Let Art Inspire Your Writing, Part 4

“Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things–childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves–that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers.”

-Salman Rushdie

Another week, another post to help inspire my fellow writers of the world! Let’s face it, we’re all trying to write and create, but some weeks are bigger struggles than others. This week started out kind of challenging for me. I just finished my book, I’ve been trying to take some time to write flash fiction pieces, and they turned out horrible. I mean, they weren’t bad, but they were pretty bad. I really wanted to take some time to work on short fiction and flash fiction, and it wasn’t going well. There could be a lot of reasons for that, but when I was ready to cave in and just start edits on my book instead, I pulled up a brainstorming document I keep. It’s where I write down first lines or general story ideas that come to me that I can’t get to at that moment. A line stuck out to me, and I realized that was the story I wanted to write. So I’ve been working on it this week, and it feels good. Liberating. It’s nice to meander with these characters, and the story is actually slice of life with a minimal fantasy element. It’s been really fun to explore, and I’m going to keep writing it this week until I finish.

A lot of writers I talk to regularly and I have been talking a bit about writing guilt. This is basically when you want to write but can’t make the time because you’re too burned out from other responsibilities. Most aspiring writers have full-time jobs. Some are also parents or are caring for family members. And despite all the tasks we may take on in a day, we still want to carve a little window of time for ourselves to put words to the page. This is important to us, but it’s also hard. Fitting in writing some days feels near impossible, especially when cracking open a book or watching a tv show sounds so much more relaxing. Some days, I give into relaxing because I have to. Nothing I write would be good anyway. Other days, I sit down at my computer and force myself to write, even if it’s just for thirty minutes. This week was one of those weeks I forced myself, and I was able to break myself out of the negative mentality that fell over me.

I’m sharing four images again today in the hopes that it will inspire other writers to do what they love- write and create new stories. Even if you only have fifteen minutes, that’s enough. Take the breaks when you need to, but when you’re really feeling the urge to write, make the time and do it because you’ll only end up thanking yourself. Chose an image, write a story and see what happens next!

As always, I hope the words come.