For the past eighteen months most of us have been cooped up at home or locally with very little to do or see. As writers our inspiration has come from within or at least why we could see from pour windows. Whilst writers have vivid imaginations, we are now in a position to spread our wings a bit further as things ope up. Therefore, today's episode is jam packed with exercises, activities, and ideas for gaining inspiration for short stories, flash fiction, poems, articles and novels.
For the past eighteen months most of us have been cooped up at home or locally with very little to do or see. As writers our inspiration has come from within or at least why we could see from pour windows. Whilst writers have vivid imaginations, we are now in a position to spread our wings a bit further as things ope up. Therefore, today's episode is jam packed with exercises, activities, and ideas for gaining inspiration for short stories, flash fiction, poems, articles and novels.
Hi, and welcome to the writing and Marketing Show brought to you by author Wendy H. Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. It's jam packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast. So it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to Episode 79 of the writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur, Wendy h. Jones. Well, today, as I record this, and the date is the 28th of July 2021. Yesterday was what was commonly known as Freedom Day in England, and we've gone down to level zero in Scotland. Now, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what it means in England, in Scotland, it's not meaning a whole heck of a lot apart from we can have a few more people indoors with us. So we can have up to eight people No, but I'm carrying on wearing my mask and carrying on social distancing I'm carrying on protecting other people. But it does mean actually what it does mean is that we do have a little bit more freedom, we've got a bit more freedom to do things that we weren't able to do. So I thought this would be a good time to talk about inspiration again, because obviously, in the last 18 months, when we've been stuck indoors, most of the time, inspiration has come from in our heads, inspiration has pretty much come from our own four walls. And we've not beenable to do a lot of the things that would inspire us and give us ideas for our writing. Now, I'm a great believer in having a lot of different ideas for your writing. I'm a great believer in doing a lot of different things that will inspire you. So I thought I would revisit and touch on a lot of them today. And before I go into that, I would just like to say it's an absolute pleasure to bring you this short every week, I do so willingly and I love doing it. But it does take time out of my writing. If you would like to support that time, you can do so by going to patreon.com forward slash Wendy h Jones. And I would be very grateful you can do that for as little as $3 a month. That would mean that you're enjoying it all and you want me to carry on doing the show up to the 100th episode at least I'll review everything at the 100th episode, but I'm hoping I will carry on for 200 300 500 episodes, the sky's the limit, who knows I might still be here in 1000 episodes. You know, God willing our fair wind as they say. But if you went there, I would be very grateful. And you know, it would support my time. So what about inspiration? Well, there are so many different places that you can get inspiration for writing. And one of the ones which I like is going to art galleries, because you can get so much inspiration from the images in art galleries now or paintings in art gallery should I say now? I as I say I love them. I love looking at the paintings, but rather than just looking at Oh, isn't that a beautiful, beautiful image? You can look at the whole scene and take in maybe a family. And that will give you an idea of what what are they doing? Why were they gathering like that wasn't just for the picture. What could the people in the the painting be thinking? There's all that. Ask yourself questions. Ask yourself a lot of questions. Write down questions in advance so that you've got them at hand and you can think about them and jot down the ideas focusing on one tiny little bit of it. There might be a child playing with a dog. Or it may be as simple as a painting of a bowl of fruit. Why did the artists think that was important? What was going through their mind at the time? And just ask yourself questions. You know why through what they put out to sing? What are they at the beginning of their career within the end of the career? What are they asked when they commissioned to do this painting because somebody wanted it for the wall? Lots of questions to ask. And art galleries are a rich, rich source of inspiration. Then museums. Now I live in a very small city Dundee. It's not the biggest city in the world you can get from one end to the other in 20 minutes in a car. So we're not exactly talking New York or London here. But even so we have so many museums. We have the Science Museum. We have the verdant works, which is the jute museum. We have the Victoria and Albert Museum, the McManus Museum and Art Gallery. We have the Dundee Museum of transport we have discovery point where the rrs discovery ship is and that's the ship that went to the North Pole was at the North Pole mount I went to the Antarctic rums. I don't even know Dundee history, it went to the Antarctic, but with Captain Scott, Robert Falcon Scott, and it was built in Dundee. So that's there. We also have HMS unicorn, which is another another ship in Dundee. And HMS unicorn is a frigate, and it's the oldest example, frigates still afloat. So we've got a lot of different inspiration. Now, I will tell you that rrnas