I have tried simply to write the best I can; sometimes I have good luck
and writer better than I can. – Ernest Hemingway

By now, you may be growing tired of reading where to get ideas for your creative writing, but I wanted to finish out my favorites list.

Book reviews
I know this may seem like an unlikely place, but give it a chance.  It’s quicker than reading an entire book, but you can get a general synopsis that may trigger a story, a poem, or a personal essay.  For instance, I have recently been reading a number of reviews about Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain.  Now, considering I’m an introvert – aren’t most of us who write? – I was intrigued by the part that talks about how the workplace is designed for extroverts.  It got me thinking about how interesting it would be to write a story about being an introvert in an extroverted workplace – digging deep into the protagonist’s thoughts about his/her colleagues and the constant nag of not quite fitting in.  (Please feel free to steal that idea; I have so many other ones on my plate right now, I won’t miss it.)

The other way book reviews can be helpful is when we are attempting to frame our stories or memoir.  When I was still playing around with how to write my just-completed book, I could not figure out the best way to structure it – that is until I read Leah Hager Cohen’s review of A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert, in the New York Times Book Review. That review provided the perfect trigger I needed to move forward.

Writing exercises
There are a million places to find writing exercises today: books, websites, even LinkedIn groups.

Every prompt, every exercise has the potential to spark a new idea for writing:

Bonnie Neubauer, in The Write Brain Workbooks, suggests writing postcards to a pet, a family member, an ex-spouse, and a father figure, telling the person (or pet) where you are (and she also provides four locations to start with: Sydney, Australia; the Sahara Desert; your home; and Anchorage, Alaska).

Robin Tuthill, the facilitator of LinkedIn’s Freeing the Writer Within, asks members of the group to write about blue, both the color and the emotion.

Brian Kiteley, author of The 3 A.M. Epiphany, has readers write direct scenes based on specific instructions, such as having an observer who “knows more than she lets on, who jokes with us (the reader) but who also indirectly reveals a complexreading of the events she is describing.”

Writer’s Digest has a special section on their website just for prompts.

These are only starters, but try some and see if they don’t gear up your creativity.

Quiet reflection/meditation
I find this works best for my poetry, but it is also useful for other types of creative writing.  I sit quietly with the intention of opening myself to whatever ideas come.  And I keep a notebook close by.  If you have monkey mind like me, you will come up with countless ideas and starting lines – most of which will need to be quickly discarded.  But there will be gems that arise if you pay attention.  Listen carefully.

When I want to get going I read Faulkner.  It’s good
because you can’t write like him. – Ken Kesey

If looking at your own life, or stealing from other people’s, didn’t inspire you to write, and newspaper headlines were blasé this week, here’s another way to find sources for your writing.

Other stories, novels, and poems
Reading in your genre is often a great place to spark your creativity and provide ideas for writing.

Spend a little time with Natasha Trethewy or Earl Braggs and you’ll be pouring out pulsating poetry before you know it.

Have some fun with Anne Lamott or David Sedaris, and your mind will be springing with surprising stories to keep you busy.

Go deep with in Kate Walbert or Jonathan Franzen, and new notions for a novel will be yours.

Choose your favorite writers, the ones who inspire you, engage you, delight you.  They can provide you with lots of ideas for your own writing.

On Monday, I’ll provide you with two more sources for writing ideas.

Anne Lamott reading from one of her books. (Fans of George W. Bush may not appreciate this video.)