What Inspires Your Writing? Something in Real Life?

All writers become a little insecure when they are not inspired to write. What can drag you out of a dismal writing funk?

Perhaps something you never considered. Perhaps your local newspaper. Or perhaps even your college alumni magazine.

Usually I give my magazine from the University of Mary Washington a casual glance through, then I cast it away. Yesterday, for some reason, I picked up the summer edition and took it with me to read in the car. (No. I wasn't driving.) Two stories grabbed my attention. One was about a doctor who didn't take up medicine until she was almost 50 years old. When she wasn't accepted to a medical school in the states, she decided to take her two youngest children and go to Dominica to study medicine at a college there. What a story and what an adventure! It could surely inspire a book. Perhaps two or three, if you consider a story from a child's point of view.

The other article that excited me was about a woman whose husband had begun building a wood-burning kiln in their yard. He died before the kiln was finished, and she wanted to complete it in his memory. Building that kiln and firing work in it became an art project for one of the college art classes. I can imagine a story built around one of the young artists who took part in the project. There are many other possibilities as well.

Ideas can find you when you least expect them. Grab hold of them; jot them down; let them inspire you now and later.

Where do you go when inspiration deserts you? What sources do you suggest?

Thanks to the co-hosts for Insecure Writer's Support Group this month - Alex Cavanaugh,  M. Pax, Karen Walker, and Melissa Maygrove.

     Saturday, August 10, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., I will participate in the Hanover Book Festival at Liberty Christian School in Mechanicsville, Virginia. My workshop will be "The Writer's Life – Using Personal Experiences in Crafting Your Book."