As a writer, be it of prose, theater, music, or otherwise, you need to make sure that you have a process to find your inspiration, as much as anything else. After all, without inspiration, a writer doesn’t have much material to actually write. Traditional sources of inspiration tend to include one’s own life, as well as other writers in your medium, but why limit yourself? Here, we’re going to look at the importance of exploring inspiration through other mediums and creative lenses, as well.
The power of art
If you have ever wanted a writing prompt, then there are few better places to go than to your local gallery or your local art museum. Whether it’s the expansive and eye-opening vignettes of Hieronymus Bosch, the haunting mythological scenes of Francisco Goya, or more abstract arts like Albert Oehlen, there are all kinds of inspiration to be found from art. Whether it inspires a specific scene, a story, or even just a feeling that you want to capture through your writing, it’s a great way to find inspiration without accidentally aping off another creator. A lot of writers can attest to the unconscious habit of mirroring styles and writing habits from writers they have read recently.
A trip to the theater
If you find it easier to get inspired by stories and characters than by images, then the theater might be the perfect place for you. Film can work perfectly fine as an inspirational medium, but you might find even more worth in experiences outside of the more traditional pop culture fare. Dance theater is some of the most expressive and emotionally engaging, and artists like Shen Yun take it a step further with a cultural and historical lens that might take you even further from your proverbial wheelhouse. Of course, you have to be careful not to directly appropriate, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t think about how to apply your own lens to elements from different cultures and mediums.
Critical works can work, too
Do you like to think about how and what, exactly, works about the stories that you like? Would you like to better understand how you can apply that reasoning to your own writing? There is a growing culture of video essays on Youtube, including great works by creators like Folding Ideas, Lindsey Ellis, and Every Frame a Painting. While they may not precisely critique works within the medium or genre that you are working in, they can teach you more critical frameworks you can use while creating your own stories, helping you find potholes to avoid and interesting questions in terms of both form and content to address.
Wherever you find inspiration, so long as it works for you, it is valid. However, there’s no denying that a more well-rounded writer is made, in part, by taking inspiration from a wide range of places, not just those places are are easier to draw from. The more insight, the more experience, the better.
