Writing Inspiration: 13 Places to Look for Stories

Lighthouse can be the source of writing inspiration

So you want to be a writer? Awesome! The only thing you need to do is write. Easy enough, right? Sure, if only havd some writing inspiration.

When I tell people I’m a writer the first questions they ask is, “Have you writter anything I know?” This used to discourage me. But now I just answer with the truth, “Well, I’m a content and copywriter in the education field. So maybe. But I’m working on a YA suspense novel right now. Hopefuly you can read that soon.”

The next most common question I get is, “How do you do it? How do you write every day? Where you you find so much writing inspiration?”

Writing Inspiration Isn’t Something You Can Teach

To be honest, this question stumps me. Even to this day. Becasue writing inspiration isn’t something you can teach in a seminar or an online course. Explaining where I get my writing inspiration is like explaining how I breathe or fall asleep at nigh. It just happens.

Writing inspiration isn’t something that I think about. Ideas pop into my head all the time. When I’m running or taking a shower or making dinner. When I’m doing laundry or driving to tennis. I see stories everywhere.

This perhaps is what distinguished writer from non-writers.

“Everybody walks past a thousand stories every day. The good writers see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
Orson Scott Card

But the good news is writing inspiration, seeing stories, is a skill that you can develop. All you have to do is practice. Here is a list of 13 places that I see writing inspiration. And I know you can too.

13 Place to Find Writing Inspiration

Books
News
Your childhood
The grocery store
Social Media
Memories
Movies
Overheard conversations
Photographs
Writing prompts
Vacation
Daily life
Quotes

Train Yourself to See Writing Inspiration

Nowthat you know where to look for writing inspiration, the key is noticing a story idea.

Honestly, anything can be a story idea. A snippet of a conversation, a profound idea, an unusual image. Often, the less you know about a situation you observe the better. For instacne, imagine you are at the library and you hear a woman say, “My cat always picks out my books for me.” Sounds strange, right? If you had head the entire conversation that sentecne would probably make more sense. (Or not).

But without the context you are free to make up any story you want about a cat picking about books. Your imagination can run wild. And probably does. Becasue as humans we like stories, we like things to make sense. So lean in to your creative side and let that little piece of a story serve as your writing inspiration.

For me, the best writing inspiration comes from things I disagree with or things that surprise or even shock me. The dissonance often brings on a thousand ideas. This is true for most of us. It’s why the news always leads with tragedies and why the media constantly stirs up controversy. You can let it work for you too.

The next time you see a post on Insatgram or a thread on Twitter that gets your hackles up, go with it. Instead of typing out a snarky replay tha’s just going to get you into a soul-draining social media battale, harness that anger to write a piece about it. You can write a blog post, a short story, or even turn a few simple words into writing inspiration for a novel.

Using Writing Prompts

I love to use writing prompts. They are a great source of writing inspiration when I am feeling stuck. But they are also a terrific way to stretch my creativity.

I often find msyelf writing about the same topics and same ideas. Writing prompts help me get out of a rut and shake up my stories.

The writing prompt archives from The Write Practice is a great place to check out a vareity of different writing prompts. I know these prompts can give you some great writing inspiration ideas.

Keeping Track of Writing Inspiration

Seeing stories is one thing. Remembering those ideas is quite another. You need to come up with a method to save your writing inspiration

Sometimes I am very lucky and immediately after inspiration I can sit down and actually write for a bit. Sometimes it’s an outline or a cople of paragraphs or even an entire article or short story. But most of the time that isn’t practical. I can’t just whip out my laptop at a basketball game or in the middle of the grocery store and start typing. So I need a way to save my story idea.

I use my Notes app on my phone for this. I’ve tried countless other options: my calendar, a writing journal, a Trello board, Worklflowy. I love the ideas of all of these. I love the visual aspect of Trello and the tangiblity of a notebook. But they don’t work for me. I always have my phone with me. The Notes app is esaily accesible. I can record a voice memo if I want to. And it’s easily searchable.

Even though it isn’t pretty, it works for me. And that’s what’s important. Find a way to record your writing inspiration that works for you. It should be: