The Many Paths of Inspiration

I’ve written about inspiration before, but I gave it short shrift. The Encarta dictionary defines inspiration as: “stimulation for the human mind to creative thought or the making of art”. The Oxford dictionary says: “the drawing in of breath”, and “that which is thought to prompt poets etc. and that under which books of Scripture are held to have been written…”

There are so many ways to find that muse, that someone or something that inspires us to create. Stephen King found it in a past event. The Kennedy assassination inspired him to write 11/22/63. King took that inspiration and with his wonderful imagination, created a  compelling story.

My novel, A Call From the Deep (which I’m hoping to get published), was inspired by a movie I saw as a child. The film, The House In The Square, stars Tyrone Power as a scientist who goes back in time to a previous century. This film about  past lives got my creative juices flowing. My inspiration was further helped when I visited Ireland. The landscape itself  acted as muse for my story, where half my novel takes place.

For my mother’s memoir, I have her anecdotes for stimulation They inspire me to dig deeper, to learn more about my mother’s time as a child. Through research and imagination–imagining how it was–I’m creating a vivid account of refugee life during World War I in Czarist Russia.

Inspiration can also come from something we see in the moment. One time, when I was sitting across from the man who took my father’s place at the kitchen table, I was inspired to write a poem, A Tattered Robe (published in Issue 23 of Dream Catcher. The sight of that worn garment on someone I disliked pricked me so much I had to write how I felt.

As for a muse we hear, author Catherine Knutsson talks of how music helps her write, how it stimulates her senses and inspires her to use the magic of words to create her novels, like Shadows Cast By Stars

Stimulation can also come from someone we know encouraging us in our creative path. Tom Hooper, the director of  The King’s Speech, the film that won four Oscars in 2011’s Academy Awards, got his inspiration from his mother, who had seen the play and wanted her son to tell it on film.

Still others find it in nature, like painters Janice Robertson and Suzanne Northcotte.

So many paths! Where do you find your inspiration? I’d love to hear your stories of how you’re inspired to create. I wish you good trips with your muse, whomever, whatever, and wherever it is.

Related posts:

THE BROTHER Comes To Town Inspiration and The King’s Speech MANY PATHS TO A DREAM Inspiration

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