Out and About - Inspiring Ideas by Allison Symes

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images.

When this post appears, I should have just returned from a fabulous break in stunning Northumberland. It led me to think about how getting out and about can inspire ideas.

Grab your phone, take pictures. They can be random or specific images. I’ve used photos to give me ideas for how, for example, a landscape would look for my characters. I can also use that background to visualise who might live there. You could also use your images to write non-fiction pieces (were there historical events associated with that landscape?). Photos can be great for triggering ideas. I take far more than I normally do when away so try to make use of these for writing purposes later.

 I love postcards and send some home. But why not use a typically sized card to create a story? It will be flash fiction because you won’t get more than a couple of hundred words on there at most. Indeed flash has been known as postcard fiction. Write about anything you like, the only limit is what you can physically get on that card! Naturally you could also use the picture on it to be the theme for what you write.

 A break refreshes and I’m more keen to get to my desk and write once I have had one. Naturally there are non-fiction pieces which could be written on the benefits of breaks. If you have a writing related break such as a retreat, there could be pieces to be written there.

Staying at home/close to home? Not a problem. Why not go to somewhere close you have not visited? I come from London originally. I didn’t visit the Tower or Kew Gardens until long after I left London! So where is there on your doorstep you know you should visit? Whenever I go to a museum, I usually pick up their guide book because I can use that as a souvenir but also to read after my return home. I have often had ideas for stories reading non-fiction work like that.

 Even if not going anywhere specific, give some thought to where you know well. Think about how you would describe it to someone who has never been there. Are there local legends to write about? What would you recommend a tourist to see or, equally important, to avoid and why? Plenty of non-fiction fodder there, I think. 

I could also see ideas for stories emerging here. What would your characters make of where you describe? Why do they react as they do? If you’re not using your background to give them their setting, what are you using? 

Getting away for a while does make you see things in a new light. I like the thought of tapping into that to inspire further writing ideas. 

The nice thing about this is getting away can be just doing something different than normal in your own area, as well as the more obvious way of having a holiday.