discovery is the setting for one of my murder mystery books. So and it's quite the that murder mystery is called m killers crew. And it's about a film crew, and the ship's crew. And it was all inspired by a visit to each discovery. And to be honest, I just came up with the idea and I ran with it. So don't limit yourself if you go on an old ship, and then think about what stories could be inspired by that. They don't have to be Historical Museum. stories do not have to be historical. I was on a visit to the McManus museum and gallery. And I come up with came up with a contemporary, young adult mystery. Whatever dargo was on loan and it was stolen. And then a couple of teenagers had to do it. So don't limit yourself to history when you're in these places. Country walks at a rich source of inspiration. I mean, didn't do a didn't do robber barons, any. You know, he didn't do him any harm because when he was ploughing or just doing his job ploughing on his farm, he upturned the mouse's nest and the most was running away and inspired a poem to moose as we see here, or to a mouse for all those who are English and don't understand the Scottish vernacular. So never dismiss anything out of hand. The smallest tiniest things can give you inspiration for your writing. And going to the seaside this seaside is packed with ideas for stories. You know, you've got the sea, you've got seaweed, you've got grass, you've got sand, you've got the creatures that live in the sand. So so so many different ideas at the sea site. You've got piers you might have piers, you might have a funfair, you might have a river sidewalk, and the cafes are there. And you know fish and chip shops have they got to the shops have people wearing kiss me quick hearts, which was a thing when I was a child, I don't know if they do that anymore. But if we went to Blackpool that would kiss me quick hearts and things like that are the children with buckets and spades. You know, people lying there resting. Lots of inspiration. Just look around, you look at everything that colours, the sights, the sounds, the smells, even if it doesn't inspire a story, guys, if your character goes to that place that countryside or the seaside, then that will give a richness to your narrative and richness to your story and help it pop off the page. And you know, funfairs funfairs a rich source. Although at the moment, you may have a socially distanced guy. So I have to say with the caveat at the moment of it's happening, because some of these things still might not be happening. funfairs can give you ideas for stories, they can also you can also listen to the people around you. What are they talking about? What do they sound like when they're on the funfair rides? are they eating ice creams? Is the ice cream dripping down? Are wasps bothering them? Lots and lots of different things you can think about and write down and listen to what they're saying. And swimming. Why not go to a swimming pool? You know, what are things like? Why are people swimming? Are they swimming to keep fit? Are they swimming? Because they enjoy it? Are they swimming because the doctors told them to are the swimming because it's the only thing that's open at the moment. You know, lots of things you can look at and think about, you know, are they plotting a murder, okay, I'm a crime writer, and usually plotting a murder somewhere. So if I'm swimming up and down, you can bet your bottom dollar. I'll be thinking about how to bump people off. Not for my children's picture books, though. Sorry, small gap in proceedings there because I had to take a little drink. So what else can you do? How about writing down a word this morning? I tried it with just one word. Mill. That was all I had. Mill and I did a mind map of lots and lots of different stories. That I could come up with just from that one word. And I can assure you I came up with over 100, just from writing down the word mill. And I used it, I used a brand new mind mapping programme that I discovered this morning. And it's called mind nod. Now, I'm using the free version at the moment, but I think I might get the actual might get the actual paid version, because very good, it's 20 pounds a year or something, or 19 pounds a year, which is one time 62 a month. It's very, very good value. But even the free one is good. And you can have a go and you can try it out. But I'm not here to sell your main note. I'm just saying that I did that this morning, and came up with something which I'm going to use in my writing. And all those story ideas I came up from from one word, so just write a random word down and go with it, run with it, and decide that you want to do it. And what about coffee shops? What are people doing? What are they wearing? What are the conversations about listening to the conversations, look at what the baristas are doing? You could come up with a story for a barista, you know, so many different stories. What what colours are in the coffee shop? Is it branding? Is it vibrant? Is it tough? Is it quirky? Is that unusual? Do they have second hand books that you can help yourself to what is the story of what are the story of the stories of the people that are in there? and parks parks are another great place. We have numerous parks in Dundee, and I'm sure you do as well wherever you live. So if you've got parks go and visit them. Look at what they're like, have they got trees? Have they just got flowers? Have they got a little parcel in them? we're obsessed with castles in Scotland. So a lot of our parks do have a castle in them I have to say. So is there a castle? Is there a stately home in it? Is there a dock pond is there a boat pond? And all these places can give you so much inspiration the children's play Park is a paddling pool, horse riding a golf course II am