Finding Inspiration: Poetry

Lately, many people have been asking me how I come up with my poems and short stories and what I use for inspiration.

This sparked an idea for a blog post. I thought that all of you lovely readers might be interested in how I write my pieces and perhaps you will take some of this to heart and start writing your own pieces.

Let's take a look into my mind, shall we?

I love to take inspiration from ordinary things. My favorite poems and short stories are all results from odd little things in my ordinary life that I turn into a piece of writing.

For example, I love Disney and Pixar films. I have only watched it once and it was years ago, but the beginning of the movie Up inspired my short story, Dear You. I wrote it during a long car ride. Because I love letters, I had been meaning to write a short piece that was made up of unsent letters. When I placed my pen onto my paper, the words simply flowed.

I prefer to write on pen and paper. I find that I am prouder of the pieces I have written on paper than the ones I have typed. Some examples are Dear You, Don't Tell Anyone, and When Everything Was Golden.

The idea for When Everything Was Golden  was when my mother and I were reflecting on some of the past vacations we had been on and she said "the good old days," which is what When Everything Was Golden was originally going to be called. When I was writing the piece, I changed "the good old days" to "when everything was golden" and it stuck.

I also often get inspiration from photoraphy. Whether it be my own or simply a photograph from Pinterest, I've always thought of photographs as "little snapshots of life" which carry so much inspiration.

Finding inspiration can be difficult at first, but once you open your eyes, everything will seem like potential for a new poem or story. Be creative.