Writing Inspiration – Accidental or Formal

When you write creatively, you’re a writer. Many of us take a long tome to actually acknowledge this, and claim the title, but it’s true, if you write, you’re a writer. And if what you write is poetry, then guess what, you’re a poet. The words don’t have to be published, or even shared with anyone else. There are many writers and poets who have many written words tucked away, hidden from the world that may be desperate to read those words, without realising, as you don’t realise it either.

So, there are many of us writers and poets. And of the many out there, what we all love is getting an inspiration, that lights the fire of our imagination and mind, and the words come. For some they feel they need that inspiration to come from something within themselves, or from Nature, or some such thing. Others feel fine using writing exercises, and things such as a five word challenge can be their inspiration.

Or an inspiration can be a happy accident, where two different things come together, adding up to, not two, but fifteen, and something far greater than the sum of its parts has emerged. Certainly, I feel my current writing adventure was one of those happy accidents, where a phrase, and an idea have come together, and an Anthology is on its way to coming into the world.

I enjoy five word challenges too though, and am finding that the more often I do them, the better I get at doing them. I know many of my writing friends enjoy doing five word challenges, because members of writing groups I’m involved in do them, and produce marvellous pieces of writing with them.

Nature, though, Nature is my biggest inspiration, in my life, and in my writing. My usual writing position at home, during the day, gives me a window into Nature, with flowers, trees, creatures, and the sky all bringing me peace, ideas, and conflict too, sometimes – all inspirational.

Today I was watching an ant. It was in my back yard, I was standing watching the goings on in and around some ant nests, and one ant was carrying something, so I decided to watch where it would take it. WE often think of ants as being purposeful workers, but this ant wandered around one tiny area, about 30cm x 30cm, carrying that burden over difficult areas, backwards forwards, over and under weeds, toward a next hole and away, back again. Then I looked away and the ant was gone!

Well the ant of course could have still been there, because there were ants all around the nests, but I couldn’t see one carrying that piece of whatever it was. And of course, to me, all of the ants around that nest look exactly the same. I was only able to see that particular ant because of the ‘whatever it was’ it had been carrying. So, burden gone, interest gone? No not really – the idea of carrying a burden, a thing, giving one a sense of purpose is definitely an interesting idea to write about, in many ways.

What could it mean to the one with the burden, or to be burdened and to put it down, and go back to normal life. Does carrying, or having a possession make you more important than others, or give you a sense of purpose? These ideas could certainly be inspirations for many kinds of writing.

Inspiration is the thing that takes our writing from ordinary, to something more, something greater, from the mundane to meaningful and perhaps magnificent. Use the world as your inspiration and look with eyes, and mind, and all of your other senses, if need be. Inspiration fed gives much to the writer, seek it, feed it, benefit from it. The world needs your words!