What is inspiration and how do we get it? Everyday experiences can trigger it – but it’s not about lifting ideas from others. For my short story, How?, I was inspired by a number of circumstances and sources: my own fear of heights, the terrifying dilemma of the wonderful short story, The Vertical Ladderby William Sansom – one that I have read to many children over the years, and the ridiculous exploits of extreme ‘rooftopper’, Angela Nikolau and others who risk their lives for social media glory. 

Inspiration can be difficult to find and yet, it will emerge from the most unlikely places. For example, I have found that allowing ideas or challenges that are part-formed in my mind to ‘cook’ overnight or even a longer period often produces an outcome without any significant conscious effort on my part. Taking what arrives and then working with it is where the hard work begins and sometimes the challenge is even greater than you had at first thought. From my own experience, I found that tackling the third instalment of my scifi series for teens – Xalata Orbit and Melody Fret – was more than I had bargained for and the draft still remains incomplete. Shall I finish it? I sincerely hope so since it is highly topical – the rise of Advanced Machine Intelligence. When I first began it, AI was only in a fledgling state and I was stimulated into action by the writings of people like Yuval Noah Harari and Adrian Tchaikovsky. They and others had firmly convinced me that AI could be the end of mankind and I wanted to write a scenario, with my characters, where that challenge was addressed.

The inspiration was there but my technical knowledge fell short and so I have had to conduct significant research in order to provide credible and authoritative fiction for my readers. It’s hard work. And this is true for any truly creative activity. Getting the initial stimulus is good but following through takes effort and sweat and yes, sometimes tears. So, how best to nurture your own inspiration? Here are some thoughts:

• Read widely around a potential subject that interests you. There may be some small avenue, a detail, a passing moment in the narrative, that triggers your own thoughts and creative juices. Don’t lift other artists’ ideas though
• Open your mind to the possibility of innovation – make the conditions right, provide fertile ground and then let the ideas in. Observe and let the people, situations and contexts that you see make an impression that can be food for your creative activity 
• Brainstorm your way to success. It’s not fashionable to call it that, but bounce around ideas by jotting them down – nothing is too absurd, too stupid or too out there. Let your mind run wild
• Collect seeds, ready to be sprinkled into fertile ground when the opportunity arises. Take notes (I use Apple Notes on my iPhone) and jot down thoughts as they occur to you. Revisit them from time to time until they form something more coherent and fit into the plan of an idea

People talk of ‘writer’s block’ but I don’t believe in that particularly. I think it is simply a lack of manifestation of new ideas and you have probably not opened your mind sufficiently to make things happen. I have read in numerous places that if you feel you have writer’s block, simply sit down and write. Anything. Just write. It might be complete blither but it also might eventually trigger other ideas that then lead you back into your original pathway … or perhaps into a new one entirely. Creativity is a gift that comes unlooked for and is fed by imagination, experience and dedication. Thomas Edison once famously said that “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” The same could be said of any aspect of the creative process.

© 2026 Nick Evans

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