Trust Your Heart if the Seas Catch Fire, Live by Love

Creative inspiration can be found everywhere: from the pages of your favorite books, to the air, flowers, and scenery on your morning walk. You just need to open your eyes, and take everything in, marvel at the wonder, and let your imagination take control.

I am inspired . . .

By long walks. Specifically, walks that engage my senses and opens up my mind. I haven't been walking lately due to extremely cold weather. While this hasn't interfered with my daily exercise routine, being indoors leaves me feeling confined and trapped. I prefer to be outside. When I workout indoors, I am in a workout zone where the exercise becomes my focus, but when I am outside my mind wanders, and it starts creating. From that point, it's never about the exercise, but what my senses are feeling.

By books and magazines. Good ones. I am inspired by beautiful, exquisite photography, well written essays, personal stories, and books that charge my imagination and trigger an emotional response inside me. My favorite magazines are usually travel and fashion magazines. Books range, but I love incredible storytelling.

By conversations. Conversations help me connect, not only with myself and the person I am talking to, but with the characters I am creating. Talking to different types of people helps me to gain perspective on different personality types. Books read better when each character has their own voice. Lately I have been doing most of my talking on-line via social media channels, or with my roommate. I also have bi-weekly conversations with the game night crew. I have conversations with neighbors and the mailman on a semi-regular basis. I also find myself inspired by my once a month errands that get me away from the house, which allows me to people watch and talk to strangers.

By problems. As a writer, I solve problems with words. For me, there is nothing more satisfying that finding the right turn of phrase to transform the murkiest muddle of madness into something so elegantly precise.

By my father. He is the smartest person I know, and one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. He is my hero.

By myself. I aim to challenge myself every day. Life on-line is as much a roller coaster as it is in real life. There is always a slowdown, when there is not as much work to do, like most jobs, and the money slows down a little, and in those moments I focus my attention on other projects. This is when I let my creativity flow. I focus my attention on my personal projects because I know eventually they will become another source of income for me. The slowdown is the time when I can work on my stuff before the job boards pick-up again. This is also the time when I can build personal pieces to submit to magazines.

Personally, even though it is not ideal, I do some of my best thinking when I can’t sleep at night or when I’m far away from my computer; in quiet moments that allow for reflection. Most of the time I dream up an entire story in my head before I actually sit down to type it out.