inspiration – Selina J. Eckert

Three Great Places to Draw Inspiration for Creativity

I have to admit, sometimes it’s hard for me to find inspiration for blog posts. And honestly, sometimes that extends to larger projects, like books, art pieces, or DND campaigns. This is a sentiment a lot of creatives often share, and people can find their inspiration in a lot of different places. So where can we look for ideas when we’re feeling blocked? Where can we search from the comfort of our armchairs or couches or desks? Let’s take a look at three places online we can search for ideas.

Real life

Honestly, is there anything stranger than real life sometimes? *gestures vaguely*

But current events aside, you may find that you can be inspired by the things going on around you. As an exercise, try setting a timer for 5, 10, even 30 minutes (and believe me, a timer is important if you don’t want to lose the rest of the day). Then, scroll through the home page of a news site or even Facebook. Write down as many ideas as you see pop up…don’t worry about if you’ll use them or what you’d use them for. The idea is to pick out things you might not have noticed otherwise, things that can be used for character or world development, maybe even the basis of a plot.

Other media

Another way to come up with ideas is to see what other people are doing. In order to refill your own creative well, you may find that consuming other stories is key. So watch Netflix for a couple hours a couple times a week. Read a few books (and you should probably be reading books anyway as research for yourself). Take time to see what you enjoy in stories or what interests you in documentaries and let yourself dwell on those things. Then, when you’ve done some research into things you like to consume, see if you can figure out how to incorporate those ideas and tropes in your next piece.

Internet

There is an abundance of inspiration to be found online as well, some of which can count as real life or media. But I want to draw your attention to a few particular places online.

Pinterest is a great place to find photos and artwork to inspire you and to create digital mood boards. I do this for just about every story I write! I’ve also talked a bit about how to use Pinterest for your writing in a previous post, so I’ll leave it here for now. 🙂

Photo sites

I won’t list specific ones, but sometimes all you need to shake an idea loose is the right photo. Take some time to scroll through stock photo sites or photography communities.

Tumblr and other blogs

You may also find ideas in blogs across the internet. See what other people are discussing that strikes a chord with you. Maybe it’s a single thought that’s the theme for a new piece. Do you agree with what you’re reading? Disagree? Have more thoughts? Expand on that.

Wikipedia

Finally, Wikipedia is a wealth of information. And it’s so easy to go down the rabbit hole. Follow a link trail and learn new things about a topic that interests you. But, much like with the news or social media searching, you may want to set yourself a timer.

Final Thoughts

Before I close for the week, I want to be clear that what I’m talking about today is simply finding inspiration – a single idea that you can develop on your own. This does not mean taking whole ideas and stories (no plagiarism, copyright infringement, or other illegal activities!). It simply means looking at something that interests you and seeing how you can make it your own story.

But I do want to emphasize that we are surrounded by stories all day every day. With practice, you’ll be able to pick them up and set them aside for later. I don’t know about you, but I keep a file on my computer of random ideas I may eventually use. Maybe it’s time to start your own file, too!

Keep your eyes open, and let your mind wander. You never know where you’ll find your next idea.

Pinterest for Writers

Confused how Pinterest can help your writing? Read on!

If you’re anything like me, you love to save things. Pictures, old notes, that weird looking rock you found on a trail that one time.

But did you know there’s a digital way to make that work for your writing?

Yup, I’m talking Pinterest here. Digital hoarding. Er… digital collecting.

You may already be familiar with Pinterest, but if not, basically it’s a place where you can save (pin) pictures linked to websites, or just pictures you upload yourself. It’s just like the corkboard you might have over your desk, but you can also use it to link back to websites you want to remember.

And that opens up worlds of possibility for us as writers. But what ways can we make this work for us?

To start, we can create boards with subdivisions… basically the way I handle it is to create a board for a book or topic, then subdivide it into things like the world, specific characters, etc. I did this a lot for my WIP, Sea of Broken Glass. Check it out!

By using it this way, you can give yourself ideas for how to describe a certain character or things to place in your world. For me, it helps me to flesh out each element of the world. It helps me organize my thoughts and ideas (in conjunction with my handy story notebook).

When I’m researching, I can add or create pins with information I may need later, like statistics. I did this when I was working on Life After College, an adult mainstream book that I have on hold right now.

And beyond that, it helps me set the tone for my writing. It gives me feelings and inspires my mood to set me in the right mindspace for the world and the characters. It puts me there.

