Just A Girl & Her Tunes.

How do we as writers find the inspiration to write and then maintain that inspiration to keep writing at a regular pace? I'm sure for everyone it is different. I'm not the type of person that can just sit down on the fly and crank out a multi-page blog on any given topic or fifteen thousand words on my current project.

For me, I have to be driven by something. Propelled into the all-seeing void that is creativity and given a push to find that tether that keeps me wanting to write. For me, that tether is emotion. Any emotion really. Sadness, happiness, excitement, sorrow, fear, love, and compassion are all driving factors behind a lot of the things that I have written. Now, whether that emotion is sparked by an encounter, a song, or even a television show something that is not planned or predicted. I found myself watching the music video of Dancing With The Devil by Demi Lovato and immediately had to pick up something to either write in or on. I was just filled with emotion and needed writing to provide that outlet for expression.

Today, I was listening to a really good playlist of music that I love as I drove through the countryside with my girls. The sun's rays shined in through the branches of the old oak trees while casting a canopy over the two-lane road as we blazed our way to volleyball camp. Nothing on our minds but the mix of Whitney Houston, Justin Champagne, and Fifth Harmony to lift our souls. It is in these times of euphoria that I find my creativity begins to churn. Characters who feel their story needs to be told just seem to find me there...

I was thinking about a young woman who had just suffered a great loss, moving to a small town to start over when she happens upon a pair of boots in a shop window. What a statement piece to strap on feet that have taken you so far away from what you know to begin a new life. The wind blows in her hair as she has the top of her old thunderbird convertible, drowning out her worries with the help of Master P and Ice Cube. She looks over at the new pair of boots in her passenger seat and wonders just how far they will take her in this new town.

So, back to the question of how do we find our inspiration to write. It's simple ... just let go and it will come to you. Don't try too hard by unconsciously placing yourself into a box filled to the brim with requirements and chained closed by deadlines. Come back to a place where you find solace, where you find that driving force that propels you and just let it free. Believe me, the inspiration will find you before you find it.