Inspiration Abounds by Annmarie Miles

What a joy to be joining the blog team today; and on such a momentous weekend. Yesterday some of us will have marvelled at the splendour of the Royal Wedding, today we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost. I can’t imagine much trouble with writer’s block this weekend.

Although there are times I struggle to put words on paper (or screen), it’s usually more to do with how I’m feeling inside. On the outside there’s always plenty of inspiration if I take the time to look for it.

I went to a writing workshop a few years ago and the leader challenged us to write a story based on an incidental piece of writing; like a benign text message or a note to the milkman. I remembered I had a shopping list in my bag and used it as a basis for a story about someone struggling with money who had a secret benefactor buy them some groceries. It’s one of the tales I am most proud of, in my first collection. The exercise helped me to see the storyful potential of the smallest ideas.

This weekend is easy; plenty going on to give us a hook into a creative piece or some non-fiction musings. Sadly, most weekends don’t have Princess Brides and Flames of Fire to fuel our stories. I do believe however, we can find great inspiration in simple things. And isn’t that a biblical principal? The day of small things, the mustard seed, the meagre lunch; they all have amazing potential.

Is that a story in there?

I’m a big fan of free-writing. Where you just tumble out a lot of words, non-stop, for a set period of time. Most of what I come up with is nonsense, but there’s always a nugget in there somewhere. A phrase, a setting, a train of thought; raw material for something better. If I have nothing to start with then I look out the window, I read the last text message I got, I open the fridge, I rummage in a coat pocket, I think of what might have been in an empty envelope. I find an item or an idea and I write.

Inspiration can be found in anything. Look around, look up, look down, look behind you. There are stories everywhere. Go write them!

Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland. 
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it' She is working on a second collection due for publication in 2018, and a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'