Five Unique Places for Writers to Find Inspiration

Faye Arcand encourages writers to step outside familiar routines and find inspiration in unexpected, everyday places. By paying attention to surroundings, people, and gut reactions, she shows how ordinary moments can spark stronger characters, settings, and story ideas.

What does inspiration mean to you? Is it something bright and flashy that grabs you or is it more of a subtle discovery? Still your mind and be open to it all.

The main thing is to rouse the curiosity in your psyche and ask questions that can take you from the boring ho-hum things to the creative development of character, setting, and plot.

Think big and outrageous, not safe and accurate.

Let your muse meander down whatever path it wants to take as you ask, and answer, the questions that come to mind. You may surprise yourself.

Have fun, be silly, or get macabre.

It’s all about your creativity and personal uniqueness in the perspective and questions you bring.

Let’s Get Inspired

TIP: Always have your writer-brain questions ready and a notebook to jot down your ideas—yes, you will forget.

ONE:

Bridal shops are in the business of selling a fantasy. Book an appointment to try on wedding dresses/tuxedos/ballgowns or simply stroll through the store and engage the senses could enhance your writing experience.

If you’re writing romance, fantasy, or historical fiction, this could be a real adventure in developing a deep bond with your character.

Pay special attention to your own visceral reactions of playing dress-up for the day. Really feel and appreciate the fabrics, the color contrasts, the bling…Let yourself feel and think like a bride, a groom, a princess, or a historical figure.

Let this romantic (or tragic) journey inspire you.

TWO:

Open houses are an amazing opportunity to see how other people live behind those proverbial closed doors. Pose as a buyer or a lookie-lou and stroll through the house with your writer-brain engaged, open, and observant.

• Note the smells. Sour? Funky? New? Death?
• Is the space cluttered? Is Granny’s old sideboard pushed to one side? Perhaps there’s very little furniture?
• Why? What happened?
• Where’s the epicenter of the home? Does it feel like a home?
• Is it haunted? Drafty?
• What story does that hole in the plaster tell you?
• Check bedrooms, bathrooms, bookshelves. Imagine the habits of the residents. Who are they when in their own space?
• Listen for ambient noise like road construction or constant sirens. What does that mean?
• Are there toys? Photographs? Maybe a missing picture?

Let your imagination wander openly about what goes/went on in the many spaces.

With your many questions, form a character who lives there and step into their story…

THREE:

The grocery store is a plethora of characters with nuanced behaviors and is often filled with unbridled annoyance and anxiety.

Go when you know it’ll be busy—after school (or perhaps just before school pick-up), weekends or when the workday is traditionally ending.

It’s fun to see the screaming kids, or the guy in the suit wondering what bread to buy, or perhaps the elderly woman who slips something into her coat pocket.

Oh my, the list is endless, and different each day.

Just like a bookstore, the supermarket is like a delicatessen of unique characters with backstories and individuals with huge stressors in their lives.

It’s a place of false-anonymity and great fodder for creative writing.

Choose a shopper who strikes you as interesting and discreetly follow them as you allow your mind to chew on the many questions as you study mannerisms, actions, and attitudes.

Remember, you’re looking for inspiration, so those prying questions will manipulate your opinions and the development of story. Ask things like:

• What’s in a person’s cart?
• Veggies? Wine? Bleach? Pregnancy test?
• Why does the guy in the meat department look so tired? Another job perhaps? A new baby? Maybe he’s been gaming all night or cheating on his wife?
• You see an old man shuffling around all by himself? Who is he? Does he have dementia? Who was he fifty years ago? Perhaps a powerful executive? A gigolo? A famous writer?
• And how about the lady who walks around talking loudly on her phone…what’s her story?
• Don’t forget the clerks and other employees. What are their secrets?

FOUR:

Check out the evening news and social media which are laced with half-truths, false promises, the perception of perfection, and an undying need to be seen, acknowledged, and validated.

For any writer, those types of environments are ideal for the inspiration and development of story and character.

For this exercise, watch a TV news station you normally wouldn’t. Does it make you angry? Perhaps it makes you laugh? Maybe it’s not as bad as you thought? What’s happening with the anchors? Do you think they’re good people? Do they have an agenda? What emotion does it strike within your core being?

Use your emotional response to create a scene.

Be inspired by what’s happening in the world as presented on the news and the different slants put on the stories and reporting.

For social media, get away from the norm and check out ones like Quora and Reddit— these are both Question and Answer forums (Reddit being a much younger audience). On these sites you can discover almost any subject, opinion, and answer to all facets of life.

It’s interesting to read through the posts and wonder who is at the other end of the computer.

I’ll warn you, it can be a bit of a rabbit hole sometimes as your imagination takes off and inspiration takes hold.

On these types of sites, you can really be sucked down the rabbit hole as everything is on the table…Discussions range from fascinating to kinky, genuine, emotional, naïve, curious and/or just simple human interactions.

Make sure you ask your writer brain questions; there’s loads of inspiration for your writing.

FIVE:

Venture out of your comfort zone at odd hours.

The world never stops or slows down for any of us. We only see what’s actually before us and that can be limited by life, time, and availability.

One thing you can do to change up your routine while also seeking inspiration, is to venture out after dark.

It can be as easy as walking around your neighborhood late at night.

Note how it’s different? The feeling? The sounds? The scent of the cooler air? Glance in all directions—including up—is anyone watching you? Aliens? What’s happening behind the neighbors lacy curtains? Are you being followed?

If you can, drive downtown late at night and see what’s happening.

Is anyone wandering around? Police? How is the main street different late at night? Is it completely abandoned? Is anyone aware of your presence? What if you’re the only person left in the town at that very moment? What then? What would you do if someone knocked on your window?

Let your imagination soar.

Be Your Own Inspiration

The stories are all within you, sometimes you may need a little inspiration and other times you may simply need to step aside and let your creativity lead you down a path you didn’t see coming.

Get out of your own way and allow the world around you, no matter how big or small, guide you to a story you were destined to write.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Faye Arcand, an award-winning author, is fascinated by unique characters. She embraces the writing and creating of individuals who exhibit quirks and flaws as this allows for deeper exploration into motivation and depravity, whether that be through deviance, mental health, fear, or anything remotely antisocial, weird or different.

Working for several years within the Canadian criminal justice system afforded Arcand many opportunities to witness dark, even macabre behaviors, all of which became fodder for what she calls her ‘twisted writer brain’. As an author, Arcand allows her pen to flow freely without questioning the motivation or outcome. She wants a character to show their dark side—even if they’re the good guy.

Her award-winning debut novel, INSIDE OUTSIDE, is a contemporary psychological suspense that takes the reader on a twisty journey of two strangers as they come together to face their lives, which have been ruled by obsession, obedience, and obligation.

Arcand enjoys quality chocolate, a purring cat, and the entertainment of “reality” television. She lives somewhere in the wilds of western Canada with her family.

CONNECT WITH FAYE ARCAND

Website: https://fayearcand.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Faye.E.Arcand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Faye.arcandwriter

INSIDE OUTSIDE

INSIDE OUTSIDE is a character driven psychological domestic suspense. This contemporary story offers the reader an emotional and intense experience as they follow the lives of two women who come from different walks of life but are both imprisoned by obedience, obligation, and obsession. The two women, though strangers, have experienced horrendous life traumas that shape who they are in the outside world. As they grapple with things like mental health, addiction, and abuse, they’re obligated to present themselves to the outside world, though the inside narrative tells them to fight… to run like hell… or curl up in a ball in the corner. Brought together by design, they seek strength from each other to achieve peace, inclusion and family.

LEARN MORE