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?
trebmal says
The Magician's Nephew, by C. S. Lewis, specifically the Wood Between the Worlds.
Ed W says
Perhaps it sounds morbid, but I like to walk through a fairly large neighborhood cemetery. The trees are old and unusual; Hawthorns and other trees one wouldn't find in your typical neighborhood. The tombstones tell stories and the whole setting provides fascinating reflection that generate thoughts and ideas you might not get anywhere else.
Raquel Byrnes says
Any airport coffe shop really. So many people, so many possible stories. The hustle and bustle and din of voices just takes me out of myself.
Nicole says
Starbucks. I don't know if it's the caffeine or the high traffic I just love this place. My hubby and I go there every Saturday, fight for the couches, and stay there for 5 hours as I write and he works on his business stuff…he's a financial coach, way over this writers head 🙂
Heidi C. Vlach says
My brain/muse/writerly whatsits are most productive when I bribe them with food. Listening to bustling crowds helps, too. So some of my best brainstorming sessions have come while relaxing by myself in a corner of a busy restaurant.
Jil says
Whenever things get slow I go for a walk with my dog and when I get back I'm ready to write again.On my early morning dark walks, new plot twists come to me.
My dog is great; quiet companion,protecter and warner of lurking coons and skunks.
John N says
I go a bit dinghy (meaning, I rig up a single or double-handed sailboat and let the wind do its thing).
Christine London says
I think inspiration like motivation is internal as well as external. Before I write a demanding scene, I sit in front of my computer, rub my hands together, close my eyes and focus on my blank internal screen. Almost like meditation, except that I am conjuring inspiration to flow and fill that screen with a vision and words of what my characters are going to do and say next. Plugging into that ineffable power in the universe that drives the creative spirit is much like a prayer.
Now for external inspiration there is nothing like being able to actually go to the setting of your novel. The Internet has enabled us to travel to almost any place in the world. So many restaurants and locales have virtual tours. Yet these do not provide the sounds and smells of reality. No matter the magnificence of a postcard, there simply is no equal to physical presence.
Last spring I traveled to the Scot Isle Of Skye in the Inner Hebrides. The land emanates spirit and history. Laced in mist, the verdant landscape has inspired Scots and outlanders for centuries. Small wonder so many tales of romance and passion is set here. The colors of the land and sea, smell of peat fires burning in whitewashed cottages, fresh baked scones and yeasty lager served in low ceiling ramshackle pubs, wind worn faces glowing with the health of the highlands—these are not something one can see and feel over a computer screen. Blessed with the ability to travel, I take every opportunity to breathe the setting of my novels.
At home…nothing like walking the esplanade along the sea in Redondo Beach (California), terraced red tiled homes of the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the distance, curve of sand below, the briny air and call of the gull calm the mind and open it to possibilities.
Thanks for the inspiring question and continuing excellence in your blog, Nathan.
Christine London
http://www.christinelondon.com
Michael A. Emeritz says
Anywhere but the place I've been writing most.
Claire Dawn says
None of my family or really close friends live here so I just notify my (also-foreigners) neighbours and bury myself in the living room for a weekend.
Moira Young says
I live in Vancouver, and if you've been watching TV lately you've probably noticed that we've got a lot of nature nearby. 😉
I've found it to be inspiring, but I lead a busy life. Writing is my second, unpaid job, so I have to open my laptop whenever and wherever I can.
Lydia Sharp says
PBS.
Because there's only so many things a sh*tload of snow can inspire, and I can't afford to travel. Or cable.
Anne-Marie says
I go to San Francisco once a year, for our spring break (actually called March Break here in Canada- two weeks and a bit to go, yeah!) I bring my writing pad for the long plane rides, and love to take it out and about with me when I'm there.
xx
AM
Anonymous says
Mine's a bit different. I've spent my life traveling all over the world. Ruins, castles, caves, underground cities, far away mountains, oceans, 2000-year old towns, everything. I've seen and done it all.
Blessed with a vivid imagination, I bring my thoughts back to those many places. I then (try to) re-create ancient worlds and conflicts, which I put into stories.
I know this might sound trite, but it's true.
Jess says
I-10 from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Houston, Texas.
Nothing like the open highway…. okay, maybe not so open but it works for me. 🙂
Tambra says
For me the things have worked:
Panera Bread, Barnes and Noble (must be all the books), reading or sitting on the swing in my backyard with my terrier.
Hugs,
Tambra
SB says
To bed. Seriously. My best ideas happen in that space between wake and sleep…pen and paper always must be handy — or they get lost there forever.
