My Adventures in Writing: Inspirations

They say inspiration is everywhere and for me that is true. Here are just a few of the things that really get my imagination going.

Music

I find inspiration in songs because often they tell a tiny snippet of a larger story. Listening to music, I just start to fill in the gaps, imagining the before and after the moment of the song. I also like songs that tell a more complete story. One that I'm really intrigued about is Taylor Swift's The Moment I Knew.

Films

I suppose in some ways, films and books inspire me in the same way. It's about the stories. By watching films, despite them being fiction, I learn about situations that I haven't experienced first (or second) hand, but could be interesting to explore. In a similar way, I meet characters with personality traits that hadn't ever crossed my mind.

Books

While books offer stories and characters, they also offer something more than films: the words. My love for words means that not only do I find inspiration when they are perfectly strung together into a novel length story, I am sometimes inspired simply by one word and it's definition. I've written a short story before simply because I wanted to write about wanderlust. I think wanderlust is one of my favourite words in the world.

People Watching

I find people watching to be a great way to get my imagination going. We often don't think about how the strangers that are background characters in our own stories have lives on their own; lives in which we play the background part. I like to imagine the lives that other people lead.

Photos

I like scrolling through sites like Pinterest and Tumblr. If I see a photo I like, I'm instantly thinking about why I like it, and often it's because I can see a story in it.

So, there it is. Inspiration is everywhere. It's a common thread through all artistic and creative outlets; creativity feeds creativity. Where does everyone else find their inspiration?

My Adventures in Writing: Mary Kole

One of the most infuriating things about writing an essay on a subject you know, is not being able to say things without referencing them. Even if you know it's a fact, you have to find somewhere official that states it. Even worse than that is having your own opinion on the subject but unless someone else has already had the same thought, you can't say it.

When I was writing an essay about relationships in YA, my tutor recommended Mary Kole's Writing Irresistible Kidlit. I flicked through it, looking for quotes to back myself up, and I found them. In abundance. And not just quotes to back me up, quotes that stated perfectly things that I already knew just from reading and writing YA.

Mary Kole has such great insights into how young people feel and what they want to read about. So many of the pages I marked were because she managed to sum up everything I've ever felt about my teenage years and YA books. 

As an aspiring writer, there's some invaluable advice, ranging from things as simple as word-count to the tricky business of writing a novel that young readers will believe in.

I haven't managed to read it cover to cover yet, but I'm excited to. More than that, I'm excited to apply her ideas to my own writing and see where it takes me. 

My Adventures in Writing: How I Write Best

“What is your writing routine?” and other similar questions are often asked of authors. And a lot of the time they have a definitive answer; a place they write, a time, things that they need on the desk to do it. As an aspiring writer I sometimes feel like I need to develop my own routine. As I am now, it’s an, ‘I write when I write’ kind of situation. There are a few things I’ve noticed that get me writing more than my when-it-happens-it-happens outlook.

My Adventures in Writing: Things I've Learnt at University

Deciding to study creative writing is probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. After years of plodding through school and college not knowing what I wanted to do, or even being sure what it was that I was really good at, finally arriving at that decision was a huge relief. Since starting, my belief in myself as a writer has gone from strength to strength. Below is a list of the most important things I've learnt since being at university.

My Adventures in Writing: Sarah Dessen

My love for Sarah Dessen will never falter. I will always be waiting for her next book. And, if a day comes when my writing is as inspiring as hers, it will be a dream come true. 

I've read all her books (bar one, I think), some of them multiple times.

My absolute favourite thing about Sarah's books starts with the way they all occur in the same few locations. Colby, for example, is a seaside town that will stay with me forever. Every book builds more of it in my mind. Even sitting here, writing about it now, I can see it: the shops, and the houses, and the beach, and the boardwalk. There are a few different schools, and different towns, but there's always at least one location that's been mentioned in another book.

Which leads me nicely to my absolute, absolute, favourite thing. I'll be sat there reading the newest book, and suddenly, subtly, there's a cameo from the main character of a previous book. There are so many reasons why I love this.

My Adventures in Writing: NEW SERIES

I've been toying with a series of writing posts for a while now, but I didn't know quite where to start. The logical thing to do would be to use the series as a journal, dedicated to documenting my journey as I attempt to write a novel. However, being over 40,000 words into my novel already, that just doesn't work. 

Today has been a good day. I've just been given my mark for my creative portfolio (which consisted of three short pieces – middle grade, clean teen, and YA) which gave me 45% of my overall grade for my Writing for Young People module. I got a first. Add that to the first I got for my essay (on love, family and friendship in YA fiction) in the same module, plus the first in attendance and participation, I've only gone and earned myself a first in that whole module. Something that I am incredibly proud and happy about. 

I've been telling my friends about just why this has made me so happy. It's not because I set high expectations for myself and love it when I actually achieve them. It's because, when you do well in something that you have little or no passion for it's good, it's fine, well done me. But when you love something, there's a strange and powerful urge, a desperation, to do well. And for me, doing well in this module, both the creative and the analytical side, means more than just a brilliant grade. It means, finally, I'm good at the thing I've found the most passion for.