Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Mitch Tarala. Please read more about Mitch in the footer.
A common problem that many writers are faced with is finding inspiration when feeling uninspired.
Here are 10 ways to help you find some inspiration and overcome your writers block:
1. Move Around. Our bodies were designed to be in motion. Moving around can do wonders for creativity and building inspiration when you're feeling less than inspired. Get up and go for a walk or ride your bike. Perhaps go for a swim or practice Qigong, Yoga, or a martial art of some kind.
When the body is in motion the brain gets more oxygen. When the brain gets more oxygen it works better and this will help you overcome your writers block. You'd be surprised the kinds of ideas and inspirations you get when you're out riding your bike or going for a walk. Get active for inspiration!
2. Read a Book. If you find yourself unable to come up with any ideas to write about that truly inspire you, read a book. Books are full of ideas, and I don't mean you should read a book and then copy what it says.
While reading books I've been struck by many inspirational ideas and they are usually tangents or off-shoots of the original idea in the book. The book simply leads you to the inspirational idea that you'll soon be writing about.
3. Spend time on a Forum. Spend some time on an interesting forum and browse the posts there. Maybe even get involved in the discussion a bit (make sure you put a link to your site in your signature with proper anchor text!). It won't take long before you're struck by a great idea to write your next article about.
Many of my articles are inspired by threads I've been a part of in online communities and forums. Forums are truly a never ending source of inspiration for me, and I'm sure they can be the same for you!
4. Go People Watching. Regardless of what you write about, watching other people is a surefire way to get yourself inspired to write. Go to the park, the mall, or pretty much anywhere that there are people and you're sure to find something inspiring. Watch how different people behave, families, couples, children, single people.
You can find healthy, unhealthy, fat, skinny, happy, unhappy, every kind of person you can think of! Who are they? What do they do? What are their lives like? As you think about these things and watch how other people behave, you'll find all sorts of new ideas and inspirations flooding into your awareness.
5. Spend Time With a Child. This might not help everyone, but you'd be surprised how inspiring spending even just 15 or 20 minutes with a child can be. Kids have this thing about them - they don't care what anyone thinks of them. At least not until they're old enough that 'social norms' begin to take effect around the time they start kindergarten.
Spending time playing with young children is one of the most inspiring things you can do, even if you write about making money online or improving your golf swing.
6. Think Backwards. This is a little trick I find myself doing naturally all the time. Think about things backwards. I mean, try to envision the opposite end of the spectrum in regards to whatever you're thinking about.
Reverse the order of words in sentences, if a word has two or more meanings, try switching the meanings and see if any inspiring or funny ideas come to mind. Go with it, this is a way to force an odd sort of inspiration into your life.
7. Use Random Tools. Another thing I like to do when I feel out of ideas is to find a random tool and use it to get some inspiration. An example would be grabbing a phone book, flipping it open to a random page and looking for an inspiring idea to come to you while having a look at what's listed on the page.
You can use any kind of book or object as a random inspirational tool, just get creative and be open to the ideas that come to you through the 'random tool'.
8. Meditate. Another idea that might not immediately appeal to everyone, but spending some quiet time with yourself can certainly help improve your flow. Learning to turn off your active mind chatter for a while is difficult and time consuming but extremely useful.
It's surprising how turning off your mind for a while can lead to increased performance of the mind after the meditation has been completed.
9. Do Something New. A great way to get those neurons firing is to do something brand new to you. Something that incorporates new smells, sights, feelings, and actions. Learn a new skill or brain game.
When you do something completely new to you, even just doing a new movement like tapping your left knee with your right hand while bobbing your head side to side will create new neural pathways in the brain, this increases your capacity to remember things and learn new skills and will ultimately lead to you being able to foster more inspiration than ever before!
10. Have Some Fun. Allow yourself to be silly! Have some fun, play with your body, play with other people's bodies. Make up a silly game, play tag, have a family race around the block, learn to make weird noises with your body, the possibilities are endless!
Having fun and acting silly is one of the best things to bring you new inspiration, and the best kind of inspiration too - creative, fun, and silly inspiration! Give it a try!
I hope you found this list of ways to build inspiration helpful and inspiring. When you're feeling uninspired or you don't know what to write about, give some of these suggestions a try and you'll find yourself back on track and producing your most inspiring article yet!
More from Julie McElroy
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The tips that you mentioned are very effective. Those are also the effective ways to manage stress..
That’s true, most of the tips I mention in the article are effective ways to manage stress. There’s a deeper reason for that, too.
Our true and natural selves are creative and full of inspiration all of the time, but stresses cause us to forget/lose that aspect of ourselves, often for far too long. Some people live the majority of their lives believing that those who show creative inspiration on a daily basis are ‘gifted’ or ‘special’ in some way that they are not, but it’s not true.
We are all infinitely creative and inspired/inspiring. We just have to effectively deal with the stresses of our every day lives before it can shine through!
Cheers!
Some helpful tips to stay inspired, I think everyone has their own preferred ways but it never hurts to try some new ones.
Hi Mitch,
You mention in your article “Meditation” as a way to build inspiration, and this struck a cord in me. It is true that the greatest ideas come to my mind when I spend some quiet time with myself meditating. It appears that such ideas are buried under the noise of everyday life and require calmness and switching off the clutter to be exposed.