Have you ever had a cup of coffee you remember years later? Was there flavor, or was it just hot water? I think as a writer, I want to leave burn marks on readers’ tongues. I want them to see my name and think, oh, this cup will have some bite to it.

My inspiration comes from gut feelings. My best writing is usually accompanied by bourbon, never wine. Wine, especially red wine, makes me a special kind of emotional being. Unrecognizable. Someone once said on a writing website, your poetry isn’t profound. You’re just drunk. Not to me, just to the general writing population. I strive to be better than that, but sober, I’m rather stunted.

I take my feelings and put them in a mason jar, like fireflies. I access them and deem them worthy of a poem or not. Sometimes, believe it or not, I decide not to write about them. It’s a hard choice every time, to set them free. But as Hobbes said to Calvin, if we could keep rainbows in museums, we would. I try not to think of myself on that grande a scale. I let the fireflies go, watch them disappear into the dark.

Writing, for me, is inspired by people. I take conversations and weave them into poems. I am fascinated by language, the nuances and inflections. How to produce a good poem with these pieces can be like completing a 1000 word jigsaw puzzle, and honestly, sometimes I’m not patient enough to sit with my thoughts. But people need to be seen. I need to reflect on what people say, and sometimes that happens in a transparent glass.

Writing, basically, defines who I am. Who are you when the coffee gets cold, when the bourbon wears off? No one. Keep writing, keep going. Immortalize those feelings in your own personal mason jar.

I love writing, and the world of words in general. I am currently in a slump with actively writing as much as I would like to, but I am trying to break out of it. I'm thankful for this challenge, as reflections can be a great way to see where you've been, where you are, and where you want to go.

Although I currently write as a hobby and not for a career, deadlines are one thing that help. The Bible Journals I write are inspired by Crossroads Church's Anywhere app and community, and they have being doing a Bible Challenge this year where one reward is getting a sticker if you journal at least once a week with the community. The stickers are pretty cool, so I have been diligent with cranking out at least one journal a week to qualify. Getting involved with collaborations also helps as far as deadlines go, as teammates on the collaborations depend on your timing in order to be able to write their own contributions to keep the project on track. The writing challenges on here are also great as far as keeping deadlines, as being too late can take away the opportunity of being able to try your hand at either a challenge topic that you feel passionate about, or a challenge that features a writing style that you don't normally partake in, but would like to try out.

When I need motivation, I will often turn to reading work from writers I enjoy and admire, taking in some great stories from other media (video games and anime tend to be my jams), even some good music can do the trick. Probably the biggest thing for me though is just getting started on writing something, even if I don't want to (and as much as I love writing, most of the time I have to force myself to start). I have found that once I have begun the process and feel less overwhelmed, motivation and excitement for what I want to write then hit, and before I know it the spark has returned.

One more tip I was given that I will pass on is to try to write a little something each day, even if it is just a little bit. I try to write a short gratitude piece each day through my church community, and not only does this keep the writing muscle working, but it also helps me to remember how blessed and lucky I truly am.

Thanks for this challenge, and for helping me to break out of some of my own procrastination. Good luck to you all out there - your contributions to the world of words are needed and appreciated!

Inspiration is the fabric of the universe,

It's like stardust floating into your third eye,

My muse comes to me,

When I don't look but I see,

The bee's flying, and the porcelain moonlight glowing behind tree's

Meditation does help,

But feeling your naked feet on the grass,

Connects you with creativity,

Listening to the whistling of the asteroids shooting into the

night

Helps your mind go beyond space and time.

Writers block can be a real pain, however, inspiration is all around us. be it from a movie, an event that took place in your neighborhood. But manly I use music. For every intense or loving scene I try to use music that will best describe what I am trying to put out. I listen to the song on repeat until I feel I have successfully written the scene.

Inspiration? Nothing inspires me to write. I inspire me to write.

Perhaps more so is the intent on writing. bits and pieces come into play be it from watching someone in the park, out by the lake, watching tv, news coverage, to what's on page twelve of my local newspaper. Hell, it could come from remembering only a portion of a dream.

ideas are everywhere and anywhere. For instance, two days ago there were some violent thunder showers here, An hour later, the sun peeked its way through grey clouds, and all was right again, but it gave me the strangest idea. A what if, if you will. What if the sun was drenched in solar rain clouds and it rained only on the sun for days and days and the sun was getting weaker. And it affects our planet and the people on it? That was what I thought at the time. So, ideas, thoughts, they are random firing pins in your brain.

Next time you are out, say grocery shopping, take notes of how some people spend time gawking over the fresh produce or the meat section, or how people react in the checkout line. Perhaps a laundromat watching people fold their clothes before leaving. both examples could prove to be funny or strangely serious.

