Filling my creative well

Every person in the world should give themselves permission to fill their creative well.

You don’t have to write the next bestselling novel or paint a masterpiece or bake the most scrumptious desert. All you really need to do is take some time to fill your heart and mind with things that inspire you.

Before anyone says ‘I’m not creative’, let me define inspiration. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, inspiration is:

: something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create

: a force or influence that inspires someone

: a person, place, experience, etc., that makes someone want to do or create something

: a good idea

Being inspired is catching that snippet of conversation in a restaurant and filling out the dialogue, catching a bird in flight over a river (you might have noticed my Instagram pictures), see a cooking show and thinking ‘that would be great for dinner’, or hearing a child’s giggle.

To fill our creative wells, we have to pay attention to the world around us and then act on what we see.

Last weekend I attended Ravencon, and was uplifted by the whimsy and fun. My inner geek-girl squeed as I saw Klingon, heard phenomenal filking, listened to authors talking about their paths to publication and beyond, enjoyed the various artists that sold their own unique visions, AND I met Jack McDevitt (so nice & I’ve been reading him for years) at a writers workshop . I’ll be honest, I had a nerd-gasm.

I left the weekend pleasantly exhausted and with several stories in the hopper, it’s taken awhile for my brain to process all the input.

Inspiration will not drop into your lap accompanied by a choir of celestial being. You have to work hard to be open to all possibilities. Only then will the muse slap you upside the head or gently kiss you with inspiration.

Find out what makes your soul sing, then DO IT!