SB says
To bed. Seriously. My best ideas happen in that space between wake and sleep…pen and paper always must be handy — or they get lost there forever.
SB
not too serious i hope
D. Michael Olive says
I travel over 100K miles a year. The places I visit towing my camera and notebook to record my experiences provide plenty of inspiration.
Tori says
A car ride or walking around my house with music playing are the best things to get my brain working. That or a walk on a path through the woods near my house, but without music. I get a bit particular with that for some reason.
I also have really crazy dreams all the time and they always get me thinking, what if… And after that I'm hooked.
Lee Thompson says
Like a lot of other people: reading one of my favorite authors, going for a walk in sweet Mother Nature or doing something else creative, like playing guitar or having sex, gets my creative juices pulsing.
Raval911 says
Prospect Parkkkkkk 🙂 ….
JessG says
I like to go window shopping at the mall and watch everyone around me. I try to make up stories about the people I don't know in my head as I go into a store and hear conversations or see what kind of things they are looking at in the store. Makes me sound like I'm stereotyping, but I really just love to go people watching.
I also love just driving and listening to my favorite music. Especially the kind that tells a story. Gives me some great inspiration on what can happen when in a story.
David F. Weisman says
Starbucks, or somewhere there are enough voices that none stand out and I can have both people and space and solitude.
Lisa Romeo says
The physical place isn't so important as the activity taking place there.
I forget about "finding ideas" or "being inspired" and just go hang with my husband and kids and try to immerse myself in what they are doing.
Or I go to sleep and what usually happens if that just as I'm waking up, I find myself "writing" in my head and rush for my notebook. Not always, but often enough that I've learned not to question the power of a nap.
If the weather is nice and I have nowhere I need to be and no kids to ferry around, then I take a long slow drive.
The Daring Novelist says
This may sound crazy but my place is Taco Bell.
Long ago I was a student with a very long commute and a day that started at 8 in the morning and went until 10 at night… but I had a long gap in the middle of the day. Taco Bell was the first place to offer free refills on pop, so I spent my long break there, writing.
Now if I really want to get the creative juices flowing, all I need is the smell of faux tacos.
Lucinda says
Sleep usually gives me some fully loaded inspiration with ideas I can't think of while awake.
Also, daydreaming is another place I find great inspiration.
So, the "place" I go is eitehr La La Land, or Never-Never Land. They are both magical places where only I can go.
Nancy Coffelt says
Hoyt Arboretum, 10 minutes by car from my house in Portland, OR. Trees, trees and more trees. There's also a stand of 100 plus year old stand of Giant Redwoods.
A Cathedral.
A total, cedar-smelling cathedral.
Oh, and the dog park. Gotta love pure dog fun.
sex scenes at starbucks says
One of the best things I've read lately is that writers need to stimulate their senses all the time, even in small ways. So the next time you feel weird for loving a certain pen, or setting up certain books on your desk or whatever, know that it's okay. Creative sources are everywhere.
Ju Dimello says
Mine may be strange.. but well, here goes..
Intial few stories, I needed a comfortable place to sit with my laptop – with something nearby to munch – it could be popcorn to say some fried snacks.. I really wouldn't know how much I eat then and after a few hours, I ended up with a bad stomach ache.. – Not worth the flow of ideas !
Nowadays, when I am cooking, I find the whole process soothing and in tune with what I want them to do – like put this spice here, there and voila, the wonderful dish is ready.. And this has started giving me inspirations -the story plots, characters and where they want to go, sudenly becomes clear to me – especially if they were muddled earlier !
Healing says
Writing itself is an inspiration for me to escape the harsh reality of this world.
Anonymous says
Any place quiet. After dropping off my kids (i have 3 small ones) at daycare, I sit in the van in the parking lot so I don't have to waste any of the few hours I have, and type on my laptop there.
electricether says
Getting the hell out of Alaska seems to lead to inspiring thoughts. I seem to usually wind up in Hawaii, but I went to London this last year and WOW. What a place. Locally though, I don't really go anywhere. If I ever feel the need to be inspired I just pop in a David Lynch movie (or tv show in Twin Peaks' case) and that seems to do the job. There always seems to be some action or some phrase that I need to hear when I go to David Lynch.
Tara says
A peaceful walk along the shores of a so. CA beach, or along the boardwalk rejuvenates my creative energies. There is beauty all around. You also have opportunity to meet or quietly observe tons of fabulous characters there!
Julie says
Swimming laps in the pool. There's really nothing else to think about when you're swimming so it is a good time to figure out plot twists, characters, etc.
Either that or just walking out into my (small) garden.
