How to inspire and motivate yourself to write creatively

Writing has been my passion for as long as I can remember. While other kids were playing games or watching TV, I found joy in creating characters, crafting stories, and escaping into my imagination. I would spend hours reading and writing just for fun. It felt natural, writing was my way of expressing myself.

But as life moved on, that creative spark slowly faded. School, college, university, and now apprenticeship work began to take priority. Instead of spending my downtime writing, I’d switch on a TV show to unwind. Reading and creative writing became something I barely did anymore.

Yet my goal has never changed, I want to become an author.

Lately, I’ve started carving out time again to get back into reading and writing and it's been refreshing. So, I’ve put together a few practical tips (that I’m also using myself!) to reignite that creative spark and help others who dream of writing more, whether for fun, career, or personal expression.

Read plenty

Reading regularly is one of the best ways to boost your creativity. Try to read a wide range of genres to discover new styles and storytelling approaches. Even reading something outside your usual favourites can unlock unexpected ideas for your own writing.

If you're already set on a genre you love, immerse yourself in books within that space. Seeing how different authors craft stories in similar themes will help you shape your own writing voice.

Tip: If you're struggling to stay motivated to read, look for local reading groups, joining a book club could add structure and community to your reading habit.

Brainstorm/mind map

Imagination can spark at any time from anything that has happened, or that you have seen during your day. When creative thoughts come jot them down in a list or mind map. These thoughts could be about setting, themes, characters, or something completely out of the blue. Build the thoughts up whenever they come and reflect on the notes. You will see that you have created parts of a story that you could try writing out.

This helps to formulate new ideas but also inspires to get writing again as what’s the harm in trying out a new idea?

Create fun writing exercises

When I get writers block, my cousin gets me to write about random things to make me start thinking creatively. She will set me one topic or object and it will get me in the mood to write which can lead into me writing parts of a story. I find it super useful, and it helped me with my English and Creative Writing degree too.

Set yourself random objects or reflect what’s happened in your day to try and create these fun writing exercises!

Think about the small details

Observe your every day and pick up on very small details. Something as tiny as the way you pick a cup up and place it down onto a table. This can help bring concrete imagery into your writing which makes a story interesting to a reader. Writing a paragraph of concrete imagery gets the ball rolling to expand into a storyline. It allows you to be motivated to want to write more.

Walk

A really great way to become inspired to write creatively is by taking a walk in your spare time. Go on walks as often as possible in different places to see different settings that can spark your imagination. Places like woodlands can inspire a magical setting for a story, the different trees and plants can give fantasy story ideas. For me, a forest walk inspired a story where there was a magical portal in an oak tree.

Also, whilst on walks sit down on a bench or at a café and observe people living their lives. People can spark ideas for a story and help with character building too.

Travel

Whenever you can, try and travel to other locations. This doesn’t have to be in another country you can just hop on a train to the next city over from where you live. Experiencing new places that you haven’t seen before creates motivation to write. Being out and about really starts the imagination again. Take a pad or use your phone to take some notes of your day out whether that’s an interesting building you saw or an interesting person.

I did this for university as I thought about writing a story set underground. To get a sense of what it would be like to live underground I travelled to some underground tunnels in my own time. This gave me ideas and motivation to write the story as I saw the setting and begun to understand what it was like underground.

Attend events

Research some events about writing in your area that you can join. There are plenty of writing workshops you can join to get you writing creatively, or there are speaking events with authors that can help bring the passion and willingness to write back.

Create small writing goals for every day

Give yourself a structured routine in your spare time by setting small writing goals to achieve. This could be write two sentences every day. You may find that you do more than your daily goal which is great as the goals have given you the motivation that is needed to write.

Doing this lets you build a story every day gradually as well as allowing writing to fit into the limited time we have due to the balance of work and rest.

Have a go at these tips and see if you can get writing again! Remember not to pressure yourself to do it and it’s okay to not write for a while. I am still learning this and trying to get my passion of writing back on track so I can achieve my dream career!

You can try these tips to help write something for work, yourself or just for fun! Even if you don’t like writing have a try as writing allows us to express ourselves freely with no judgement. Plus, it is an outlet for our creativity!

Ebony Feasey, Junior Content Producer Apprentice