I remember one HS Writing Seminar teacher telling us that a great way to find inspiration for your writing, whether it be poetry, short story, novel, or even if you write songs, you just have to look to your dreams.  And that is when he told us that we have to keep a dream journal, which to this day I gratefully keep.  I have in fact used many ideas from my dreams to create my stories, some poetry though my talent is definitely in creating fiction.  But on these same lines, I thought of what other ways we can gain inspiration for our writing, whatever our craft in writing is and I came up with a few ways.

 I do highly recommend starting a dream journal.  Very inspirational and great ideas are embedded in your dreams, whether it is from a nightmare or from a pleasant dream.  Even if it is a nightmare, you can always spin it to make it either more of a nightmare or spin it to make it a happy ending, depending on your ideas for a story or poem.

 Another great place where you have embedded ideas is in your everyday random thoughts.  Even keep a random thought journal if that will help, but your thoughts are great inspiration for your writing.

 Go with friends on a nature hike; make sure to take your camera because nature can be very inspirational.  Even the smallest flower or strangely shaped rock can inspire a poem or a story.  Nature is very beautiful and a great background for anything you write.

Take your camera on your car ride to the store; snap shots of stores, signs, road names, or anything else that catches your eyes.  Great ideas can spring from any of those pictures.

Once you have taken the pictures, nature and/or miscellaneous, either save them to your computer or better yet buy a cheap photo album from target or Wal-Mart and start placing them in there so you can look back on them. And this goes for any pictures that you take.

 If you love to read and love books, then here is another great inspirational tool.  While you are reading, there may be a scene that you like.  And as Monte had said at the conference it’s okay to use things like this for inspiration as long as you use your own style and your own voice.  Don’t be shy to grab up this opportunity.  If you come across a great scene, use it and change it into your own writing.

Everyone loves movies and are constantly watching them, and of course the screen writers had to come up with the ideas and inspiration from somewhere right?  So why not take a scene that you liked and change it to suit your writing style and voice?

You may think that your life is boring; I know I think this constantly, but take a look at your schedule.  People watch at your job, get some fun characteristics for characters in your story.  Take an everyday task and write it down, make it come alive.

 Think about conversations that you have had with family and friends, think about the fun times you have had with them and use that as inspiration.  Use your friends and family characteristics in your own characters.  Use a place that you have gone to with your loved ones in your stories or poems, even in your songwriting and screenwriting.

Your pets are funny, loving, and fun so why not use them in your stories.  I have already said that I will be using my pets in my stories, placing them just right so that they help the story flow.  Or you can even make your pets the main story.  Everyone loves a great story based on animals, whether it be fiction or nonfiction.

 Good luck in your writing and I do hope that I have helped you in claiming your inspiration in the world around you.  Do not be afraid to use your everyday normal life as inspiration, just use colorful language to spice it up and make it fun for all to read.