When starting a new novel, I’m always looking for ways to supercharge my muse. Here are a few places I turn to when I’m searching for inspiration for intriguing characters, evocative settings, twisty plot ideas, and those little details that turn a book from a generic muddle into something special.
- Museums and art galleries. I’m a visual person, so I’m revitalized by colors, shapes and textures that take me to places I’ve never been and make me feel things I haven’t felt. I love going to a museum and delving into a great exhibit on another culture or another time. A recent exhibit on Finnish design at San Diego’s Mingei Museum got my head filled with fantastic names, intricate patterns, and brilliant uses for technology.
- Conventions and Writers Conferences. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, once said that Comic-Con was the inspiration for his show due to the sheer creativity on display. I certainly find conventions to be wildly inspiring. Just being with so many creators and hearing about what they’re doing sparks ideas. I love going to conventions like Comic-Con, RWA National, and San Diego’s local science fiction convention, Condor, where I’ll be a guest speaker this weekend. I get the same charge from our local RWA meeting and the fabulous guest speakers we have every month. I always come away with more than one idea for a story.
- Pinterest. Devoted to pinning images on boards to make collage-like collections, this addictive social media network is a never-ending stream of delicious inspiration. My Pinterest friends post fantastic pictures of faraway places, yummy images of fantastic meals, and gorgeous pics of fascinating people I’d love to use as models for characters. I can assemble any pictures I like onto boards. I love Pinterest so much I have to limit my time using it. If you want to join Pinterest and don’t have a membership yet, put out a request on Twitter or Facebook and someone will most likely send you an invitation.
- A Walk in the Park. I live across from Balboa Park in San Diego, one of the most beautiful nature preserves I know. I go walking there almost every day. Nature never ceases to inspire me — from the crows fighting for scraps picnickers have left, to the eucalyptus trees shading the wide lawns, to the sunlight streaming through the Museum of Man tower. The people in the park are characters waiting to be born too — from the man in the business suit hiking through the canyon (why? where is he hiking to?) to the guy in a red polo shirt guarding the line of black SUVs parked along Balboa Dr. My mind spirals with ideas of who these people are and what they’re doing… and stories are born.
What inspires you?
Reading is a great inspiration for me. I read tons of non-fiction history and I am always getting ideas from things I read. I love museums too. When I used to work across the street from LACMA I bought a membership and would sit in the galleries and write during my lunch hour.
Music is one that gets me. A few years ago a friend got me hooked on movie trailers- not the ones from actual movies, but ones put out by movie trailer companies (groups?) Trailerhead is one. Other than that I ditto all the things you listed!
Great blog!
Georgie, I love reading and non-fiction is huge inspiration for me too. Magazines as well as books – I have a toddler-sized stack of magazines I can’t bear to part with in my living room. I’d better get rid of them before they reach hoarder level! And I envy you having worked across from LACMA – thinking of visiting there in a few weeks. I love them!
My children are usually my greatest inspiration. The things they can think of and say or do is the neverending pool of ideas. All I have to do is listen to my eight-year-old talk about his day at school and something is bound to pop in my head to add to my characters. And also, I like to observe people anywhere I go. At the shopping mall, on the street and those I came across during the course of my day. I seem to notice the smallest thing about them, maybe some things they don’t know about themselves.
And of course, there’s always music, the movies, the books etc.
Marie, music is a wonderful inspiration. Not sure what you mean by trailers put out by other people – do you mean fan-made trailers? I guess I will google Trailerhead and figure it out!
Zrinka, what a great inspiration children are! I don’t have my own, but I love to listen to my friends’ kids talk. A never-ending source of ideas!
Oh, definitely music for me! My last book started from just the title of a song, and it lit my literary fires. And I’ve spawned about half a dozen ideas from documentaries and reality shows on tv. It’s amazing where lightning can strike from, isn’t it?
When I first started writing and heard about these successful authors who turn out three, four, five or even more books each year (*cough, cough–Maya Banks–cough*), I wondered how on earth they could produce so many ideas. Now I’ve discovered my fountain never cuts out. For every book I write, five or six more are born in the back of my mind, and I itch to get cracking on them. Maybe that’s why I write so fast–because I’m eager to get to the next one
I love that you find inspiration in visual forms, from art to people-watching. Come to think of it, that’s a great way to generate ideas. A lot of people use a simple picture as a story prompt to get going when they’re having writer’s block.
I’m with Marie about the music. I’m a non-visual person, but I can’t really get going on a new story until I’ve created a soundtrack for it. As for ideas for new books or characters, I religiously read the travel sections of multiple newspapers ever week. I love setting my stories in unique places and the travel section is chock full of them.
If I need inspiration because I’m stumped on a plot point, the best thing for me is to do something mindless and silent, like take a shower or a walk, or go on a long drive.
Great post, Janet!
You make a great point, Angela – the more you write, the more ideas pop up! I find the same thing to be true for me. The more take my Muse out for a bit of exercise, so to speak, the more she speaks to me. If I take a “writing vacation” the ideas don’t flow so fast anymore. Good reason in my view to keep on writing!
Some of my best ideas come in the shower too, Melissa. Maybe its the water or something. But I have more breakthroughs in the shower than anywhere else. Walks come a close second. Haven’t tried a long drive – have to keep that idea in reserve for the next time I am stumped. Thanks for stopping by!
Great blog Janet!!!
I get really inspired to write from our RWA meetings too!!! Also reading and music definitely inspires me with ideas…
Before I start a new book I have to set up the playlist, and as I write the playlist often gets reorganized and occasionally changed a bit as the story evolves…
Fun stuff!
Lisa
Hi, Janet! I love writer’s conferences, too. And Pinterest…hmmm…I’ve been trying not to get started on another site that may take up time, but it would be really cool to post some of the pictures that have inspired my book worlds. Maybe I’ll do that.
Great topic Janet! As a newbie, I’m still surprised where my ideas come from. I’m not so different than anyone above. Music, walking, writing…I’ll add dreams and the lack of Jewish heroines in the books I’ve read. Oh, and other writers! At the RWASD meeting, a suggestion made by a published author inspired four new characters and a new direction for my series.