How does a writer seek inspiration?

I recently wrote about the importance of seeking inspiration for overcoming writers block and I thought perhaps it was time to write a bit about how we should seek this inspiration, and specifically how I seek this inspiration. Of course depending on what you write about [fiction/non-fiction] will determine how useful these things are.

There is a quote I often read online from Stephen King which goes

"There are two things a great writer does, write and read."

 It's true, exposing yourself to different writers will have an impact on you and helps you encounter ideas. Within this there is a two fold element.

The first is to look at what topics they are writing about, is this something you could write about? what topics do they deal with? What perspective do they offer on this? What do you think about this? [Note: don't commit plagiarism. You know where the boundary is I don't need to say anything else.]

The second is language analysis and taking good elements of writing from other writers. Look at what tricks they are using in writing, are they sticking to the grammar rules? How are they breaking them? What Lexis do they use? Are there any words you don't know? How often do you encounter them? Can you work them out from context? How often do they use adjectives and adverbs? etc.

Next look beyond books.

What can you take out of songs, pictures, experiences, dreams?

For me personally I write about my faith, my life in the Ukraine and teaching.

For my faith the biggest sources are prayer and reading the bible. Whenever I am doing these two things I notice that it is much easier to blog. [That is not to say that If i'm not blogging then I'm not praying/reading the bible, though it is quite possible, sometimes I just don't have time.]

My life in the Ukraine is pretty obvious how it is a source of inspiration.

As for teaching sometimes inspiration comes from teaching a lesson and learning something from that, sometimes from a training session, reading a book, reading a blog or just a conversation with a friend. What I've noticed is that teaching seams to inspire me in other areas too. Sometimes I think about how this can be applied to my faith or to my other hobbies.

The cure for writer's block, seek inspiration

I use to think that writter's block was some mythical creature that couldn't be seen but it's affects could clearly be identified! It would prowl around an innocent Author, Blogger or musician and when they least suspected it strike them and drain all their inspiration in a second.

But looking back on the past few years of Blogging I find myself coming to a different conclusion.

You see when I wrote lots it was because either I was writing rubbish ranty political posts [and there are plenty of people out there doing that trust me] or because events were happening in my life and I thought people would be interested in them or because I had learnt something new about a subject I cared about and I wanted to share it.

Over the years the subject matter has changed from politics to it's current residence of religion and Teaching English as a Foreign language but it is still a true fact. When I learn something exciting I want to tell people about it. 

It makes me think about what my friend Andrew Brims has said about people who come up to him saying they feel called to preach. They often come up with great enthusiasm saying that God has been telling them to preach and their ready and they just need the stage to preach. "Great" he says..."So what are you going to talk about?" they usually reply with less enthusiasm about something or other, or that they'll just preach whatever is on the rota. Usually this is the point where he responds back with asking "what has God placed on your heart."... Now if they can answer this it's great! God may well be asking them to preach and be giving them a message [just this once or often]. If not then he probably isn't asking them to preach. 

I know for myself that the times when I can write about these things are when God is challenging me, when I am regularly spending time in his presence and opening his word. Writing about these things isn't my main reason for doing this but it's a good sign for me. 

[please note the last 2 months of relative silence are more due to large amounts of work plus some things shouldn't be shared.]