Inspiring Inspiration

Where do you get your initial spark of inspiration? Is it from anything important? What else about inspiration intrigues you? What is your advice to other people to kick start their inspiration?

My inspiration comes from various locations. Sometimes it's dreams. Other times it's things that are actually happening. For example, I wrote about 500+ words yesterday on something that had happened that morning that was in my Facebook feed. And then there are times that books will inspire me. I think that's where my post-apocalyptic story came from: The Hunger Games. Not that it's fan fiction or anything like that, but it was definitely inspired by the books. As for my fan fiction, well that usually comes from my own fantasies of things. Sometimes it comes from something someone said or did.

The thing I LOVE about inspiration is that it can come from ANYWHERE! There was a show that was on when I was a kid (I don't even remember the title or much about it). It was an art show. The guy on it encouraged kids to carry around an "idea book." This way when they saw something that they liked, they could draw it. Well, I liked this idea for my writing. There have been times that I have literally carried around a notebook to jot ideas into. Now I have an app on my phone that if something strikes me, I can jot it down in there. (In fact, I think there are a few lines for that post-apocalyptic story sitting in there right now.)

The biggest piece of advice I can give anyone about inspiration is to observe the world around you. Maybe it's that person in the coffee shop. Maybe it's some random thing that was put on the news. Maybe it's something that everyone is talking about. Just about anything can inspire your writing. It's kind of like during November where we are told that if we are writing out in the world and we are stuck to just find someone around us and write them into our story. So if you need some inspiration, get out of your house/hobbit hole/room and go observe the world. There's a lot happening that will make you want to write!