Where do you get inspiration? Options

[spearcarrier]

I find inspiration from community and being around others. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be people I'm interacting with at the time. I find I'm most creative in public. I know that sounds funny, but being home and alone with my thoughts for some odd reason doesn't do it for me. It's okay when I want to blog, write a review or something very targeted, but when I want to really create I seem to need to be around others.

As many of you may know, I've been writing a novel for some time. It languished for years until I started writing at a local coffee house that I now refer to as my "second home". Once I started writing there, it's like the world started to take shape for the first time in years and I really opened up to the story I wanted to tell.

I don't know if it's developed into a crutch for me, but I much of the first 10,000 words I've put to paper have been at this same location and they will certainly get a massive thank you if it's ever published.

A novel? Interesting!

I know with my first "real" novel I ended up writing the entire thing during my lunch break. These days I've got a novel I slowly work on and could stand to pick up the pace if my characters would stop trying to do things out of my experience league.

Sometimes I think I need a reality checker more than inspiration.

[ChuckMoore]

Reality checker... Nice.

There are days I think I live by the "throw it all up against the wall and see what sticks", then back away and look at it, then tweak approach.