Finding inspiration for writing--sometimes it comes easily, and sometimes it's much harder. Writing my first novel, "Destined Love is Immortal," I was full of ideas. A lot, though not all of the action in my book, comes from real-life situations that I then fictionalized and turned to the extreme, way extreme.
I suppose it's a little like a game of "imagine the worst possible scenario." Or you might even compare it to watching one of those end-of-the-world movies. Those certainly take everything beyond the norm and to the point of crazy and exciting. This is what I do in my writing. I let my imagination run wild with all of the "what ifs" and then I write it down. Sometimes I like what I write, and sometimes I scrap it, but exaggeration of real-life events has served me well in the development of action and intrigue in my stories.
Sometimes I even talk to my kids about a scene I'm writing. For example, one of my books has a cave scene in it. My son was instrumental in getting the gears in my head turning regarding the development of the scene, as well as the details of what my character encountered inside the cave.
I've also found that doing research, whether historical in nature, or more of a tourist take on things, can give me lots of insight into how my characters would act in the environment I've placed them in. Often, just learning one new detail about the locale can give me ten or fifteen great ideas that I want to incorporate into my plot. It also makes writing more fun. I fell like I'm more a part of the action in my book, the more I find out about a given place.
Generally, I write about places with which I am greatly familiar, but even with those, I've learned that there are often details I didn't notice as I was visiting and corresponding with someone who lives in the area is invaluable as well as enjoyable.
There are probably thousands of ways to find inspiration for writing and what I've listed were merely a few that work for me. I hope they've been helpful to you too.
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