Writing can be a fun way to express yourself. However, something I have always, and I am sure many of you have struggled with is finding the inspiration for a topic. I, personally love the idea of writing. When I am in the mood to write, I can shell out page after page, but I struggle with figuring out a topic. Well, in this post I team up with one of my fellow Cushies, Liz, and we talk about this process and how we can potentially overcome the writer's dilemma.
Liz: I’m not someone who writes things down as I think of them. I don’t carry a notebook with me, and I don’t journal very much. I did keep a Livejournal (am I dating myself?) for years and years, but that was more to write about all my emo feelings and not really anything to do with inspiration. I’ve written songs when I felt them, poems when necessary, and short stories for class. When I was younger, I used to play this game with friends where we’d give a list of 10 random words, and from those words, you had to create a poem. It was an easy way to get inspiration and to have a poem that needed to be crafted with whatever these words inspired. Inspiration can come in many different ways and at the oddest of times. In fact, I was struck with inspiration while I was getting out of the shower the other day. That being said, I can be inspired, but it doesn’t necessarily make it to the page. I think what’s interesting about writing, and finding inspiration, is that I can have a million things I want to say, but when I sit down to write, I find myself overwhelmed. Or, I find myself intimidated. Still, if the inspiration won’t let up, and I feel something rattling around in my head, I’ll do my damndest to get it out onto the page. And, I have used the 10-words method to write even now, almost 20 years later, because it still helps. Recently, I wrote a piece on masturbation. It was one of the more fun pieces I’ve written, and really, the inspiration came from simply wanting to talk about it. People do it. And, I don’t think there needs to be any weirdness about it, so I decided to just write about it. I think it would’ve been something I’d shied away from before, but the inspiration was there, and it sounded decent, so I went with it! I like to use humor a lot when I write because it’s who I am and how I cope with the world. If things are too serious, I tend to break out the funny, so I try to do that in my writing, which is why the masturbation piece came off a bit more lighthearted than some of the other things I’ve written. Not everything needs to be serious ALL the time, and topics about sex and can be fun and silly. It’s not all doom and gloom! It turned out to be one of my favorite pieces and one that I’m actually really proud to have written. Sometimes, all I need is to take a bit of a risk and put something out there. Drea: I love to write. I may not have the best grammar, use the correct punctuation, but I love expressing my thoughts on paper. I write about a lot of different topics. For my blog, I write about three set topics (food, fitness, and mental health), and one section can be about whatever my heart desires. I love my random section because whatever strikes my fancy I will write about. I was never, until recently, a person who carried around a notebook. I never documented my thoughts on paper, so I could remember them later. A lot of the time, I would get an idea and completely forget about it until something reminded me of my thought. My therapist gave me the suggestion to write down my thoughts as they come to me. She gave me these instructions primarily to document my negative thoughts and times of extreme emotion, but I took it as more than just that. I decided when the smallest bit of inspiration hits me for my writing I will write it down as soon as it comes to my head. I don’t always carry my notebook with me because it can be bulky to carry. But, I always have a pen and can find paper or if all else fails I just write on my hand. Before the notebook, I used to have a lot of notes on my hand or on old receipts I had in my car. It was very unorganized, but it worked for me. To this day, even with a notebook, I am still far from organized. Some people need organization when it comes to writing, but I feel the best writing comes when you just wing it. Inspiration is not something that comes in an organized fashion! Inspiration is something that is random and hits you at any time. Recently, I wrote a piece called “Day One.” This piece is poorly written, but the message is clear. It’s all the “one day’s” people experience in everyday life. For example, “one day I will be financially stable.” The idea to write this came to me in the strangest place. I got the idea to write this while doing dishes. I wasn’t even thinking of writing when the idea came. I was doing a mindless task, and the random thought just came to me. Half of my blog posts came to me at weird times. But when it came to sitting down and actually writing about my thought, I was completely blank. “Day One” took me about five days to write. I knew what I wanted to write about, but I could not get the right words out. I decided to start the piece in my notebook and every time I would find the right words to say I immediately wrote it down. My writing process is messy, it always has been. I don’t search for inspiration it’s something that comes to me out of nowhere. When I get a thought I typically try to write it down in my notebook or somewhere else, sometimes I try my absolute best to remember it (remembering typically doesn’t work in my favor). I don’t have a set of steps I take for my writing. I usually just put on my “writing music” or just put the movie Deadpool on then just write. I love to write. I am not the most skilled at writing, but nothing will stop me from doing what I love every day. Liz and I have some similarities when it comes to finding inspiration, but what I love is we still differ in many ways. Writing is a process that is different for everyone and we find inspiration in the strangest places. Whatever your process is, messy or not, embrace your creativity! I would like to give a special thanks to Liz for collaborating with me on My Heart Beats NM! Much love you kind hearted soul! <3
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