Read other authors to get a fresh spin on old ideas. After all, authors read authors. And just about everything on bookshelves in stores has been done and redone. but give it a new twist, a different spin and suddenly it becomes new (again).

In a slump? Walk away, get your mind on something else for a bit then come back to it. we have all had that brain fart but eventually it goes away and then you are back on track.

True story: Mid-eighties, I sat in front of a typewriter, one sheet of paper in the roller and stared at it for almost two hours! Two hours! Insane, I know, but my brain was telling me I had something to write and lo' and behold it finally came to me. Twenty minutes later I was finished and went to bed. It's on here somewhere. (I'm Not Insane but They Won't Set Me Free.)

On a side note, everything I have learned, outside of education, has been trial and error.

And like I have said many times ... Write what you know, research the rest, and if you need help, ask.

Away from keyboard

The key to me are the moments in between as I examine the seams of my counterfeit dreams… so in function my creative process is simple…

Writing, being such a brain drain, dissipates your ability to properly create and find a sincere sense of expression… so I get up and engage in an activity which requires as little thought as possible… for me it’s making noises on my guitar… and you do this you’ll discover a peaceful state where ideas start to flow more organically… stimulation for complexity through a simple action… mind over matter by using matter to manipulate the mind ... like taking substances

Drawings

Photographs

Words

I said it once and I'll say it again.

When I do a solitary adventure, I bring along a small sketchpad, a camera, and a notepad.

The common path you take everyday is always different from yesterday. For some reason I find myself being struck by random ideas unexpectedly in places I'm always familiar with and in a new path I take.

Everything becomes an inspiration if you don't expect an idea coming your way. Just enjoy what you see and fell in love to what was in front of you, then everything else will come after.

Emotions reconnects you to everything you see. Along with these drawings and pictures you capture, imprinted itself the feelings, thus yourself is recorded within those. It will somehow become a kind of memoir of your little adventures and ideas.

I got the habit of writing random words few years back.

To outline the concept I'm going to pursue which really helps me pick up more ideas in time and either combine old ideas to newer one, until it develops itself into a world, a universe of it's own.

Inspiration wasn't always there and most of the time absent when we needed it the most.

So I make myself unwind for a bit, enjoy my own company, breathe, then continue along.

Until you find some sparking flames and collect them, keep them close and get yourself engulfed by it.

And when ashes scatters with the wind, you'll find yourself picking up another sparks along the way.

Then the process repeats itself.

Writing has taken over just about every facet of my life, I cannot go out on a simple walk or just get out of bed without thinking about a couple of story beats for a poem or some future narrative that my mind spins up. I do not hate this of course being a writer, but I have found that inspiration is not a spark that just explodes in the center of your conscious but a gradual construction of odd bits and ends of your day. You write a quick line here and there about some idea that floats in your head and then you write another: "she was afterlife..." "when devil's play in my mind"...

Life is a grand story, and it is unique to your experiences, you will be inspired and you will steal for the better.

Overtime I learned how other artist "disciplines" go about creating, and I uncovered that it is a slow process of evolving a sound, an art style, a look, whatever it may be there is an evolution that is happening internally and externally simultaneously. I had several days where I wrote a couple of wonderful lines and then struggled to write anything else for the rest of the day, I forced myself to write and hoped that some grand idea would just fire out of my mind, but you have to take time to let your idea grow, it may be a great one but you need to be patient eventually you will learn how to properly craft it. There is no doubt that actually putting in the time to study on how to do it will help, but that may not always be the issue, sometimes you need to grow as a person to create an accurate representation of the concept, and not just force it into existence.

You hear a white noise thrum before the three piano notes. They linger in your mind for a space, and then the next three piano notes resolve the phrase, that white noise thrum underlying everything. All of this will recur several times while you sip your coffee, strong and black, and you hear a bass note repeat with increasing frequency: it's pressing you, until a new pitch pushes the white noise upward into the second track and its expansive layers over the beat. Your mind quickens and your fingers come alive, yearning to type.

At least, that's how it works for me when I brew some coffee and put on Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's soundtrack to The Social Network. Other beverages are acceptable substitutes, I suppose, but there's a purity to drinking one's coffee black, particularly if you grind your own beans.

Happy writing.

Inspiration is one of those things

that we try so hard to look for

when sometimes

it is already right in front of us,

pining for our attention.

Sometimes it's in the smallest things-

the way the wind

breathes ever so slightly

on the trees

blowing them back and forth

or

the way

that

dandelion wisps

drift away

so easily.

Sometimes it's in the stressful things-

like how at times

sleep seems to run from us

faster than Usain Bolt

ever could.

But most of all,

(and I bet this'll sound cheesy)

inspiration is inside

each and every one of us.

So there's no need to find it

because eventually

It will come.