If you are a writer, you know that the best ideas come when you least expect them.

When a Story Idea Strikes

While scrub-a-dub dubbing in the shower, you turn into The Grinch. You got an idea, an awful idea, a wonderful, awful idea. By the time you slip out from the spray of water and get dressed, the idea is gone with the mist. If only you had some of those soap crayons kids use to write on the bathroom walls!

Then there are those times you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night but go back to sleep, thinking you’ll remember to write everything down in the morning. The times you commute in your car and don’t have the means to write down the not-so-obvious solution to your plot hole. All the other times inspiration strikes you do not have a pen and paper or your phone battery is near zero.

Open Yourself to Inspiration

Writers want inspiration, they crave it, they thrive on it. The problem is when they do find it, they’re not always ready to take it in. The trick is to make yourself ready.

1 — Have your tools on hand, whether it’s a computer, a notebook, or your phone.

This way, if an idea strikes, you can type it out, handwrite it, or dictate to yourself. Capture the moment.

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.

Jack London

2 — Write even when you don’t feel like it.

Sometimes the best ideas come to us when we’re already working. Better yet, your tools are already in your hands and ready to go!

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

Louis L’Amour

3 — Read.

Read and then read some more. Do not plagiarize someone else’s work, of course, but you may find that a story sparks a “what if” or a new way of thinking about an issue. The more you read, the more you learn about the art of writing.

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

Annie Proulx

4 — Be mindful.

It is so easy to get caught up in everything that needs to get done, writing or otherwise. Inspiration can get choked up under all that pressure! Slow down. Stop multi-tasking. Breathe deep. Take in the moment. When you push all the clutter from your mind, you will not only be more receptive to new ideas, you will start to see them all around you.

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott

Where to Find Inspiration

If writers knew where to find inspiration, they’d set up a tent and live there 24/7. The truth is that writing is not always easy. Whether it’s a full-time job, a side gig (with or without the goal of it becoming a full-time job), or a hobby, writing takes time and effort. Like anything in life, when you push yourself too hard, you can face burnout.

For the writer, that burnout may come in the form of writer’s block. For others, it could mean tossing a manuscript or giving writing up altogether. Don’t let that happen to you. If writing is in your blood, if it is a true calling, find ways to keep going. Even successful writers sometimes struggle to get a handle on a great story idea.

Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.

Stephen King

There is inspiration all around you if you dare to look. Right this minute. I swear. Great story ideas are waiting for you. Reach out and grab them.