Inspire Yourself to Write

Music

What is your theme song? Is it Moody’s Mood? Strawberry Fields? Al Green’s Love and Happiness?

Barbie has a theme song. Why shouldn’t you? Better yet, create your own soundtrack. The songs that make you happy, thoughtful or nostalgic. Create your own C.D with a special mix to get you going on those sluggish days.

Read

It doesn’t always help to read something by Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes reading a revered writer can make you feel small. That’s just too big of mountain to climb. Read someone accessible. Someone funny. There are writers out there who make you feel like they are patting you on the back. David Sedaris finds humor in everyday things-and in himself. Mary Roach makes you laugh and feel smart at the same time. Anne Lamott is spiritual without being self-righteous. Maya Angelou is like your grandma saying: “Baby,I’ve been there and it’s going to be okay” P.G Wodehouse- he’s just hilarious. Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You Will Go is one of the most inspiring books you will ever read.

Pick up some chick lit by Helen Fielding or a witty New Yorker essay and learn to enjoy the here and now.

Don’t Judge Yourself Too Harshly

Your Inner Critic is supposed to be a friend, but it often discourages you. If you criticize as you go, you will never finish anything.Give yourself freedom and leeway while you’re working. Editing will come later. It’s good to be able to identify your best work, but no piece should be judged before completion.

Surf the Internet

Stumble some cute animal pictures. Look up pics of handsome Hollywood actors (or girls in bikinis, whatever your preference). Go on Youtube and watch David Gregory dance with Mary J Blige. Sometimes a flagging spirit is the result of feeling like the world is against you.

Look at the parts of life that make you happy and know that this world includes you, too.

Watch A Little TV

Ever notice how stuff that’s supposed to rot your brain makes you happy? Television is not a vast wasteland- it’s a collection of human ideas and emotions. From Bear Grylls taking on the wilderness to the clever satire of Stephen Colbert, television expresses human emotions and desires. It will always give you something to write about.

Reward Yourself

Have you met your goal this week? Made a breakthorugh? Get yourself something nice. Maybe it’s a new hardcover novel. Maybe you’ll bake yourself a cake. Maybe go to lunch with the girls or dinner with your leading lady. Celebrate.

Review Your Successes

Your Triond article with the most hits, your article in the local magazine. A winning essay, the poem that made your teacher’s eyes well up- these are what you have . Enjoy them.

Write

Keep a notebook. Doesn’t have to be a “what I did today” kind of thing. It could be scraps of ideas. It could be an all-purpose idea and addresses book. It could be a fifty-cent spiral bound or a Moleskine, doesn’t matter. Write something everyday. Pay no attention to grammar spelling, style or anything in this journal: this is the primordial soup. This is the roux. This is what you make your poetry and prose out of. Later, you will have to polish and publish for the reader’s sake, but here is where you put the feelings on the page.