I find myself filling more and more files with ideas for novels, stories, and even a series, the more I write. It doesn’t hurt to have a very active imagination, either.

But how did my head get so full of everything from simple, one sentence ideas, to character sketches, to more complex plots and settings?

Inspiration.

Here are the top 5 things that inspire my writing:

BOOKS

Having been a reader from a very young age, nothing gets me thinking about stories and characters more than reading books. I have a wide variety of tastes, from suspense/thrillers, horror, and cozy mysteries to romcoms and biographies. I love how a good book immerses me in its world, and how the characters let me experience things that I might otherwise never engage in within my own life experiences. Great characters can make me feel their grief, their joy, their fears, and their insecurities. Great villains shake the foundations of right and wrong. Heroes allow me to champion with them and remind me to never give up. Books remind me that we all have stories to tell, and like the authors of these books, I also want to share my stories with readers.

SHOWS/MOVIES

Like books, movies and shows allow me to experience things outside of my small corner of the world. But instead of my mind conjuring up my own unique images of the characters and their world when reading books, watching stories unfold on the screen creates bigger than life visuals that engage me in a different way. And often, these shows are interpretations of books, which can be good or bad, depending on whether I’ve already read the book and how vivid my own interpretation is inside my head.

REAL PEOPLE IN THE REAL WORLD

Nothing says believable characters more than listening and watching real people, facing real situations, having real interactions, and exhibiting real behaviors. I love sitting in a coffee shop and jotting down snippets of conversations, lines that might inspire a fictional character in one of my stories. Although my imagination is very active, it can also be very specific. Seeing a real person’s style, watching their mannerisms, including how they walk, how they use their hands to speak (or don’t use them to speak), and even their facial expressions remind me that every character I create needs to be a *real* person.

NEWS ITEMS/THE WORLD AROUND US

“They’re Watching”, my psychological thriller coming out in 2027, was inspired by a road trip through the prairies and a section of the landscape that impacted my overactive imagination. My first book, “When Love Won’t Die”, came from watching relationships and some of the toxic behaviors coming out of them. I’m not one to directly take a headline and use it as the premise of a novel, but stories of AI, global warming, and other broad themes have definitely inspired some of my creative thoughts and have weaved their way into my plots.

OTHER WRITERS

I subscribe to a ridiculous number of writer’s newsletters, read lots of blogs, listen to podcasts, and have a huge collection of craft books in my reference library. Writers know writing…and they have a lot to say about it. As a writer myself, I feel like there’s always something else I can learn – another skill I can try to master. Even the sheer number of successful books certain writers have written inspires me to keep writing stories and keep querying. From their advice to their process to their words of inspiration, writers are my people, and they keep me in the game.

What inspires your writing? Drop it in the chat and let’s talk about it.