What Inspires Me To Write?

Image by Brenda @ It's A Beautiful Life

" Don't forget—no one else sees the world the way you do,

so no one else can tell the stories you have to tell. "

CHARLES DE LINT

What inspires you to write? This was one of the questions a writing colleague posed to me in a short interview a couple of years ago. She required short responses for the article she was writing, but I found her questions opened a floodgate of musing that I wanted to explore further. I recently came across my notes with her questions and my responses and thought I should do something with them. How about a nice Friday post? So, today it is something a little out of the usual; I do hope you will enjoy.

" Poetry (writing) comes to me like breathing. I inhale and breathe

in the fragrances, flavors, emotions, sentiments, and feelings

of people and places and breathe out poetry (writing). "

AVIJEET DAS 

Image by Brenda @ It's A Beautiful World

1. What is your main source of inspiration for your writing?

In a word, it is Beauty, in all its many forms: beauty in the natural created world, beauty in the creative handiwork of people, and beauty in the simple pleasures and details of every day life. I am always on the look out for what I term glimpses of heaven in unexpected places. These gifts make me feel alive. They make me sing. And they fuel my desire to write.

The beauty of the natural world - I often think of Vincent Van Gogh and how he once sat looking out his window at a 'watery twilight, a thin lamp post, a star', and how he suddenly longed to share it with his brother, so he sketched it in a letter he was writing at the time. I look at the natural world around me and marvel at all that is beautiful in it. Like the artist, I have a longing to share what I see and experience. I want to show you so we can delight and marvel together at what is around us.

The creative handiwork of other people - Whether it's poetry, beautiful prose, music (playing, singing or composing), art, crafts and needlework, architecture, photography, landscape and garden design, I get more creative in my own work when I soak in the artistic beauty of others. Certain turns of phrases, unusual words, fresh ideas, photos set in ways I had not considered before – these set my imagination on fire. My beauty loving friend, Sandra, said yesterday on her Facebook, 'You never know whose heart you might be inspiring'. How true.

The beauty in the details of our ordinary lives - I am always on the lookout for what makes life beautiful for me in the smallest details of everyday life. Even something as small as watching the lace curtain catch the summer breeze at an open window—this billowing beauty catches my breath and sends my fingers scurrying to the keyboard.

Image by Brenda @ It's A Beautiful Life

2. What is your key to inspiration?

Definitely quiet time and solitude to be alone with my own thoughts. I need that quiet space to let my thoughts drift and wander. To think about what I really want to say about a certain subject. It takes time alone to get to the nub of things.

I spend time being quiet to read my Bible and other inspirational books, to meditate and listen for the still small voice of Jesus speaking in my heart. Many years ago, I used to always ask the Lord what He wanted me to say. And then one day He started turning the question back to me: What's in your heart, what do you want to say? At first I was upset about this, because I'd always been taught in the tradition that we lay down our lives and let him live through us. But he began to show me that He wanted me to grow and develop and the way to do that was through being allowed to think and create and dream what my heart desired. So He and I work in tandem now. Sometimes there are things He wants me to say, and I'll feel those times gently or strongly as the need may be. Other times, I just run with what's beating inside my own heart and mind. And, sometimes I don't know what to say, and He's there to help me with that too.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

3. What places do you turn to for inspiration that always works?

٭My favourite coffee shop that's alive with conversations, clattering cups, the fragrance of coffee hanging in the air, people reading books and writing in their notebooks or keyboards. There is a cheerfulness to the place that lifts me up. Hopefully one day soon we can return to that environment.

٭Spending a couple of hours at the library with a notebook and pen or my iPad (depending if I want to hand write or type). Surrounded by books and patrons (in the pre-Covid days), I feel excited to sink my teeth into getting something written. 

٭Taking a morning or evening walk that leads to the pond where I can sit a moment and let the peacefulness wash over me.

٭Sitting at my desk in my study. I love being surrounded by my pens, paper, and inspiring books, looking out the windows that overlooks my back garden filled with trees and flowers. This is probably my favourite spot in our house any season of the year. My desk is here, my books are here, my window to the world is here, my computer is here—I am in my happy place.

٭Browsing through my collection of beautiful and creative magazines that are filled with wonderful photography, artwork, catchy titles, and fascinating quotes in the sidebars. Magazines like Victoria, The English Home, Fine Gardening, Romantic Homes, Country Home, and La Vie Claire. Although I'm not a quilter or a painter or woodworker, I will browse magazines from other genres, because inspiration crosses over.

٭Going to a museum or art gallery. I marvel at how creative people really are, and my own inspiration levels rise exponentially. I want to go and do likewise.

Image by Brenda @ It's A Beautiful Life

4. Have you ever paired random words or other ‘odd’ methods for inspiration?

I guess one thing that might be a little odd is that I will often imagine my favourite authors in their studios working on a project. I do like learning about how writers work and what their creative spaces are like.* I feel a creative kinship in that, and I also feel a certain delight. For, even if time, distance and not knowing each other personally separates us, there is still a sense of being in this together, creating something we hope readers will enjoy. 

Years ago, when I first started thinking about writing, L.M. Montgomery was my mentor. I used to imagine her sitting and working away on the Anne stories. Of course, I think I used to mix up the description of LMM's room with Anne's imaginary one. Regardless, I was pumped to write.

I once downloaded a photo for my desktop of Jan Karon (the Mitford series) sitting in her writing studio. Every time I opened my computer, there she was smiling at me from her desk. I found that inspired me to keep faith in my own writing space.

Then, there was the time I found a photo of Alexander McCall Smith's comfy-looking writing studio in his Scottish home, his writing desk next to a large window overlooking the water. I could have moved into that room. I met this author, well known for his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, when he visited Edmonton a few years ago. It was easy to imagine this gentle writer working on his next novel in that lovely room.

Let me wrap up this question with one more favourite. I don't know how many times I have imagined Susan Branch getting up early every morning to work in her lovely art studio. Once in a very rare while, we both end up having a tiny chat on Twitter because we're both up at the same time (for her it's early, for me it's really early). She tells her girlfriends that she makes tea and pets Jack the kitty before she gets down to business. I do neither, as I prefer coffee in the mornings when Rick gets up, and we no longer have kitties (sad). But I imagine two creative women living on opposite ends of the continent, in different countries, each working in her own studio, each trying to make the world a more beautiful place with her creative work. It makes me feel connected and alive with possibilities.

*You might want to take a look at this interesting book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. It was my creative sister Kathy who told me about it. 

Image by Brenda @ It's A Beautiful Life

" We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb

mountains or swim the oceans - because we can. We have

some impulse within us that makes us want to

explain ourselves to other human beings. "

MAYA ANGELOU

* * *

Wishing you a beautiful day and a safe weekend.

Heart Hugs,

Brenda

xox

♥

 Other posts where I share more about my writing:

Beautiful Words in Troubled Times

My Joy in Writing