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June 28, 2023 21 mins

Ever felt like you're chasing inspiration with a club, only to watch it flutter away just out of reach? You're not alone. We've been there, and in this podcast episode, we share how we overcame it and how you can too. We offer practical tips to keep your motivation and inspiration alive, drawing from the wisdom of writing giants like Jack London and Ray Bradbury. We also delve into my personal experience of writing in a scriptorium in Arbroath Abbey, proving that a change of environment can do wonders for your creativity. 

But what if the creative well runs dry? Fret not, we've got you covered. We explore a variety of strategies to reignite your creative spark, from diversifying your reading list to experimenting with new writing forms. Connecting with other authors and readers is also crucial. That's where platforms like Patreon come in. We discuss how to leverage such platforms to showcase your work, connect with like-minded individuals, and create a supportive community around your work. All these and more, await your eager ears. So, buckle in for an enriching ride filled with inspiration, motivation, practical advice, and real-world experiences. Keep writing and enjoy the journey!

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi and welcome to the Writing and Marketing Show
brought to you by author Wendy HJones.
This show does exactly what itsays on the tin.
It's jam-packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news
to help you with the business ofwriting.
It's all wrapped up in onelively podcast.
So it's time to get on with theshow.

(00:23):
And welcome to episode 179 ofthe Writing and Marketing Show
with author-entrepreneur Wendy HJones.
What a pleasure it is to haveyou with me again this week.
This week, for various reasons,i'm going to be talking about
motivation and inspiration,because at the moment, i'm
writing in a scriptorium in ourboth Abbey, and more about that

(00:47):
a bit later on in the show whenwe're actually talking about the
content.
Other than that, i'm stillsorting out my trip to the
States.
There's more dates being addedfor things that I'm doing.
I'm getting ready to travel allover the place out there.
I'm beginning to get everythingAll my ducks in a row, as they
say, and what lovely ducks theyare And I know it's only four in

(01:11):
a week still till I go.
But I've started to look atwhat I'm taking with me and the
usual let's pack, let's unpack,let's put things in, take them
out again because there's notenough room The usual story.
But I can tell you that therewill be books and there will be
notebooks in there, as always,because a writer cannot travel
without those and of course, mylaptop, my iPad and everything

(01:33):
will go with me as well.
So I will not be short ofthings to write on, that is for
sure, and it's been a great weekso far, although the weather
has changed a bit and it's nowbattering down with rain.
You get a different sort ofvibe when you're writing when
it's raining and when it's sunny.
It's been lovely and sunny forthe last week and I've got lots

(01:54):
of lovely writing done, but I'vegot just as much writing done
in the rain.
You just don't feel quite somotivated or inspired in the
rain, which is why I thought Iwould talk about motivation and
inspiration this week.
So I mean, i know I've talkedabout this before, but one of

(02:14):
the things that I've never donereally is what exactly is
inspiration?
How do they describe it?
So I looked up the dictionaryand what it says is, with the
first one, is the process ofbeing mentally stimulated to do
or feel something, especially todo something creative, and I
thought that is a really gooddescription of inspiration.

(02:39):
It really is.
But then I looked at the nextdefinition of inspiration and it
says the drawing in of breath,or inhalation, and I thought,
well, you know what that couldbe equally added to writers,
because your inspiration forwriters is drawing in, creative,

(03:01):
taking a deep breath ofcreativity, and that you know
what that really struck me todayand I've never thought about it
in that way before.
And being inspired is importantto us just as breathing is
important.
Being inspired is what bringsour writing to life, it's what

(03:21):
keeps us writing, it's whatmakes us writers.
So I love both definitions.
I then thought I'd look and seewhat some of the famous writers
had to say about inspiration andmotivation and everything like
that.
You know, and there are somebrilliant, brilliant, you know

(03:42):
descriptions.
Then one of the ones Iparticularly liked, in fact I
loved and I'm going to pin thisabove my desk, i really am And
it's by Jack London, and he saysyou can't wait for inspiration,
you have to go after it with aclub.
And I think that is brilliantAnd that just describes what I'm

(04:04):
doing here today.
I'm helping you to go afteryour inspiration with a club.
If you don't feel inspired.
I'm going to give you hints andtips of how you can be
motivated, how you can beinspired when you really do not
feel motivated or inspired.
And then I love the RayBradbury idea of inspiration.

