather mysterious and magical about them. I will then set the picture as my screen saver for a couple of days and sometimes it brings ideas to me.

2.       Listening to music, especially classical helps me to get creative. I like to listen to Tchaikovsky or jazz, something without words as these can be distracting.

3.       Exercise: Sometimes cycling through town or going for a walk can bring up lines of poetry, I think I have lost some by not writing them down, so best to carry a notebook.

4.       Dreams Thinking back to a dream I had can be a good topic for a poem sometimes. A dream was the inspiration for my poem ‘The Reaper’

5.       Intertextuality of novels, myths and legends etc – Sometimes I will write a poem inspired by a novel I have read or by a mythological creature. ‘Avarice’ was inspired by C.S Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and ‘Werewolf’ and ‘Siren’ take a look at mythological beings. Werewolf added a dark twist to a fairytale too.

6.       Relationships and friendships, people’s psychology are always a good source of material. Love, hate, marriage, break-ups etc.

7.       World issues such as natural/manmade disasters are inspiring and I like to also write poems with a message about what is going on in the world e.g. ‘All the Pretty Butterflies’ and ‘Oil Slick’ were about greed and raping the ecosystem.

8.       Nature I love looking at flowers, birds and butterflies and seeing if there is a poem in there. ‘Skylark Love song was written in the New Forest.

9.       Humour, a funny situation is great for a poem or story. I love reading other writers on Triond that make me laugh.

10.   Tragedy such as an accident, death and so on can spark a poem. It is also quite helpful for the writer to get their emotions down on the page, and poetry is a good way of expressing how you feel.