I was thinking today about how much I am motivated and inspired by reading about and watching videos about writers and teachers. After reading an article about a revolutionary and hard-working teacher that I am assigning for class today, I was inspired enough that I plowed through an enormous stack of grading.
Sometimes, I get inspiration in unexpected places. An episode of Mad Men might inspire a lesson for my class the next day (on messages in the media, not adultery, lol). A movie might inspire me to write a novel. Inspiration is a tricky thing. I am usually not inspired so much by specific ideas as I am by excellence itself. Seeing a great movie makes me want to tell a great story, even if I’m using a different medium.
Where do you turn to for inspiration, and what inspires you?
Between Lightning 
I find that following the blogs, tweets, and vlogs of my favorite authors (and authors on my to-read list) really gets me inspired to write. Of course, I’ll inevitably waste several hours “getting inspired”… but still, I love it 🙂
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Yep, I’m this way with writing books. I can’t decide if my time were better spent just writing, but then I think that if I DIDN’T read the books, I would eventually lose interest in writing.
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Yes! All over the web there are interesting pictures and stories. I started a Tumblr account to act as my personal/public scrapbook. I can keep track of interesting articles, look at the pictures again later–and use playing with it as a reward for getting some writing done.
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Ooooh, I LOVE the idea of putting together a Tumblr scrapbook. I’m using Delicious to save links, but they are all teaching-related for work. Maybe I’ll use Tumblr for writing stuff.
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I do websites and write music for a living and I find that a lot of my inspired ideas come when i’m just about to fall asleep, you know, that moment when you’re not quite asleep but not awake either? I always find my mind starts to create shapes and scenarios, even music when it’s in this state and it has inspired a lot of my creative ideas. You just have to make sure you don’t completely fall asleep without writing them down or they’re gone forever!
Best regards
Andy
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Honestly, I never know where the inspiration for a design is going to come from. It’s kind of fun that way.
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well, I watch a lot of TV…and I read a lot…I can normally be inspired by a song, a commercial, a line in a book. One where i have to put the book down and just “think on it” because it hit me somewhere an I am going to process it. I just wish I had the time/wherewithall to get it all down on paper somewhere. 🙂
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Hmm. You know, I just got back from BlissDom Canada, and that entire conference was very inspiring. The sessions and panels and listening to wonderful bloggers share their stories and the emotion from all the women, and the words of encouragement… all of that made me want to be a better blogger. On the home front, my grandmother is inpirational to me, and I strive to be a better mother every day because of her! And my mom, too. 🙂
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