And that’s another way you can use Pinterest boards. You can create mood boards, like I did for This Cursed Flame which include elements that are simply meant to inspire you and place you in the world, rather than just help you with worldbuilding.

And if you look at that mood board again, there’s another thing we writers can use it for: marketing and sharing our work.

Once I complete a work, I make sure to include an image of the cover with a link to purchase it in the board. I also use Pinterest on occasion to share bits of my blog or pictures I’ve made for writers.

Really, there are tons of possibilities. All you have to do is sit down and start scrolling and pinning. There’s plenty of time to organize and pare it down to make it be the board you need it to be. And I do want to be clear here: I am not getting paid to endorse Pinterest. I am simply sharing it as a tool I use and have heard other authors lamenting their confusion. Hopefully this clears that up and gives you some ideas to kick-start your own work!

Happy writing!

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Your turn!

Do you use Pinterest? Do you use it for your writing? What are your feelings on it? Has it helped you? Or is it more of a distraction? Tell me in the comments!

For the Love of a Word Release!

It’s almost here!

For the Love of a Word comes out in just two short days! I know I’m a little early to celebrate the release, but I really wanted to focus on this with its own dedicated post at our regularly scheduled time.

Why?

Because this book is for us. All of us. The authors. The creatives. The book lovers.

It has the words and hearts of sixteen different authors! Including me. If you’ve been around a while, you know how I love to talk about all things books and my love of writing and storytelling. And this book is just that. Authors sharing their love of story.

Here’s the blurb:

A collection of love letters to creative souls.

For your inspiration and encouragement.

“There is a strange beauty in this lonely work; to create is to realize my connection with things greater than myself, and soon enough the work is not lonely at all, but blessed and beloved.”

Featuring the words of sixteen writers, For the Love of a Word is designed to encourage, inspire, and uplift you in your journey.

It will be out in TWO DAYS!!! But I also wanted to give you guys one last chance to get your hands on the pre-order bundle through Annie’s website.

Pre-orders ONLY through her site can get so many extras: bookmarks from some of the participating authors, photo cards, swag, and a printable 8.5″ x 11″ poster to download, in addition to your beautiful book. And wouldn’t that be a great gift for you or the bibliophile in your life?

Or, if you’re not quite ready, you can always add it to Goodreads! And if the swag pack isn’t for you, that’s fine too. You can still get this book on Amazon!

Whether this interests you or not, I hope you will continue to celebrate the love of storytelling with me here on the blog. 🙂

Happy reading, and happy writing!

The Key to Finishing Your First Novel

For most of my life, I never finished writing a book.

Let me backtrack. I started writing when I was in elementary school, a time when I was reading almost exclusively Westerns. I would make the covers (in pencil, on folded computer paper), write the first couple of (extremely short) chapters, then drop it before it was finished. In fifth grade, I finished a few small stories that were class assignments. Then, late in middle school, I finished writing my first book. And didn’t edit or revise a thing. I printed it off and gave it to my fifth grade English teacher to see. But after that came another decade of unfinished work, except for one other story I somehow managed to finish and, again, never touch or revise after the first draft was completed.

Then, in grad school, I finished writing three books within a year and actually went back to polish and revise the first. Since then, I haven’t given up on writing very many books, and then only with good reason.

So what changed? I learned something key: Discipline is a better friend than inspiration.

You see, up until that point, I had only been writing whenever I felt “inspired”. Honestly, I think this is such a common pitfall, particularly for young and new writers. When we start out, we tend to feel like we can only write when we feel like writing or when the ideas are flowing.

But it’s a lie, and honestly, it’s partly laziness and partly a misconception and idealization of the life of a writer.

Writers don’t only write when inspired; writers write out of discipline. As Louis L’Amour put it:

We don’t always feel like writing. We don’t always want to open up that document. Sometimes we just want to binge-watch Netflix or nap. But here’s the truth. If you want to be a serious writer, if you might be considering a writing career, you must start to write even when you’re not inspired. Even if it’s just a few words at a time. Start to build your writing habit and schedule and then stick to it! That is the only way you will finish that first novel.

But I am interested in what helps you to sit down and open that last page. Tell me your stories! How did you finish your first book? Do you have any other advice for new writers? Tell me in the comments.

Ooo, Shiny! (Or, Managing New Ideas While Writing)

One of the most important things to a writer is simply an idea. A place to spark their next story. An inspiration. A gift from a muse. The shinies we see and chase instinctively in a need to capture and create with them. Ideas are the life, blood, and magic of the writing process; without them, there is no story.

baby-blur-blurry-827991 — I see you over there, you beautiful new story, you.