talking about one part we haven't done D which is called competent Park. And it's got a lot of these things. You know I did at one point. So what are the sorts of things that you can actually see and do in that place? Why are the people there? Are they there for exercise? Are they there for fun? Are they there because they just want to see other people because they're lonely? Let your mind just bought wild. And newspapers. Oh my goodness, newspapers are a rich source of inspiration, whether they're contemporary or historical. I'm going to give you a little example. I was reading a copy of the Dundee evening telegraph or courier I'm not sure which from V day sorts of historical paper. And I was reading it and I was looking at a lot of different things in terms of what was going on in that time. And there was a tiny, tiny little three line three sentence piece. Now bear in mind, this is the Ed and they said that somebody rather died. And they were the leader of the Klu Klux Klan in a in a tone and a state in America. And I thought, why did somebody think that was important to report in the Dundee telegraph? On the day of VE day? Now, did they come from Dundee originally? Now? I think that would make a brilliant article, because I want to research that. And by the way, oh, it's copyright to me. No, I'm not joking. We all write different things. So I thought that would be a really good thing to research and I thought it would be a brilliant idea for a story. Why did somebody from Dundee go to America and become a join the Klu Klux Klan and become, you know, the leader of the Klu Klux Klan. Now that's going to be a very deep and a horrible piece. It's not going to be fun piece because obviously I'm not saying that anybody should join the Klu Klux Klan or the Klu Klux Klan or right or the anybody should be doing anything like that. But as a piece it's interesting to think about and, and you will get a rich source from newspapers on taking that further also from magazines. And what about the adverts in the newspapers? Oh my goodness, I can tell you know, that on the day the good people of Dundee were obviously obsessed, and I mean really obsessed, with constipation, because every single advert seem to be for laxatives, laxative, chewing gum, laxative, chocolate laxative that you could buy at the chemist? Oh my goodness, you could buy it everywhere. And that would make a brilliant quirky story I think. Um, so look at the adverts. What are they telling you about the people at the time, but they can do the adverts can also tell you about the people of the time if you're writing historical fiction book and can give inspiration for a storyline for your longer book and castles? Well, as I say, in Britain, you can't in Britain, well, in Britain, yes, but certainly in Scotland, you can't move without tripping over. You can't move without tripping over a castle. So castles are a rich source of inspiration, whether they're ruined castles, whether they've got museums in them, whether they're, whether they're telling you just a piece of life, like a toy Museum, something like that, because there are castles with toy museums in them, or whether it's still a castle with people living in it, but they're open to the public. And there are castles everywhere, bought a castle, you will come up with a lot of different ideas for stories, libraries, libraries, you can do in a lot of different ways. You can watch people or people sitting, reading the newspapers, they're the free newspapers, because they can't afford newspapers, or they're doing it because they're lonely, their spouse might have just died. And they can't bear sitting reading that in the newspaper in the house, because that's what they done when their wife or husband was alive. And they did it together. So they're not going to the library to do it. Or they're looking for a job. Or what just let your imagination run wild. In the libraries. Now, there's no being quiet, you can you know, I've gone to the library. And we've heard people say that, you know, children singing and a little teapot, you know, because they have children's time. So that can give you ideas, you know, what are the librarians doing? lots of ideas, and blogs. If you read blogs, you can get a screed of ideas for short stories for poems for articles, and I'm not saying recreate the blog. I'm saying you can get ideas. Then observatories What about observatories? observatories have glare places Unfortunately, the one in Dundee is closed at the moment because of COVID. So we can't go there. But we do have the mills Observatory, but you can go and look at the night sky or even just go and look at the night sky outside. But that can give you a lot of ideas for books. You know, it could be romantic walks, it could be you know, people staring at the sky thinking of higher things could be Christian, it could be sci fi, it could be fun to say all sorts of things. Then statues honest to goodness, statues are amazing way of doing stories, and articles. For example, in the middle of Dundee, we have a dragon. And the dragon is based on a forked tail. And I've done an article about that dragon in for a magazine piece. We also have a polar bear a statue of a polar bear in the middle of Dundee. Now Dundee is not exactly in the North Pole, or the Antarctic. But apparently, in the past, somebody had two polar bears in Dundee, they, they went off with the whaling ships, they brought back and two polar bears. And they were showing them off in Dundee and taking them to fairs. And apparently, they broke loose. One day, were chasing people. So we now have a statue of someone being chased by a polar bear in the middle of Dundee. And we also have a lot of penguin statues. But that's because the rrs discovery went off to the Antarctic. So we like