Finding Inspiration
Greetings and salutations, y’all!
As the title of this post suggests, today we are going to be talking about the importance of finding your inspiration to write.
Whether it’s the fact that all of our best ideas seemingly always come to us in the midst of life’s chaos, or the inevitable writer’s block that occurs once we find time to sit down — as writers, we are constantly being stretched and tested in ways we never expected.
Because of this, I believe that finding a strong, reliable inspiration to write should be at the top of every writer’s priority lists. By doing this, we can ensure that regardless of the highs and lows this journey is sure to bring, we will always be able to look back at our inspiration in order to remind ourselves WHY we are chasing this incredibly frustrating, yet wildly fulfilling dream.
If you don’t take anything from what we have discussed so far, I want you to cling to one very specific and intentional word that I used in the last paragraph. Can you guess what it is? Hopefully so, since it’s the only word in all caps (*insert nervous laughing emoji*). If you guessed “why,” then you’re right!
In my mind, you could take every single screenwriting class, watch every video on youtube, and read every book on how to start writing a script, but everything you learn is going to be secondary to the simple question, “Why do you need to tell this story?” Sure, it sounds simple, but I can guarantee you it isn’t always as easy as it seems.
Don’t worry, there will be an exercise in the next blog to help y’all get there, but before we do that, there’s one more piece of the puzzle that we need to incorporate. Although the following step is something that is rarely — if ever — taught in academia, it’s something that I utilize religiously and have found great success with.
The exercise:
First, find an instrumental track that speaks to you and the tone of what you’re wanting to write about. Once you do that, close your eyes, listen to the music, and allow yourself to transport to the world where you see your story unfolding. This will ignite numerous senses within your pre-writing process, and I am sure it will help you add even more depth to your project.
One of the most recent speeches I wrote, “Tomorrow’s Yesterday,” was drafted while listening to Olexandr Ignatov’s “Inspiring Piano.” I’ve hyperlinked the track and script (bonus points if you play the song in the background while reading the script) so you can have an example of how many layers can be added to your writing when your other senses come into play.
I hope this post encourages you, and I look forward to hearing about your breakthroughs that I know are on your horizon!
Talk to you soon!
Your friend,
LK
Chase dreams. Spread hope. Celebrate life.