How (And Why) To Keep Looking for Inspiration in an Uninspired Year

In times like this, finding the desire to write can be hard, and sometimes finding the inspiration to be creative can feel like a Herculean task. Here are 3 ways that NaNo Participant Sabrina Howard  assures can help inspire you to write your next adventure.

Scarcity is weighing heavily on people around the world, from lack of clean water, food, and natural resources to—in a more abstract sense—inspiration. Perhaps this year especially you’ve struggled to find inspiration in a world that seems to have lost its magic. What can you do when inspiration is hard to find?

In the words of Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Life, uh, finds a way.” I wish I could give you a secret, a trick, a backdoor. But the truth is when things are hard to find, we grit our teeth and we look harder. Writers, too, must find a way.

Here are three different ways you can deepen your search for inspiration—in the familiar, the unfamiliar, and even the nonexistent:

1. Look in Familiar Places

Start with the familiar places. If, like me, you often find inspiration in music, start there. Jump down the YouTube rabbit hole or scour Spotify, Pandora, or local radio frequencies for new favorites. Search long enough, and you’re bound to hit on something. Likewise, if you’re usually inspired by the works of other authors, read an old favorite, take a look at your TBR pile, head to your local library, or surf the web for quality content.

2. Explore the Unfamiliar

On the other hand, maybe what you need is a blast of something fresh. Try venturing outside your well-worn pathways. What does this mean? Read a book you normally wouldn’t. Listen to an artist you’ve never heard before. Go on a walk or run along a path different from your usual route. Try new foods. Learn a  new dance. These unfamiliar experiences will provide new inputs to your creative process, and will hopefully spark equally unexpected ideas.

3. Look for What Isn’t There

Lastly, if you can’t find inspiration in the things around you, try focusing not on what’s there, but on what isn’t. Maybe you’ve been stuck staring at the same four walls for a few months now. (Trust me, you aren’t the only one.) You know every item around you. The ivy on the windowsill, the Space Needle magnet on the fridge, the string lights you hung in your bedroom to make the space cozier. But what if you had twenty plants crammed together on the windowsill, luscious leaves spilling over terra cotta pots and onto the floor. What kind of character would have a windowsill like that? A hobby botanist searching for undiscovered plants in the Amazon? A space captain who misses the greenery of Earth? Maybe it’s a hardened detective with a roommate who runs a community garden non-profit. Try changing your surroundings in your head, then asking questions about those new surroundings. You might find inspiration out of empty space.

Whichever way you decide to look, just keep looking. They say necessity is the mother of invention. Let the need for story carry you through the month of November and beyond. Because if there’s a time for magic, it’s now. If there’s a time for new worlds and unexplored galaxies, it’s now. If there’s a time for stories that comfort, that intrigue, that thrill, that inspire—it’s now.

We need the power of story more than ever before. Writers, grab your notebook. Open your laptop. Pull up an app on your phone. Scrawl on the corners of napkins if you have to. Find inspiration anywhere and everywhere. It’s time.

Go. Write.

We need you.

Sabrina Howard is currently based in scenic Idaho and spends her time reading, writing, and planning future trips, all while drinking tea. She runs the blog The Projectionist, where she writes about culture and environment around the world. You can find her on Instagram @sabrina.things, or on Twitter @sabrina_how.

Photo licensed through Creative Commons on Flickr by PhotoSteve101.