penguins. We like a nice penguin in Dundee. But what does that say about the people of Dundee? And what does it say about Dundee itself? You know, we also have statues that we have statues that have for Desperate Dan, Mini-the-Minx, Gnasher the Dog, Dennis the Menace. They're all cartoon characters, the characters from comics that are written and illustrated and printed in Dundee. And we are waiting for a museum, a comic museum to open as well, but it's all been delayed by COVID. But obviously, you can't write stories about the cartoon characters. But you could write an article the history of Dundee in, you know, 2020 statues. You can get ideas from all of that. Then what about hill climbing? We have a lot of hills around here. What can you see? What does it make you think of, you know, lots of ideas, and go on a bus ride and just listen to what people are saying, Look at what they're wearing. You know, what interests them? Do they look bored? Do they look happy? Do they look miserable? Do they look tired? Are they going to work? Are they going to visit grandchildren? Are they going to you know visit the cemetery. Lots of things that these people could be doing. So think about it. train rides, exactly the same, I don't need to go over that. Again, it's the same as bus rides. Although if you're in first class, it can be quite pleasant because you get some nice food as well, which is always a good thing. And what about your local archives and even National Archives? You can get so much inspiration from those archives. And if you listen to the, the actual podcast that I did, and I think it's entitled, when things go wrong, and then you can listen to what I was talking about, in terms of, you know, doing research in archives, and find out how you can do that. And shopping centres again, why are people there? Do they want to buy a birthday present? Do they want to buy something for themselves? Are they out doing the shopping? Are they just passing time? Are they bored? Or do they look as if they've had enough and they want to go home to husband's look as if they're being dragged around by the scruff of the neck and bowling alleys, ice skating all rich sources of what people could be doing. And why not go up a tall building in your city. Now, in Dundee, we have the old steeple, which is Scotland's oldest surviving mediaeval church tower. And we can go to the top of that and see Dundee from a totally different angle. And that gives me so much inspiration because I see buildings I didn't even know existed. I see things at the tops of buildings that I didn't even know what they're because I've never looked up. So that's another thing look up. I also did a similar thing when I was in Jerusalem. And I went to the top of the church tower, and I looked down on Jerusalem, and you could see so many things, how many people actually had gardens and had, you know, on tops of the buildings in Jerusalem, because a lot of the buildings are flat there. So you could see a lot of gardens on the top, you could see buildings that were squashed in between other buildings. Fascinating that was in the Old City. So you can do that sort of thing. And travelling travel to other places. Now again, the caveat here is we're not actually allowed to travel at the moment covered cases are arising in, in Britain, and a lot of countries are saying that they don't actually welcome us. So the one caveat with all of this is stay safe with it all. But travelling will give you a rich, rich, rich source of inspiration for your writing. And also supermarkets, something as simple as standing at the cheese counter, and looking at all the different cheeses, and then came about all the different places they've come from, could give you an idea for an article. Or you could be writing a story about somebody that is buying cheese, or that loves cheese and is trying to eat every single type of cheese that's ever come from the world. This is all off the top of my head, guys, I haven't prepared this. So I don't know it's up to you to think about things. I'm just giving you ideas of what you can do. And a board trip, we can do bought trips in Dundee. We can go out into the tear, we can go out to the sea a little bit. And we can do boat trips. So boat trips can give you a rich source of information, guided walks, we can do so many guided walks in Dundee. It's amazing. I would like to give a shout out to the chaps from dark Dundee who do a very good job of doing the dark, don't detox but there are also other talks that you can take the children on, and things like that. I did a jack the Ripper walk in London. That was amazing. So that brings me to the end of everything that I am going to talk about today. What I will say is I'm going to finish by saying these are just ideas, use your own ideas, guys go out, think about ways what ideas have you got for writing stories like this, I then would really you know, you can get so much inspiration from everywhere. So I would advise you to get a notebook, get a pen and start writing down all the different ways that you can think of getting ideas for stories. Then write down the ideas that you've got from those before you know where you are, you will have a million story ideas and you will be cooking on gas. So have a great week or next week. I will be back with another interview you enjoy your week and keep writing. That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy h Jones and you can find me at Wendy H jones.com. You can also find me on Patreon where you can support me for As little as $3 a month which is less than the price of a tea or coffee, you go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy h Jones. I'm also went to h Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week and keep writing. Keep reading and keep learning