However, as good and important as ideas are, they can also be dangerous distractions. They can lead us to lost time on our works in progress (WIP) as we daydream about the new idea, create Pinterest boards, write new outlines for new stories, or even start writing new stories themselves.

And what happens to the WIP when that happens? It starts to stagnate. It lies forgotten in the dust, that story that was also once a shiny worth chasing. It slows, and in many cases, it dies on your hard drive.

For years, this was how I operated. I would get a new idea and dive in head first, starting the new story with impatience while allowing the old one to sit half-finished forever. Because of this model (and how I only wrote when inspired… but that’s a story for another day), I never finished anything. In the years between elementary school and college, when I’d started to write my own stories, I finished two. And they were never edited or looked at ever again (they can probably stay out of the light of day, honestly).

But that all changed in the last five years or so. I still get new ideas all the time that want to pull me away from my WIP, but I manage to finish what I’m writing before moving on to the new story. I’ve learned ways that work for me, that keep me productive and motivated and entertained.

How do I manage these distractions and finish what I’m working on? Three simple tricks:

WIP has priority. That’s right. That simple. Set yourself a goal on your WIP, and make sure you complete it before you let yourself do anything with any new ideas. For example, if I get a new idea, I set a daily goal of 1000 words on the old project before I allow myself to work on something unrelated to my WIP. The trick here is you have to keep yourself accountable and disciplined. You have to do the work to get the reward, not just reward yourself for no reason. Writing trackers can be very helpful and motivating for this. I personally use Writeometer on my phone.
And speaking of the reward…
Make the new idea your prize. Use it to motivate yourself to finish your WIP so you can indulge in the new idea. Write your WIP goal for the day, then turn on Pinterest.
Don’t start writing until your WIP is finished. Unless you think you can keep up your enthusiasm for the WIP while starting the “more exciting” story in your head, just avoid beginning the writing at all. Instead, start doing the background research, create your mood boards and inspiration boards, create character sheets and plot outlines. Do whatever prep work you need. Just don’t start writing it. Writing the story is the ultimate prize for finishing your WIP… treat it that way!

So there you have it! It can be very difficult to keep writing a story, especially in the muddy middle or if you’ve been working on it for a while, and especially when a new, shinier idea comes around. But with a few changes in your routine or how you think about the new idea and your WIP, you can still finish your stories and enjoy your new ideas.

What about you? How do you manage your new shinies while writing something else? What suggestions do you have for focusing on your WIP? What methods do or don’t work for you? Tell me in the comments!

The Power of Writing on a Schedule

There are so many things I could say about this. But today, as I was trying for the millionth time to catch up on my NaNoWriMo word count, I had a moment of realization.

Let me back up for a minute. This morning I had been driving to work when an old story paid me a visit. It was a story I had so much enthusiasm for at one time, but I never made it very far because it was a bit outside of my usual genre… definitely more on the thriller side than the fantasy side, even though there is potential magic at work. So after 14 single-spaced pages, I had closed it up and walked away.

Well, the main character came back to me. Cara Ebner, a girl with a pretty tragic past and some crazy happenings in her current life. A girl from my own life, one with Pennsylvania Dutch (German) roots, a rural upbringing, and a brain for science. A girl finding herself at college and alone for the first time ever. She didn’t remain alone for long, since she was befriended by a sweet English major named Bronte Celestin, a smart girl who was born in Louisiana but moved to Ohio at a young age (more I don’t really know how to write… never been to Louisiana, and I never wrote a woman of color quite like her before, and it scared me to mess it up).

I loved and still love this story. But there was so much that was challenging, I moved on to other projects. But this morning, Cara was whispering in my ear. “Where’d you go?” she crooned. “I need resolution!”

“But your title was just taken by a published book,” I tried.

“There are other titles.”

I didn’t even need to think that hard to come up with a new title I loved, and I love it way more than the original title. I’ll refrain from sharing it here, at least this early. But just like that, my interest was reignited. I still want to write the story of Cara, of her first experience in college, of the things that haunt her.

And this is my realization. This is one of the secrets of NaNo that not everyone notices. When you write consistently and on a schedule like I have been all month, you just want to write more. You’re never satisfied with where you are; you see where your current story is going, you see the next story, you see how to fix the last story.

I was feeling pretty discouraged when this all started, that I wasn’t a writer worth anything and that perhaps I should give up on storytelling. But now, with one draft awaiting the end of its resting time before edits, one draft being hacked at with huge chunks falling off every day, and one draft waiting in the wings, I feel like I have more passion to keep going than I did in the last three years.

