Find the Writing Inspiration You Need to Reignite Your Muse With These 8 Tips

by Tammy Karasek @TickledPinkTam

Writers understand the torture from time to time when they are washed over by a lack of inspiration. We can have difficulties in finding spare time to sit and write with the schedule or happenings of our lives taking over most of our spare minutes. Even worse, when we’re in a busy season and do carve out time to sit down to our computer we have the angst of that blank screen and the nemesis of that taunting blinking cursor. 

It doesn’t matter what form of writing you are doing, you need to be refilling your writer’s tank with inspiration. I don’t know about you, but often my inspiration strikes at the most inopportune time—shower, driving, at a presentation—all situations you must be giving attention to and be in the moment. Yet, some golden ideas may have come upon us and we need to write them down. 

There could be another reason we lose our motivation or inspiration and that is we are doing the same ol’, same ol’. Maybe you sit in the same chair, at the same desk or the same table at the coffee shop “office” you regularly visit. Your writing muse becomes stale and your tank dries up. It may just be the time to change some things up a bit—to throw in a change once a week to get the inspiration rolling again. 

This brings me to the point that you may have to be a rebel and participate in your writing in different ways to help spur on the inspiration again. I’ve touched on the need to grab those ideas when they strike—but we’ll need to write them down. Also, our need to rattle the normal writing routine and wake up the delight by writing in a different location on occasion. We need to commit to taking hold of these two hinderances to bring back your efficient and effective writing time. 

Here's a list of four ideas to help keep track of those which drop into your mind when you’re NOT at a keyboard and to keep your tank full and running strong:

• 1. Use a Writer’s Notebook. This will become an invaluable resource for you. Whether you’re a digital junkie, a bullet journaler, or you love a good old spiral notebook, the point is to find a blank book that you will learn to keep with you everywhere you go. I suggest a small white board mounted just outside of your shower to capture those fabulous shower writing moments. Then transferred to your Writer’s Notebook after you’re dried off. 

• 2. Be a Keeper of Words. Have you ever heard someone use a new-to-you word and think, “I’ll use that in an article or blog post” then promptly forget the word thirty minutes later? Create a section in your Writer’s Notebook simply for words, names, quotes. You never know when those words will spur on an entire scene, article, or blog post. 

• 3. Write Flash Fiction or Nonfiction. Using the Words section of your notebook, when your tank is dipping and the inspiration is low, open the Words section and grab a word from your list. Then for thirty minutes, write about that word in some way. Whether you use it in a scene, a nonfiction article as help for someone, or an essay as to why someone should use that word more often—just take off and play with the word in some way. It’s an exercise, it won’t be published, so have fun with it. Then again, it might be good enough to use for something in your writing future.

• 4. Use Your Voice Memo Function. Most of us are cell phone users now, and with that, we have the voice memo or dictation capabilities easily accessible when driving. If you know your ideas come to you on the road because you are often in a car, make it a point to have the voice memo app open. Make it a habit to buckle in, set your GPS, then open up Voice Memo or Siri to be able to make a quick record on your phone. Then talk, ramble, dump the thought. It’s for you only, so talk away. Once home, add it to your Writer’s Notebook or your WIP (Work in Progress) if that’s what you were working with. Use those apps, they’re your friends!

Next are my four tips to change up your regular writing routine to wake up the inspiration muse:

• 1. Change Your Attitude. Instead of moaning and whining about not being able to think of anything to write about, instead pray for the attitude of gratitude. Be grateful you have the ability, talent and calling to share words that so many people need to hear. Words of our Savior, hope, and encouragement. Then get to doing that.

• 2. Change Your Location. As I mentioned above, move your writing spot. It doesn’t matter if you stay at home or leave the house, sit somewhere different. Always like the back corner at the coffee shop? Today, sit smack dab in the middle of it all. Or at the door and smile at everyone when they walk in—then promptly get out that Writer’s Notebook and write down some quirks and characteristics of how the people walked, smiled or didn’t, spoke to you or didn’t. At home, grab your laptop and sit on the porch, at the kitchen table or on the couch. Or pack up a water bottle, throw in a folding chair and go sit at a park bustling with people. You get the idea—go move your writing spot. 

• 3. Change Your Method. If your normal is to type fast and furious, pull out a pen and paper and write slow and methodical today. I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fountain pen collector and love writing with a different pen and especially a different color. I can also go sit almost anywhere and write—and observe the actions and conversations around me. We know we’re to write tight, but what about the next time you’re trying to get the inspiration going, write very descriptive, flowery sentences. Use all the words you want to, just because you can. I don’t recommend you bring this process to your current projects, it’s only to exercise the mind to see in full detail. 

• 4. Change Your Topic. So, you’re a devotional writer. What about writing a scene or two of a story you’ve thought about. We’re not going for an eighty-thousand manuscript, only a scene or two for fun. A fiction writer? Write a nonfiction chapter or two as a self-help for one of your characters. Write a poem. My point is to step outside of your normal writing and write something different. Don’t worry about the rules and techniques for this, you aren’t doing this for anything but to warm up those brain muscles. 

Though all of the above are exercises and practice to motivate and draw out the inspiration for you to write, you never know when something you wrote might be used somewhere in your writing. Nothing is lost, even if it gave you many ideas in the writing process itself for new projects. 

What about you? In your quest for your writer’s inspiration, have you found a tip or two that aids your limping inspiration to come alive and rejuvenate itself to make you eager to sit back down to your laptop and work? Please share below—let’s talk about it! 

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Find the Writing Inspiration You Need to Reignite Your Muse With These 8 Tips from @TickledPinkTam on @EdieMelson  (Click to Tweet)

Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, drives her passion to encourage and inspire others and give them The Reason to smile. She’s gone from down and defeated to living a “Tickled Pink” life as she believes there’s always a giggle wanting to come out! A writer of Romance—with a splash of sass. She’s also The Launch Team Geek helping authors launch their books and also a Virtual Assistant for several best-selling authors. Don't miss her recent book, LAUNCH THAT BOOK, just released in November. 

Her work was also published in a Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments. She’s also the Social Media Manager for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Founding President and current Vice-President of ACFW Upstate SC, and Founding President of Word Weavers Upstate SC. She’s a writing team member for The Write Conversation Blog, Novel Academy, MBT Monday Devotions, The Write Editing and more. Connect with Tammy at HTTPS://WWW.TAMMYKARASEK.COM.