Real Words

Are you feeling uninspired as a writer right now? Do you need to do something to jumpstart that free-flowing spill of words onto the page?

Here’s a list of fifteen different tasks that you could do immediately to inspire your writing today:

1. Grab a headline from the news. Go to your favorite news site, pick a headline and start writing about whatever it makes you think about.
2. Go for a short walk. Walking gets our bodies moving and also makes our brains start working better. Many great pieces of writing began as thoughts on a walk.
3. Read a poem or short story. Reading a piece of writing that we wish we’d written ourselves is a great way to get inspired to do more writing.
4. Send an email to a friend about what you are working on. We often present our projects in a flattering light to others which can inspire us to actually work on them some more.
5. Grab your camera. Spend twenty minutes shooting digital photos of whatever things around you are interesting right now. Even the dishes in the sink can look interesting in the right light. This non-writing burst of creativity can inspire your writing.
6. Take a shower. If you haven’t showered yet today, go do that. The shower is a great place for developing random thoughts.
7. Write some affirmations. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that it’s okay if what we write today isn’t perfect. Sit down and write ten times, “what I write today is enough” or “I am filled with creative potential” or any of the other mantras for writers that exist.
8. Write a blog post. If you’re a blogger then you may want to add a short fun post to your blog today. Make it stream-of-consciousness, different from what you usually write and just fun. You should get some interesting responses that may inspire you.
9. Color. Get out a box of crayons or colored pencils and spend ten minutes just coloring a page. Then look at your page and write the first ten words that come to mind. What does it make you want to write next?
10. Do one task mindfully. Mindfulness is the focus of our full attention on the task at hand. Make your bed with a focus solely on the feel of the sheets and the smell of the room. This clears the mind of all of its clutter which means that you’ll be able to write better today.
11. Write a letter. Handwritten letters are some of the most creative things that people write but we rarely do it anymore.
12. Listen to music that you love. A little bit of music goes a long way towards making your creative juices flow.
13. Ask for inspiration on forums or social networking sites. Just post to your Facebook that you’re seeking suggestions on what to write about today. People will respond and you may find yourself inspired.
14. Make a date with yourself for later this week. It’s important to take time to go on dates with ourselves that are all about being fun and silly. You might not be able to take one today but you can set a date to do that and it may make you feel better.
15. Brainstorm a list of things that you could do today to feel more inspired. What else could you do right now to inspire your writing?

I am one of those writers who has a difficult time taking my own writing seriously. Sure, I know that I’m good at specific types of writing. But they aren’t the types of writing that my internal censor says are “important” types of writing. As such, I have a tendency to dismiss my own writing work. What comes too easily to us is easy to diminish. This is something that I am actively working on changing as I believe that it is important for all writers to see the value in their own work so that they can continue to contribute positively to the body of writing that is out there in the world.

When I think of how I wanted to be a writer as a kid, when I muse upon those things that I wanted to write when I was young, it is always fiction novels that come to mind. And it’s not just any novels - I wanted to write the kind of novels that were filled with philosophical ideas, novels of the nature of those that made an impact on my own life. I wanted to write the next The Fountainhead, the next Identity …

But the truth of the matter is that fiction writing does not come naturally to me. And the kind of powerful details that I swoon over when reading them in other people’s writing feel forced and dull and  … well, like work … when I try to put them into my own creative writing. But I continue trying to find a voice for myself in fiction because it would feel as if I’d really accomplished something with my writing if I achieved that.

And I think that’s a mistake. Perhaps not a complete mistake. I do enjoy working on my fiction pieces in a weird kind of way. I really like the challenge of the work. I feel like I really stretch myself in new ways when I make the effort to expand my abilities with creative writing. I think that there is value in this process and maybe there will one day be value in a finished product that comes out of it.

But I am learning to find value in the types of writing that also come more easily to me. I am a highly prolific blog writer and article writer. I can tackle most topics with ease, enjoy researching them and find it fascinating to put information together into a concise article. I am a decent book-length non-fiction writer. I am fairly well organized and I can cull information from various sources and the work comes out complete. I often dismiss these talents in discussions about my writing because they come too naturally and therefore don’t seem enough like “work” to be of real value. But I think this is a myth. And I am trying to stop believing in it.