(04:26):
So once you've got inspiration,you need to you know, keep it
going.
You need to keep your storymoving.
And Ray Bradbury actually saidfirst find out what your hero
wants, then just follow him.
And again, i think that isbrilliant And very often that is
what I do.
I will let my hero or heroinetake over and steer the story,

(04:50):
and I believe that the story ismuch better, the actual tale,
the mystery, is much better withthose when I let the hero or my
heroine should I say Di ShonaMcKenzie or Cass Claymore take
over.
And it's going to be the samewhen I write my historical book.
When I'm writing my historicalbook, i need to let Thomas

(05:12):
Graham tell his story, and hereally is telling his story, but
I've got his letters and things, so he's telling his story.
But I need to really let himtell his story.
I need to get him so that he isin my head and it's him telling
the story and he may take me toplaces that I never thought the
story would be going.
So I you know, i really lovethose definitions and it really

(05:36):
helps me to be inspired, andespecially the one about you
can't wait for inspiration.
You have to go after it with aclub.
So one of the things you can doto make you more inspired if
you're feeling a bit demotivated, you're feeling like you can't
write yet another word, you'refeeling that there's, you know,
something pressing in on you.

(05:57):
There's nothing you can do,you're staying at a blank screen
, you just can't, haven't got anoriginal, creative thought in
your body.
Well, one of the things you canactually do is you can move
places, and that's what I havedone this week.
Now I'll explain what thescriptorium at Arbroath Abbey is
.
Arbroath Abbey is a ruinedabbey that was built in Arbroath

(06:22):
in 1178 and it was where thedeclaration of Scottish
independence was signed in 1300,so it's got a lot of historical
significance and about a yearago they launched a new
scriptorium there.
Obviously, it's now ruins andthere hadn't been a scriptorium

(06:45):
there since the monks lefthundreds of years ago.
And I was very fortunate to bethe first person in the modern
era to write in the newscriptorium and I just felt like
I was part of history.
Anyway, i've got a chance to goback and spend several days
there writing, and I'm doingthree days this week and the
three days this week I am therewith a friend of mine called

(07:08):
Sheena McLeod, who also iswriting historical fiction, and
we are writing in thescriptorium.
So I moved there.
Now, it was bad down in Morayne.
It would have been nicer if itwas sunny, but it wasn't.
It was raining.
So so be it.
And there's picture windows soyou can look out of the ruins of
the abbey.
Now that really inspires mebecause I feel like I'm a part

(07:30):
of history.
I feel like I'm a part ofliterary history, because the
original scriptorium was wherethe monks would copy the bible
and would write them out by hand, all those beautiful hundred
and bibles.
And I mean I'm just.
I mean all of the fact that Iam now writing somewhere where
the monks would have done thatand that really inspires me.

(07:51):
Looking out on the ruins, evenin the rain, inspires me And I
mean I know I keep going onabout rain, but the weather must
have been bad when, during thetimes when I'm writing books, it
wasn't sunny all the time.
So you get a real feeling ofhistory, you get a real feeling
of being somewhere differentthere, and that has inspired me
And it really has given addedimpetus and I feel so much more,

(08:15):
you know, motivated to writebecause I've moved.
Now, i did take my laptop withme and I did some.
I did write on my laptop, so Iwas still typing.
Which brings me on to the nextthing you can do.
By the way, before we get on tothat, i will say you do not
have to go to a scriptorium inan abbey, going anywhere, going

(08:37):
down to the park and sitting.
You know, if it's sunny,sitting in the bandstand or
sitting in a cafe and writing,or, you know, doing it by the
beach.
I've done that.
I've been by a beach in Antica,but it could be a beach in
Vrotti Ferry, as long as it'snot raining, because your laptop
is going to get wet.
There's lots of different things.

(08:57):
You can do lots of differentplaces.
Just move.
Even if you can't get out ofthe house, move somewhere else
in the house.
I'm fortunate in that I've gota lot of places you might not
have, but find somewhere else.
Sit on the bed and write, or goto the kitchen table and write,
or, you know, sitting yourarmchair and write.
Just do it somewhere different.

(09:17):
That can really help tomotivate and inspire you, just
because it gives you a changedperspective.
Going back to the other thing Iwas saying about laptops, you
don't always have to write on acomputer.
You can try long hand writingand long hand writing again.
It gives you a differentperspective.
It makes your brain work indifferent ways, so that's a

(09:40):
really good way of changing itup.
I often will grab a sheet ofpaper.
It doesn't have to be anotebook, it can be a sheet of
paper.
It's scrap paper, it can beanything, just write in a
different way.
Use a different colour of pen.
That can motivate you.
If you always use a black pen,try a blue pen or a green pen,
or just shake things up.

