Hey everyone! It’s time for our second inspiration post. I hope this one is as helpful as last weeks. I can’t wait to hear from all of you with any ideas on future posts or comments on any thoughts you had on last weeks post. I would also like to hear if any of you have any exciting new book ideas after following any of the advice in any of the posts in this series. So, without further ado…
Inspiration: Read Widely
Inspiration is sometimes lying around, quite literally. Books are a great source of inspiration to help get you back writing again. Inspiration in reading can be found in all sorts of ways but I’ve summed all of those reading skills into one general piece of advice which is read widely. Now, reading widely is not just as simple as it sounds. This includes some simple steps, but it also includes some more deeper observations than simply reading for pleasure. This might sound quite boring to those who really only like to read if it’s reading for enjoyment. But, if you use these skills correctly then don’t worry about it, reading will become just as fun even if it’s not your favorite genre.
Step One: Step Outside Your Reading Comfort Zone
The first step to reading widely to be inspired is to step outside your reading comfort zone. If you are a person who loves reading for enjoyment, then you will know that there is usually one or two genres that you particularly enjoy reading. When you read, you usually pick books from those genres. For example, I am an avid science fiction and fantasy reader. A majority of the books that I read are science fiction and fantasy novels. This used to be the only kind of book that I would read until one day I read a writer blog, much like this one, where I learned about something really similar to what I’m going to share with you today in this post.
And just like I’m telling you now, that writer told me that the first step was to read books that I hadn’t read before and had never imagined myself reading. And so, I did. I started by reading other fiction genres that I had never really read before. I read mystery novels, I read romance, I read thrillers, I even read a couple horrors. Then I began reading other forms of fiction such as comic books, manga, and short stories of all genres. From there I began reading historical fiction and eventually non-fiction.
Some of why I was able to read so widely, so quickly has to do with step two, but it really started with this first step of stepping outside my reading comfort zone of science fiction and fantasy novels.
Step Two: Observe Writing Styles and Writing Skills
One of the best ways for a writer to improve is for a writer to actively observe and understand a story structure, style, and an author’s writing skills. If you have read through my Small Skills Series of posts then you will know that some of the skills that I write about in that series are skills that I didn’t learn from any sort of writing group or class. I learned most of those skills by observing a wide variety of writing over a long period of time and coming to my own conclusion on writing skills that I noticed.
Once I began to observe writing styles and writing skills, I began to notice the differences between different genres as well as between different authors. Some of those things that I observed I’m not sure how to articulate. Some of those things were things I know how to state but not how to explain such as the fact that foreshadowing in a Fantasy novel is different than foreshadowing in a mystery novel. Some of those things were things I found difficult but necessary to explain and some where easy to explain. These last two types were what I wrote a majority of the posts in my Small Skill Series about.
But no matter what I observed, whether I could explain it or not, I tried to employ those things in my writing. And no matter how much I thought I understood a skill there wasn’t anything that I didn’t notice that I couldn’t apply to make my stories better. And I always found something new to work on the more I read different books.
Step Three: Imagine Past The Page
This last step is the step that will really bring about inspiration for any writer who has taken the first two steps to heart. Step three is to imagine past the page.
As I have spoken to different kinds of writers over the years there is something that I have noticed about all of them. Every writer has a really good imagination. It’s one of the things that makes every writer a good writer. So, the third and final step is the step that I think most writers find the easiest to take. And that is to continue to imagine. No matter what kind of book you are reading there are different ways to imagine past the page.
For example, if I was reading a fiction novel, I could maybe imagine a different ending to a book that I really enjoyed and that could help me to create a whole new book idea that I’d never would have thought of on my own. I could also take an unexplored aspect of the story and change the setting or genre of the story and thereby come up with a whole new idea for a novel all on my own.
If I was reading non-fiction, changing the setting of a biography, or the context of the information in a fact book can always inspire new ideas. The best book ideas I have had are usually from reading anthropology or history books.
One of the biggest problems for writers in achieving inspiration through reading is the idea that you cannot plagiarize someone else’s story. While I do not advocate for plagiarism, I do think there is a difference between plagiarism and inspiration. I wrote a whole post on it here.
I do believe that anyone who follows these 3 steps for inspiration from reading can easily find inspiration in their fictional or non-fictional enjoyment of the paper world. I hope that this week’s post was helpful to all of those seeking out new ways to be inspired. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog member, share, and follow me on social media at the links at the bottom of this page. Have a great week and remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
Comments