inspiration Archives

Entertainment as Inspiration: Books

October 22, 2018September 2, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve made a point to more than double the amount of reading this year than the year before. As with my consumption of film, music, and TV, I’ve tried to expand into new genres as a reader, hoping to better-inform my writing.

This has been made easier, once again, by keeping up with a TBR list (to be read) and by tracking what I’m reading.

Finding books to read:

I get a good number of suggestions from friends (both online and in person). But I’ve also found these things useful:

Goodreads. It’s not nearly as scary as a reader as it is for a writer. Here I track what I read, make private notes on the stories, and rate them to remind myself how I enjoyed them. I also follow reviewers whose tastes overlap with my own. Or sometimes I end up in a sort of rabbit hole of recommendations there.

Book challenges. This has been a useful way to branch into other genres. This year I’ve used Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge and I’ve taken some of the suggestions in this post of from Katie McLain.

Newsletters. I have found good recommendations for (mostly) nonfiction from Austin Kleon‘s newsletter and the Farnum Street newsletter.

Website: I’ve discovered lots of good books through Largehearted Boy’s year-end compilation of best books lists.

Tracking Reading

I’m doing my tracking through Goodreads (not my author profile there). This way I can make private notes on various books, remind myself how I liked it, and find out from Goodreads when authors I enjoy have new or upcoming releases.

How do you find what you read? Do you keep track of it?

Finding Books to Read and Tracking Our Reading: Click To Tweet

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Entertainment as Inspiration: Music

October 19, 2018October 19, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig

For years I’ve disputed the fact that music has any sort of influence on my writing at all. I think this is because, when I write, I can only listen to lyric-free songs (New Age, Jazz, Classical) or else it creates a disruption. Plus, I’m not usually directly inspired by music in terms of the music informing a work (with the possible exception of my Race to Refuge book). For artists who have been and their musical recommendations, see Roz Morris’s excellent blog, The Undercover Soundtrack.

I don’t think I really realized how much music helps me. As with television and film, seeing/hearing other artists’ creativity helps motivate me and fills my creative well. I also think that writing with music in the background (even with all the specifications that I put on the music) helps me write at a faster clip.Continue reading

Filling the Creative Well

June 29, 2018June 28, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I was stumped a couple of months ago by a question from a very sharp writer in a high school creative writing class. He asked me what I do on those days when I didn’t feel inspired to write. I had to babble out some answer about what I hear that other writers do on days when they don’t feel inspired to write. The truth is that I’m rarely inspired when I write…I just do it and fix anything that sounds ‘off’ later.

But I know what I wished I’d answered. Because I do always make a point of filling my creative well. I may not feel inspired when I write, but I sure as heck don’t want to feel burned out when I write. I’ve written through burnout several times over the past ten years and it didn’t feel good. Forcing the words out isn’t fun and the end product will need work.

For me, the answer is two-fold. It’s surrounding myself with other people’s creativity and giving myself quiet, empty time to think or just be.Continue reading

Comfort Zones and Writing

August 25, 2017August 24, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

If you venture out of your comfort zone and can’t find your way back, maybe it’s all good.

by Garry Ryan, @GarryGarrettRya

This story probably began in Singapore. I spent the last two years of high school in a sweaty multicultural concoction of diverse languages, foods and monsoons. It was jarring and I had to adapt. An unexpected dividend was the ability to become a student of the inner workings of societies.

Back in Canada, the kindness of Casey and Pablo exposed me to First Nations’ perspectives. Sometimes the intense heat of a Blackfoot sweat lodge left burns on my shoulders. It also allowed me to see – with more clarity – the connections between humans.

Hummingbird