Inspiration

Whatever your art, I'll bet you all the money in my bank account (all twenty dollars of it) that you have some sort of inspiration, quite possibly from the other arts. If you're a musician, do you look at paintings for ideas? If you paint or draw, do you read stories for inspiration? If you write, do you listen to music? Do you people watch? Go for long walks and let your mind wander? Clean the house? Or does inspiration just strike you like a lightning bolt (you lucky, lucky people)?

I've done all of the above for inspiration in my writing. And, on occasion, for my doodles. But, mostly, for my stories. Prompts, photos, paintings, walks, music; it's all inspiring if you pay attention. For instance, I was listening to an updated, rock version of "The Minstrel Boy," the other day and bam! Story idea! (Does it say anything about my geek side that I chose to share the version of the song sung by O'Brien in Star Trek: Next Generation? No? Oh, good.) And at just the right time, too.

Last night I finally finished the rewrite I've spent almost a year on. I know there are still some things that need tweaking (aren't there always?), but the major edits should be done. Hopefully. We'll see how it goes when I start querying again.

But that wasn't the topic of this post! Inspiration was. And how inspiration strikes right when we need it the most. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything interesting, whether it's something as small as a character tic you want to work in, or something as huge as an entire plot. There's creative fodder all around us; you just have to look for it.