(10:01):
Shaking things up is reallyimportant when it comes to being
inspired and channeling yourcreativity.
What else can you do?
Well, there's, as I say, thereare a lot of different things
you can do.
Just start writing, do freewriting, whatever comes into
your head, write anything, writedown your shopping list, write

(10:24):
down what you did that day, whatsort of night sleep you had,
whatever, and just keep writingAnd your subconscious will take
over And it will start to writewhat you actually want to write
And you will find that therewill be something in there
that's usable material.
You might want to give yourselfa time limit to do that 10

(10:46):
minutes is usually a good lengthBut that can really loosen your
creativity.
Make you more creative.
Another thing was I was in awriting group the other night
And somebody asked us to thinkabout where are you putting
pressure on your creativity?

(11:06):
And I thought what a brilliantquestion And I think that is a
really good way of thinkingabout where you're putting
pressure on your creativity,which may be sucking all
inspiration out of you.
And I mean some of the things Icame up with was juggling too
many balls, too much time onsocial media, burning the candle

(11:29):
at both ends, not taking a dayoff, not reading enough, not
reading the right things, notprioritising what I'm doing, and
I only got a couple of minutesto think about that.
So I would ask you to thinkabout where you're putting
pressure on your creativity.
Then you can think about whatyou can do to make yourself more
creative and to be moreinspired.

(11:50):
So what a brilliant questionand I think it's a really, you
know, good question to askyourself and expect if you're
not feeling inspired.
One tip I was given was areally good one, and I've never
thought of this before and Ithink it's amazing Why not watch
a documentary?

(12:10):
And you're probably thinkingwhat?
But what it's doing is it'sactually filling your mind up
with new things.
It's making you think indifferent ways and you never
know You might find a characterin there or an event or some
tiny little nugget that you willthink, oh, that would make a

(12:32):
really good article or it wouldmake a really good blog, or it
would.
You know, it would be a goodshort story or a good piece of
flash fiction or a poem,whatever.
And talking of poems, why notwrite in different forms?
If you always work in as a poet, why not try doing prose?

(12:53):
If you always do prose, why nottry doing some poetry?
And you're probably thinking Inever want to write a poem or I
never want to do prose or Inever want to do flash fiction.
Because, again, if you alwayswrite novels, doing flash
fiction can really help you innumerous ways.
It can help you be moreinspired, it can help you to get
words down, because you've onlygot a certain amount of words,

(13:15):
so you know it's limited.
It can help your writing inthat you can not only be more
inspired, but you're more ableto write, to cut down your word
count and to pare it down, andthat's a really good way of
doing things.
So shake it up, do somethingdifferent, do things in a

(13:36):
different way.
All of that can inspire youbecause it makes your brain
think differently, and that'swhat you're trying to do.
When you're wanting to beinspired, when you want to be
motivated is take your brain outof the spiral of demotivation,
of not being motivated.
You want to take your brain outof it and you just do something

(13:58):
that will spark your braindifferently, and that's what it
is.
Another great idea is tointerview yourself.
Now, i've never heard of thatone before.
Why not interview yourself Andyou could?
I mean, you might not bewanting to write a memoir.
I'm not saying, do it for that,but if you want to interview

(14:18):
yourself, then you will find outa lot about yourself.
That will help you think aboutthe ways that you can learn a
lot about your characters.
You don't have to share it withanyone.
It's just for you.
You're not going to write aboutit or share it, unless you want
to.
But you know, doing that willmake you think as well, more

(14:39):
about you as a writer.
And when you think more aboutyou as a writer, you will
realise just how good youactually are.
Because very often, when we'renot inspired, it can be because
we don't think we're any goodAnd the little voices in our
head are telling us you're nogood, you can't do this, you
know.
So you can When you gosomewhere else as well.

(15:04):
The other thing I would reallyreally encourage you to do is
people watch.
People watching and listeningto what they have to say can
absolutely inspire you 100%.
You will see what they wear,you will see how they act, how
they walk, how they run.
Are they all listening to music?

