I get inspired to write when I read something which piques my interest and impresses me. Reading a good literary piece makes me think, "I need to write something as good as this--no, BETTER than this." That thought fuels my determination to write something good.
Anything dark, weird, morbid, depressing. There are some emotions that I'm actually afraid to feel and/or confront--rage, pure hatred, etc., but it's confronting that darker side of yourself that, I think, enables you to write some really amazing stuff.
Writing magazines will often trigger an idea.
Western, Poetry, Philosophy, Fiction.
Everything - it can be a tiny column in a newspaper or an academic text book that supplies the kernel of an idea, that amazing 'aha!' moment. Reading great literature - whether contemporary or historical inspires me to write better.
The kind I wish I could have written myself. The authors I return to, the myths and tales I can't get out of my psyche, though often I don't know they're there until I've got some piece partly finished. Wallace Stegner, Glasworthy, Barbara Kingsolver; Jane Smiley; Jon Meachum; too many more relatively unknown as well as a legion of others--from the late eighteenth century to tomorrow. And now and then there's a really great blog that starts the wheels turning.
Good literature in general. In particular, those that have a more introspective, reflexive style.
Literary fiction, historical fiction, a good movie, a good play, live music.
I have no particular genre that inspires me. I read everything from biographies to paranormal. Historicals are my favorite, but mostly what I read depends on the author, not the genre.
Books like The Voyage by Philip Caputo, and House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus and novels with an erotic angle. Who doesn't like a good sex scene? It's hard to write one and very gratifying when you get it right . . . and quite fun to read.
Most anything. But I must confess that I'm often driven to the page by reading something that's written poorly.
Really well-written books with prose that "sings" really inspires me. Some of the authors I most enjoy are Anne Tyler, Anne Lamott, Toni Morrison, Dennis Lehane, and Joe Lansdale.
Any hindi poetry, song etc. In english mostly the Indian fiction.
Really, anything really good, as in well-written. |
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