As chronicled yesterday, San Miguel de Allende is quite an inspiring place. The landscape and architecture are beautiful, the weather is perfect, and they somehow manage to have a spectacular sunset every single night. No surprise, then, that artists and writers have been coming here for years for inspiration. It’s a great place for creativity.
It got me to thinking about how all writers seem to have a place (usually closer to home) where they go when they need to unlock the creativity or possibly beat a case of writer’s block. Some places just get the mind thinking and the creative juices flowing.
Where do you go when you need inspiration?
I wish my muse was inspired by romantic sunsets and beautiful landscapes.
Unfortunately, my "eureka moments" occur at bed time, when I'm in the shower, on a drive or excercising. Talk about inconvenient….
My muse is mischievous(:
Bizarrely enough – and I'm sorry if this is too much information, but you did ask – I get my best thinking done in the shower, and in bed right before I fall asleep. Which kind of stinks, because neither of those places is particularly conducive to stopping everything to write something down, but there you go. Life can be like that sometimes. Or, for me, a lot.
Hey, I'm not the only shower person! Hurrah! I think it's the alone time, with no distractions – because showering doesn't really require attention, it leaves the mind free to wander, and it's a place where you aren't likely to face many distractions from spouses/kids/pets/people who call wanting to sell you vinyl windows/etc.
Love. Love inspires me. A grandfather deliving his wife a cup of coffee before he pours his own. A dog pissing on the carpet because it's happy that you're home. A young mother wrapping her newborn in a blanket, kissing it on the forehead. A middle-aged couple holding hands like they were teenagers back in high school. Love. Love inspires me.
It sounds totally wierd but i sometimes get inspired in the shower. Come on there is nothing better to do in a shower….well except sing!
A cabin in the mountains with no internet service.
Crestone, Colorado
I go for a run or skate along the pier and riverwalk. Fresh air. Or I go check out a film and escape.
That cozy-up-with-cocoa-and-laptop stuff never works for me; I just get distracted. When I really want to be inspired and productive at the same time, I actually have to close myself off from physical sources of inspiration. A bare, boring office forces me to escape into my mind and generate my own inspiration.
Erika Robuck said…
The Hardbean Cafe, an Indie bookstore/coffee shop in Annapolis, is my favorite local spot (outside of my office.)
that used to be MY spot too!!! (before I moved to PA). Now, there's a few spots I go to, depending on if I wanna walk to them, or drive few a few miles.
Haven't found that ONE coffeeshop around here like the good ole Hardbean yet. Still searching, tho.
Anywhere but home…. usually the coffee shop. I tried (very inconspicuously – sometimes I feel like a spy!) to scrutinise and analyse the patrons in the coffee shop or the passers-by – and before I know it, the inspiration just flows.