{"id":43793,"date":"2026-05-18T06:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=43793"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:18:34","slug":"finding-inspiration-a-post-from-inside-the-writing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2026\/05\/18\/finding-inspiration-a-post-from-inside-the-writing-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Inspiration: A Post From Inside The Writing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Monday, I honed in on that time-honoured favourite of the creative life, inspiration vs perspiration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I was waiting for lightning to strike…<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, my theme is finding inspiration, particularly when the narrative or a character (or both!) are in a particularly gnarly phase and the Muses have cried \u201cAll out, Sisters\u201d and downed tools.<\/p>\n

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Apollo and the Muses pentyptych, by Charles Meynier, Cleveland Museum of Art<\/p><\/div>\n

And not only that, but all<\/em> the strategies mentioned in my posts on Bandersnatch Meters & Vorpal Blades<\/strong><\/a>, Zooming In and Out<\/strong><\/a>, and Shooting the Rapids of \u201cWhy\u201d and \u201cWhat\u201d<\/strong><\/a>, are failing to bear fruit — at which point it\u2019s definitely time to take a break and Do Something Different.<\/p>\n

I believe I\u2019ve mentioned this before over the years, but the Doing Something Different is definitely literal, from making a cup of coffee, to going for a walk or a run, or doing some manual task.<\/p>\n

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A walk in the park, “The Luminaries” style<\/p><\/div>\n

Gardening and cooking are definitely among my go-to\u2019s, but it doesn\u2019t really matter what one does, so long as it\u2019s something that gets one well away from the writing coalface.<\/p>\n

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The Japanese Garden, Hamilton Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n

And sometimes, when the going gets really gnarly, that’s a sure sign it’s time for a real break: whether packing up and heading for the wilderness, taking a road trip*, or booking a holiday somewhere new. Because there really is nothing like experiencing the new and taking real time-out to refresh the creative wells.<\/p>\n

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Heading for wilderness — or a Misty Mountain Hop!<\/p><\/div>\n

Then again, sometimes the simple act of making that cup of coffee and musing on its curl of steam is sufficient to see the Return of the Muses. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

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There goes that mist of steam \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

*NB: Noting that a road trip may not be ideal right now, unless one has an EV with range!\r\n\r\n(c) Helen Lowe, 2026<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Monday, I honed in on that time-honoured favourite of the creative life, inspiration vs perspiration. Today, my theme is finding inspiration, particularly when the narrative or a character (or both!) are in a particularly gnarly phase and the Muses have cried \u201cAll out, Sisters\u201d and downed tools. And not only that, but all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43793"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43813,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43793\/revisions\/43813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}