Everyday Canvas

Inspiration...to me

Prompt: What is inspiration to you? Aside from writing from prompts, is inspiration something you run into while reading or living your day-to-day life, or do you have a mystical attitude about it as if it comes from dreams or during a trance-like state?

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Inspiration to me is something idea-like that suddenly pops up. Sometimes, it is more than an idea; it is an emotion. It is, at times, a referral to my past or something or someone who had a huge impression on me. Inspiration comes with a feeling of being alive, with that ahha! moment. Inspiration, usually, requires some harvest from the inspired. Without its crops, inspiration is only a fleeting moment.

I get inspiration from a variety of sources, mainly from nature such as the ocean, animals, sunsets, trees, clouds, etc. Most often, however, I am inspired by what I read. Usually, it is not the whole story, poem, or book, but a phrase or a sentence. During the GOT, while reviewing, I was inspired by many a WdC writer’s phrases. For example, “Past my passed past” in Fivesixer’s "Here, there and everywhere else..."  kept repeating in my head. I don’t even know why, but I stopped everything GOT and wrote something. The same thing happens with books, articles, newspapers, etc. I don’t always follow through, though. Usually, I note it down to come back to it later, but mostly, when I get back to it, I find out that the same phrase or sentence has lost its impact.

I am also inspired, to a lesser degree, by the people I meet, the conversations I overhear, classical music, a picture, etc. Sometimes what inspires me ends up becoming something huge like a novel or something tiny like a haiku. I usually have no inkling about what kind of an output will happen as the result of an inspiration.

While writing this, a question occurred to me as Can there be a negative inspiration? and then, a follow-up question, How could it be negative if it were an inspiration?

The only answer I can think of would be some idea that would make me stop writing altogether. Stopping writing would mean cutting off my very own lifeline, and that would be really negative. So, I take my inspiration from wherever I find it. Once in a rare while, it works. Even when it doesn’t, I feel connected and happy regardless of the lack of success in my writing.