Let Art Inspire Your Writing

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

Jane Yolen

Writing is a muscle. I love this. I love the idea that the more we write, the better we get. As the past year showed me, it’s true. My writing has continually improved the more I worked at it and the more I worked with other writers on it. I don’t know if I will be able to hold a daily writing schedule, as this quote suggests. It’s great if you can do it. Most writers are holding down a full-time job that isn’t writing based, and most writers, like myself, probably have a million other responsibilities that you have to make time for. Writing five days a week is my writing goal for the year. If I do more than that, I will be really happy, but I want to give myself breaks every week if I need them. Breaks are just as important as writing. I will always stand by that, but I think there is something to be said for consistency, for routine and for not giving up.

I wanted to try a different kind of prompt post today. One that kind of frightens me, in a good way, because I am going to post something I have to hold myself accountable for. Today I’m sharing four different photos I found, and I challenge those reading this to write a poem or story or even a snippet of a story from these photos. Choose one and run with it. See if it inspires you. I find written prompts helpful, but I also find art and photography to be the most inspiring and beautiful way to find a story. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stared at a painting, a photograph or a drawing and thought, wow, I can write a story from this.

So, I’m posting this and challenging those reading this to write. Let yourself be inspired by the beauty of these images.

I’m going to do the same. I’m going to choose one of these to write about and next week, I’ll share what I’ve written, though I’m prefacing this by saying it will unlikely be finished if it is the start of a short story. But I think writing is messy, beautiful, and raw. Sometimes, the unedited versions of our writing are just as important to see as the polished ones. Don’t be afraid for a crappy first draft. Or a crappy second or third or fourth draft. Every time you sit down to write, you get better. You will continue to get better. I really believe this, and I hope you all continue to believe in yourselves too.

If you’ve been stuck on writing lately, use this as a diving board to jump back into it. I hope your writing continues to prosper and the words always come.