Let’s do this, writer friends.

Autumn Goals

The air is crisper, the leaves are starting to change, and pumpkins are invading every corner of society. Yes, it’s true…

Fall has arrived.

Fall wasn’t always my favorite season. During my grade school years, it was probably summer (for pretty obvious reasons… no school and more time for books! Yeah, I’m a nerd.). But as I’ve gotten older, fall has become my favorite for a number of reasons. The weather is more comfortable, the smells are amazing (wood smoke, pumpkin, and apple anyone?), the memories are good, and fall is a time of renewal. Students go back to school, evoking feelings of a fresh start and opportunity, even now that I’m out of school.

And since this season has finally arrived (!), I decided I wanted to take a few minutes to share my seasonal goals with all of you. Now, these goals are personal, including things I love and things I want to accomplish, so they may not apply to you, but you may find yourself nodding right along with my list. So, without further ado, here they are:

By writing your goals down (and especially when you share them), you are more likely to accomplish them. So I encourage you: take a few minutes to make some goals for yourself, whether they are just for the fall, for the rest of the year, or beyond. Then, feel free to share them in the comments below!

Night Tales

I recently went on my annual family vacation, and this time things were a little different.

First, my boyfriend came with us. I’ve never had someone to bring along before, and he’s never been to the Outer Banks, NC. My family has been going there for at least a decade, nearly every summer. So for us, there really wasn’t anything new. But for him? It was all new.

And this time there was something new for me, too.

Boyfriend wasn’t really interested in most of the usual tourist-y things: climbing lighthouses, visiting the Wright Memorial (he would have wanted to go, but the museum is under construction until fall 2018, so we decided to postpone that one), going to the Roanoke Island Festival Park, etc. Instead, the one thing he wanted to do is something none of us had ever done before. He wanted to go kayaking at night.

Now, we had done some kayaking tours in past years, mostly around the Alligator River (I’ve never seen any alligators, but some of my family has). Those tours were pretty awesome, but we always went early in the day to avoid the summer heat. But to go at night… that was something all of us were afraid to do. So afraid, in fact, that only I would go with boyfriend this time around.

So we signed up for the Maritime Forest Bioluminescence Tour. I dreaded the coming of the night, afraid to be lost in the dark, by myself, in a salt marsh. Who knew what lurked just beyond my sight? How much would I really be able to see? How would I find my way back?

Turned out that a huge storm system rolled in and we were forced to reschedule right as I was starting to get excited about the tour.

So we went the next night to the Bodie Island Bioluminescence Tour. The night was warm and clear, the moon was nowhere to be seen, and even if it was, there wouldn’t be much light as it was in the waning phases. We also found out this was the better of the two tours being offered. It was a perfect night for such a tour.

All we really expected to see were fireflies, but it was so much better than that.

We left the shore into the super calm waters across from the Bodie Island Lighthouse. It was so quiet, and it got even more quiet (and dark) the further we got from the highway. We saw the International Space Station fly by overhead. The stars became clearer and more abundant. We could even see the cloudy light of the Milky Way overhead.

And then something happened that I had never expected to see in my life: bioluminescent plankton began to glow and sparkle with every stroke of the paddles. Every drop to fall from the paddle, every stroke, every hand drawn through the warm water stirred up these plankton.

It was magical.

The guides instructed us to put our hands six inches down and snap our fingers if we couldn’t quite tell, if they just looked like bubbles, but it just became more and more apparent the farther we paddled from shore (and the light pollution). I put my hand in the water, which terrified and exhilarated me at the same time. Around my hand, the plankton were almost a white cloud of light, and the bright blue of their glow grew brighter as they drifted away from me. It truly did look like magic.

All around, fish began jumping in the water. You see, small fish are attracted to the bioluminescence of the plankton, and they pursue it for their dinner. The glow then also attracts larger fish, the ones who were jumping, to go after these small predator fish. So the glow attracts the predators of the plankton’s predators, thereby protecting them. Weird, right? But so cool (I know, I know. But hey, I’m a biologist!). Other than the fact that one of these larger fish jumped out of the water and right into my shoulder! I smelled like fish the rest of the night, and it scared me more than anything else. And now I have a funny story to share!

But, besides sharing this magical experience with you, there is a point to my story.

If we never do something because we are afraid, we miss out on something that could be truly magical. Perhaps this applies to your creative processes, such as writing or drawing. Perhaps it is in sharing what you create. Perhaps it applies to an activity that scares you, like this nighttime excursion scared me.