(15:25):
Are they looking around them?
Are they preoccupied?
This can really help you startto flesh out your characters,
and the more you flesh them out,the more you will actually be
able to write about them And youwill be inspired to write about
them again And you won't haveboring characters.
If you've not got boringcharacters, then you're more

(15:49):
likely to want to write aboutthem, And you know, and, as I
say, try reading something new.
Reading something new, somethingdifferent, can really inspire
you in different ways.
Now I can fall into a rut ofreading crime fiction, and I
love crime fiction.
I write crime fiction.
But I will change it up.
I write I read historicalfiction as well, but I will read

(16:11):
different types of crimefiction.
I will read different types ofhistorical fiction.
I will write historical.
I will read historical fact.
I will write, i will read crimefact.
All those things can help me doit.
I will read literary fiction.
I try to do lots of differentthings.
I run a challenge on onFacebook and that's about a

(16:34):
reading challenge that you dofor the year And it's 36
different books and it's justthings like read a book with a
yellow cover, read a book fromthe 1960s.
I'm making these up, by the way.
I don't know what is in it.
One of them is Read a Book bySir Walter Scott And why not
read a book by someone who wroteyears ago one of the classics?

(16:55):
And I started reading Weatherlyby Sir Walter Scott And that
really inspired me.
I mean really and truly.
That inspired me, because I'veforgotten how good a writer he
was And it made me think aboutthe ways I can write.
Now I'm not saying I'm going towrite like Sir Walter Scott,
but it gave me different ideasof how can I approach things.

(17:18):
Go out for the day, don't justgo and write somewhere else.
Take yourself out for the day.
I mean, if you can travel,that's marvellous.
If you can go abroad or you cango to a different country, hey,
how about it.
But if you can't afford that,just take yourself off for the
day somewhere else.
And that is a really good wayof seeing things from a
different perspective.
Because even if you only go forexample, i was in our broth

(17:41):
today even if you go from Dundeeto our broth, which is 20
minutes up the road, people aredifferent, they do things in
different ways.
The buildings are different,the streets are different, and
that difference will give youfresh creativity, will give you
fresh inspiration.
Why not go to the library?
spent a morning in a library,look at the books on the shelves

(18:03):
, flick through them.
You don't have to read them all.
You don't have to borrow themall.
Talk to the librarians, talk toother people.
If you can talk to people fromdifferent groups, i spent time
talking to people in the libraryand they were part of the local
history group And I learnt somuch about local history Now.
I thought I knew a lot aboutDundee and Scottish history, but

(18:27):
these guys are amazing.
It really is amazing.
They know so much about Dundeeand Scotland's history And I
learnt a lot from them And thathelps me to bring my historical
books.
It gives me fresh impetus, itgives me fresh ideas, makes me
more motivated for my historicalbooks.

(18:47):
So there's lots and lots andlots of things you can do Attend
debates, listening to debateson both sides of the argument.
Go to local law court and listento some of the.
Just sit in the gallery andlisten to the cases that are
going on.
If you can go to yourparliament building and listen

(19:09):
to the debates, because you getto know what's going on in your
town At the time again it givesyou fresh inspiration.
I went to First Minister'squestions at the Scottish
Parliament, holly Roode House,and I went there and I listened
to the debates that were goingon.

(19:30):
The questions were being askedof the First Minister And I
learnt so much about what wasimportant in Scotland that week
And a lot of it's stillimportant now And that again
will give you fresh ideas ofwhat you can put into your
actual book, so, or a shortstory.

(19:54):
It will give you ideas for shortstories.
Remember, change names.
Change names of the mentioningnames, don't do it word for word
.
So I hope this has helped you.
I hope this has given you a lotof inspiration and ways you can
get different inspiration.
Hey, listening to podcasts isanother one.
You can get a lot ofinspiration listening to

(20:15):
podcasts.
So, on that note, i will stopand I will be back with you next
week.
I hope you've enjoyed the show.
Until I come back to you nextweek, keep reading, keep writing
and keep enjoying the writingjourney.
Have a great week.
Bye, that brings us to the endof another show.

(20:36):
It was really good to have youon the show with me today.
I'm Wendy H Jones and you canfind me at wendahjjonescom.
You can also find me on Patreon, where you can support me for
as little as three dollars amonth, which is less than the
price of a tea or coffee.
You go to wwwpatrioncom.

(20:57):
Forward slash wendahjjones.
I'm also Wendy H Jones onFacebook, twitter, instagram and
Pinterest.
Thank you for joining me todayand I hope you found it both
useful and interesting.
Join me next week when I willhave another cracking guest for
you.
Until then, have a good weekand keep writing, keep reading

(21:20):
and keep learning.
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