I’m starting the third read through of Enchanted, which naturally brings to mind the writing tips and tricks that I follow. But today I don’t want to talk about story structure and grammar, I want to talk about inspiration. Inspiration is everywhere, because of that it’s easy to drown it out and focus on every day life. If you want to be a great writer is to wake up and experience everything.
Most authors write about things they haven’t experienced, I’m no exception. I haven’t cleaned the den of a dragon, time traveled to the Dark Ages, or attended a royal ball. However, I took an archery class which helped a lot with writing Robyn Hood, I observed my college’s fencing club years ago which made my research for King Arthur and Her Knights easier, I’ve trail ridden horses through different country sides–giving me a feel for accurately describing nature, I try to cook and eat lots of different foods, one time I even walked around blindfolded so I could accurately describe a character who has been temporarily blinded.
Try to expand your cultural horizons, go to museums, listen to music you don’t normally listen to, try new foods, go to a fabric store and touch the different fabrics. When you’re writing it’s important to engage and stimulate all of your senses, you never know when you will use it in a future story. In my opinion the weirder the experience the better!
It’s true that you can write about what you don’t know, and it can be a fantastic story. But if you include past experiences–which let you add vivid details–your stories will pop and the ideas will flow. Most importantly, new experiences are your best weapon against writers block as they are catalysts for inspiration. They can even given inspiration to you in a future story–when I observed the fencing club King Arthur and Her Knights wasn’t even an idea in my brain, when I started writing Enthroned I was so thankful I did that!!
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