Sometimes we need to do things that scare us, because those can end up being some of our best experiences. And if we can’t do them alone, we find those people who push us and encourage us.

So this is my learned lesson shared with you: do the things that scare you. And if you are having trouble on your own, find those people to push you past your comfort zone. Let the magic happen.

As for me, I’ll be forever grateful to boyfriend for making me go on this tour. I have beautiful memories with him and of the experience, I have a painting to make of the experience, I have material for my writing, and I have pride in knowing I did something no one else in my family would do.

It was a good night, and I can’t wait to do it again.

How to Keep Writing in the Middle of Health Problems

Nearly every writer will be faced with a health issue at some point in their life that will interfere with their ability to write. As writers, this lack of creative activity can be disheartening, guilt-inducing, and crippling. So when these problems in our physical or mental health occur, how do we keep ourselves creating through the troubles?

1. Understand the illness. The first step in overcoming a problem is understanding what to expect and knowing how to evaluate your ability. For example, someone with depression is likely to have motivational problems and fatigue while someone with a physical illness such as multiple sclerosis or cancer may be forced to contend with pain and lack of energy. When you know what to expect, you can create a plan to address those problems if or when they arise with your doctors, family, and friends. They all want to help you.

2. Know your limits… don’t overextend yourself. Once you understand the illness, take it easy while you understand how it is affecting your mind and body. Pay attention to when you have overextended yourself or when you haven’t pushed yourself enough. Take notes on what makes things better or worse. This can also help you create a plan and a schedule to keep working.

3. Set reasonable goals. Only you can define what is reasonable, but use your knowledge of yourself from point 2 to define it. For me, for a while my goal was simply to write one sentence per day. Maybe for you what it looks like is keeping a journal or writing one paragraph from a writing prompt or cutting down to one writing day per week. And I will be the first to tell you that it isn’t easy to maintain, and you may fall into a creative drought in which nothing is accomplished. It’s okay. Don’t waste the energy on blaming or berating yourself, no matter how justified it feels. You will get past it, and being sick isn’t your fault. Just take care of yourself. Which leads to…

4. Your health comes first. Creativity and creative energy will follow. Make your health and recovery a priority. Talk to the doctors. Follow their instructions. Take your medications. Get enough food, sleep, and exercise. And I know that can also be hard to maintain. That brings me to my last point…

5. Get support. Find an accountability partner to ask you about your health, well-being, and writing. Trust your loved ones to be there for you and encourage you, even when it feels like they don’t or that you are a burden. They do care, and you aren’t a burden. They care, and they want to help. Beyond your loved ones, find support groups. Meeting with other people going through similar things can be very encouraging and helpful to your overall recovery. Find encouraging blogs or posts online and make yourself a motivational or inspirational file, Pinterest board, collage, whatever works for you. I myself have both a Pinterest board and a file on my computer filled with things that encourage me when things aren’t going so well for me.

Whatever you’re going through, please remember that you aren’t alone. There are people who understand, people who have experienced or are experiencing similar issues, people who care, and people who can and want to help. Reach out.

And whatever happens, do your best to keep writing. For a writer, writing can be one of the best forms of self care.

Chin up, my friends. It’s going to be okay.

Advice for Aspiring Writers

Claim your name. If you write, you are a writer. The longer you call yourself an “aspiring writer” instead of a writer, the longer you keep yourself from the pride and inclusion and knowledge that you are, indeed, a writer.
Get serious about your craft. This means making time to write every day or almost every day. Writing out of habit and commitment will get you closer to finishing your first book than waiting for inspiration.
Start even if you don’t feel ready. Because I’ll give you a hint: no one ever actually feels ready. The longer you put it off, the longer it will be until you feel like a writer.
Make some writer friends. Talk to writers online. Talk to writer friends in real life. Just connect with someone who will be able to discuss the finer points of writing with you and inspire you to keep working for your dream.
Read up on your craft. This includes blog posts from other writers either on Tumblr, online blogs, or, where I found most of my beginning knowledge, Pinterest. Read some classic books on the craft of writing like On Writing by Stephen King or Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
Learn how to write. Commit yourself to learning the rules so you know how you can break them in ways that make your writing stronger.
Just Write. This is the key to being a writer. Write when you don’t feel ready. Write when you’re not sure. Write even when you don’t feel like writing. Write because you’re a writer and you must. Just write. For this is literally the only way you can actually improve your writing.