Choosing a topic or finding the inspiration for material is the first step for writing an essay, book, article, blog, or any other form of written matter, and this step can often be the most difficult. Where do these ideas come from? Do they appear from thin air or does a higher power intervene, bestowing these lightning strikes of inspiration only on those deemed worthy? Does the writer do something to help themselves find inspiration and these beginnings? Michael Smith writes, “Beginnings don’t just occur. Beginnings have to be coaxed. They have to be lured and tricked and seduced. Or they have to be wrestled into submission, bludgeoned until they beg for mercy. They get dropped in the gutter, kicked to the curb, thrown out with the bathwater. And they get rescued, revisited, revised and revivified” (66). The process of writing can be almost painful for many individuals. Amongst college students, lack of inspiration and the struggle to find something meaningful to write about is often cited as a source of writing related stress. By examining where professional writers, both fiction and nonfiction, derived their inspiration, it is clear that most often inspiration is found in personal experiences, and may hold a key in helping college students find inspiration for their own works.
Celia Johnson, in The Great Idea Chase: How Famous Authors Stumbled upon Inspiration Far Away from the Writing Desk, advises, “To follow in their footsteps, walk away from your computer” (30). Writers throughout history have found inspiration in their everyday lives. Authors like John Steinbeck worked as a migrant worker where he observed a farmhand kill their boss. This event later became the inspiration for his novel, Of Mice and Men. J.R.R...
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...e, the smell’s one smells, the job’s a person does, the people they talk to, or the places they travel. Inspiration comes in many sizes, shapes, and forms. The key is realizing it is there and harnessing those ideas and materials the inspiration has offered up, when it has been offered.
Works Cited
Brace, Catherine, and Adeline Johns-Putra. "Recovering inspiration in the spaces of creative writing." Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 35.3 (2010): 411. EBSCO. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Johnson, Celia Blue. “The Great Idea Chase: How Famous Authors Stumbled Upon Inspiration
Far Away From The Writing Desk.” Writer. (Kalmbach Publishing Co.) 125.10 (2010):
30-3. EBSCO. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Smith, Michael. "Worshiping at the Altar: Creative Writing and the Myth of Inspiration." Writing on the Edge. 22.1 (2011): 65-70. EBSCO. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
Hess, D., McKnight, T. L., & Tasa, D. (2011). McKnight's physical geography (Custom ed. for California State University, Northridge ; 2nd Calif. ed.). New York: Learning Solutions.
In Patricia Limerick’s article “Dancing with Professors”, she argues the problems that college students must face in the present regarding writing. Essays are daunting to most college students, and given the typical lengths of college papers, students are not motivated to write the assigned essays. One of the major arguments in Limerick’s article is how “It is, in truth, difficult to persuade students to write well when they find so few good examples in their assigned reading.” To college students, this argument is true with most of their ...
A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. ed. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. Lee A. Jacobus (Boston: St. Martin's, 1990) 208-19. Showalter, Elaine. A. introduction.
