I’ve found two things that inspire me to create a story. Music and pictures.

I don’t have a whole lot of interest in photography in the sense that, I don’t want to be the person with the camera in my hand very often. That said I love looking at beautifully taken photography as evidenced by the amount of time I spend on Pexels and other photography sites. Many times I look at a picture and instead of seeing a thousand words, I see a story. It acts almost like an actual story prompt.

My other inspiration for writing emotions is music. I may have mentioned I was a music teacher earlier in my life. Music has a way both grounding me and evoking emotion that I can then put to words. I listen to many different genres. When I feel stuck listening to music often helps me past that point.

Sometimes I’ll chose music based on the type of scene I’m writing. This seems to help me set the mood and even sometimes the actions of the characters. I switch between setting up a plan to write and just letting myself write as I go. It’s a bit a both really. I’ll probably have to make an entire post about my writing process at some point.