TheUndertaker says
Having a shower. I have got almost all my good ideas in the shower : )
KSCollier says
I go to the beach in Navarre, Florida and escape into my favorite music. I take my recorder as my thoughts begin to flow. I bring a notebook, and sometimes I go to Barnes and Nobles and watch people as I form my characters.
Tiffany says
I put my IPOD on shuffle and it begins…. My best brainstorming happens in the car.
Mary says
Sometime I have to get out of the house that is overrun by children. (Yes, mine) I go to a small lake a few miles away to be alone. The lake is only a touch larger than a pond, but it does the trick.
jjdebenedictis says
I go for a walk inside my own head.
fictionmyway says
A remote cabin on the shores of Green Bay in Michigan's Upper Peninsula serves as inspiration for me. With the lake in front of me and a crackling fire warming my backside, no television, radio or even internet, the cabin is a wonderfully isolated source of relaxation and creativity.
Chuck H. says
@Vegas Linda Lou
Knuckleheads, KCMO
Jenn Kelly says
I wrote my first book at a specific Starbucks inside a specific Chapters. Works like a charm. Of course certain music helps too.
Anonymous says
Starbucks on Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. Great architecture,lots of seating, picture windows, and the best views of the castle from anywhere in the city.
Lynn Mitchell says
Back left corner of Starbucks or sitting out under the stars in front of a campfire.
Paolo says
There’s a valley, near my home town back in Italy, which is pretty to such an extent that no artist would paint it. All the details, the curve of the hills surrounding it, the river, the orchards, the flowers, seem to be put into that place to achieve a dramatic effect in almost too obvious a way. In that valley they don’t grow corn because they need it, but because yellow stands out nicely next to the vineyards.
On top of the highest of those hills there’s an old, mighty tree that looks like it's been standing there since the beginning of time.
I don’t know what kind of tree it is, I couldn’t tell the difference between a birch tree and a baobab (if there’s any), but I’ve been told it’s about six hundred years old. I mean, it was already a grown-up during bloody renaissance.
The hill is pretty steep so when you’ve been stubborn enough to get there, the only thing you really want is either some oxygen or a cosy place to cuddle up and die on, especially in the summer.
I’ve never ever met a soul up there, apart from a dog who once followed me to the top and stayed there while I was practising the violin. He must have been deaf, poor sod. Anyway, I know there’s someone tending the fields around the old tree, the corn is eventually harvested so I’m sure about that. But either those fields are property of the Invisible People or the farmers do their stuff during the night time, you know, so as not to spoil the landscape with tractors and everything.
Its lower branches bend to reach the ground forming some sort of wide and tall dome, so when you actually get close to its trunk you can’t help feeling you're entering some sort of vegetal cathedral. The light that manages to make its way through its leaves ends up being of a greenish – bluish hue that adds to the sacred feel of those few square meters.
Somehow you can’t have mundane thoughts when you sit there between roots and branches, as if the leaves filtered something more that heat and sunlight.
One remarkable thing about the old tree is that somehow he manages not to look self-important. I know I’m humanizing him, but I think he deserves it. He must have offered shade to countless generations of farmers, and witnessed the medieval settlements making their way along the valley, then wars, armies marching by, and eventually me and my wife-to-be just looking at the landscape. Yet he doesn’t have that I’ve-seen-things-you-people-wouldn’t-believe look that keeps you in awe.
It just stands there, quietly, welcoming, always happy to share the view with anyone who needs some shade and clear thoughts.
Damn that was long, sorry:(
abc says
Since I live in a writing town (among the writer's workshop people–students and teachers), it's fun to go to the more popular local coffee places and sit among all the creative types with their laptops. There is also a coffeeshop in our best independent bookstore and so you get to sit with books, writers, and coffee. I don't know if I get inspired with ideas, but I do get inspired to write.
But I wouldn't mind going to Mexico! Or the Swiss Alps. Or NYC or SF or, heck, Minneapolis.
Watery Tart says
the raw material needs to seep up from inside, so a very relaxed state is needed… a bath with a glass of wine… dreams…
the building material that pulls them together though, needs physical activity that requires no brain (the power walk works best–sadly, better without music, though that makes it miserable if no ideas flow)
michelle says
I don't a place. Actually I do, but it works like this; I can be any where as long as I have no pressing responsibilities. And by pressing responsibilities I mean dirty dishes in the sink, piles of unfolded laundry, meals to cooked, etc
So I get more writing done if I am not at home. I write at the beach a lot. At the park. Places like that.
Ellan Bethia says
I go to a bookstore.