The very first chapter we read of Mindful Writing changed my perspective to see that anyone and everyone can be a writer. Brian Jackson, the author of Mindful Writing, wrote, “In this book I want to convince you that anyone writing anything for any reason is a writer…Writing is not something we do just in school. It is a vital means of influence in all facets of life.” It was through that very first reading that I began to think about writing as more than just a dreaded part of school, and I began to think of myself as more than just a student forced to write. Our very first assignment, My Writing Story, helped me to reflect on my identity as a writer. I realized that I was a writer every time I wrote in my journal or captioned an Instagram post. Throughout the semester, as I came to love writing more with each paper I wrote, I was able to create my identity as a writer. I learned that I loved research and analyzing others’ thoughts and ideas, but that writing simply on my own opinions, wasn’t my favorite past time. Through the countless readings this semester, I saw which writing styles I loved and which didn’t speak to me. Each day of class, I chipped away at creating my identity as a writer, and I’m grateful for the lessons that helped me shape and realize that
Several people have trouble writing college level essays and believe that they are unable to improve their writing skills. In “the Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen argues how no one is born naturally good at writing. Sarah Allen also states how even professional writers have trouble with the task of writing. Others, such as Lennie Irvin, agree. In Irvin’s article “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” states how there are misconceptions about writing. Furthermore, Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer” shows ways on how one can improve their writing skills. Allen, Bunn, and Irvin are correct to say how no one is born naturally good writers. Now that we know this, we should find ways to help improve our writing skills, and
There are many things that we take for granted in our daily lives. Who would have thought that I would be intrigued about the origin of theatre? The one thing that I enjoyed the most was learning some of the theories about of the origin of theatre, more specifically the theory titled “Spontaneous Inspiration.” I like this one the most because it allowed me to contemplate the possibility of early humans participating in a play to recreate an event or perhaps to celebrate something of importance within their families. The event or celebration would have been something of great impact in their lives, something that perhaps placed a mark on their evolution timeline. We can only theorized that this happened as part of their evolution and brain
Skinner M, Redfern D, Farmer G. (2008) Complete A-Z Geography Handbook 3rd edition Hodder & Stoughton
On her essay "The Narrow Bridge of Art", Virginia Woolf discusses much more than the use of poetic prose in writing; she carefully portrays human beings as the core of the existence of writing. As she says, "Life is always and inevitably much richer than we who try to express it" (23). Writers seek for life as dogs for water; they take men and women of all kind as the one and only fountain of inspiration in which they bathe so as to write another work. Woolf's short story "Kew Gardens" is a vivid example of that kind of inspiration someone with the sense of hearing can find just by taking a walk in the park one afternoon. In the case of "Kew Gardens", a snail assumes the role of the writer who divagates among the strangers' words without loosing trace. Its slow movement is the pleasing, and sometimes tortuous, path towards the pencil and the piece of paper.
The Geneplore model assumes that in most cases, a person would according to the needs and restrictions of a particular task, switch between two different processes. The model also differentiates between cognitive processes that are used in creative cognition and the types of mental structures on which they function. For example, Fink et al. (1992) proposed that pre-inventive structures play a large role in exploring and discovering creativity. The pre-inventive structures can be thought of as the base to the final product of something creative. These structures, depending on the task, can be complicated and conceptually focused, or simple and ambiguous. The model also assumes that constraints on the final product can be initiated on the different phases anytime, thereby allowing the model to be used in many different situations. One of the most common creative uses of concepts is to use them when developing new ideas, referred to as conceptual expansion by Ward et al. (1997).
Chaffey, J. (1994). The challenge of urbanisation. In M. Naish & S. Warn (Eds.), Core geography (pp. 138-146). London: Longman.
“Success is 99 percent perspiration and 1 present inspiration”. That what Thomas Edison says. Thomas Edison found out that having the ideas alone is do not lead to success. This means is you have to keep trying and trying until you get what you want with the hard work that you do and you do not need to be genius to do that. When we say this person is inspired, it means that he did something unique and new no one tries it before. I know that when I read this quit I understand that If I want to do something I cannot have it by sitting around and waiting for the ideas to come to me.
3. Blij, H.J. de and Peter O. Muller. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts 2000 Ninth Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.
As I look back on my schooling I can’t believe how many papers I’ve written throughout my life. Naturally as I’ve grown up, my writing has developed from learning how to write sentences all the way up to the pages of essays that consist of deeper criteria. I know for a fact that I’m a better writer now than I was before. College writing is more challenging and I’ve had to learn how to adjust to it.
Creativity, it’s a broad topic of just new things and ideas among people. The definition of creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. PBS describes creativity as, “The new ideas and new connections between ideas, and ways to solve problems in any field or realm of our lives. The concept of creativity is often hard to grasp because creativity isn 't a tangible thing its just and idea. Also, because it’s hard to differ between a truly original idea and an idea that is just shaped from others. With all this being said, it can be hard to figure out where creativity comes from.
Since we are born we have imagination and as we grow up this imagination may increase or decrease. Creativity strongly relies in our imagination. Depending on different circumstances people learn to express their creativity openly while other people close themselves and believe they do not have creativity. Creativity is a natural talent that every single human has. Creativity can be used to solve a complex problem in a different manner or just to find innovative ways to have fun. Creativity is thinking out of the box. Even though creativity cannot be taught from scratch there should be a class that is specific for creativity.