by: Shannon Redmon @shannon_redmon

As fiction writers, we must always keep our imagination fresh with ideas for our future stories, but sometimes our creative punch bowl runs dry. Perhaps life took an unexpected turn or decided to ramp up the busy category and took our mojo on a faraway trip. Now, we have a deadline looming or need some extra cash and our brain won’t kick into that creative gear. Below are a few things to do to help spike that creative punch once again.

1. Explore New Environments: A new place or even an old favorite can help spark creative ideas. Sit and have a cup of coffee at a café or visit an entirely new city. Observe the people, taste the food, visit the tourist traps and the off-road treasures the locals love. All the while, keep in mind what kind of characters might live there and let a story form.
2. Engage in Mind Mapping: This brainstorming technique explores connections between ideas that come to mind. We start with a central concept and branch out with related ideas, allowing our minds to make unexpected connections.
3. Try Freewriting: Let your brain flow freely and write down any and every thought that pops into it. This is different from Mind Mapping because the ideas do not have to have a connection. This is great for an author who mind jumps from one topic to another. Like me. 🙂
4. Visit other creative events: Art galleries, movie theaters, a concert, etc. can light a fire of ideas. I love to watch the TV show, The Voice. When the contestants sing well, their performances often move me with a desire to write better stories. If we can make readers feel the same way we feel when our hearts are stirred by an emotional song, a great movie or an amazing painting, then that is true writing success.
5. Quiet Places. This is especially true for authors who have busy homes. We need moments of stillness and solitude to allow our minds to wander and reflect. That is hard to do with a toddler hanging on your leg. Find a sitter and take some time for yourself to go to a quiet place, even if its sitting alone in your car for an hour. You’ll be surprised what this will do for creativity.
6. Exercise: Writers often sit to write, unless you have one of those cool, standing desk, a treadmill desk or a countertop to use. I like to sit when I write and my body suffered for that decision. I took up lifting weights 3-4 times a week and the difference in my clarity and creativity has improved. Regular exercise stimulates the brain and enhances creativity. If you don’t like to lift weights, then take a walking, go for a jog, or do some stretches to clear the mental clutter from your mind.
7. Reach out to Friends. Some of my best ideas and published books have come from talking to friends. They don’t necessarily have to be writers, like you, but most people enjoy brainstorming the what-if question. Toss it a couple of those the next time your with your buddies and see what ideas come to the surface.
8. Journaling. Creativity can often come in spurts. If we write those ideas in a journal when the surge hits, then this will give us ideas when our brains feel like a dried up desert.
9. Workshops and Writing Retreats. Conference season is here! There are a plethora of writer’s events across the country. Take some classes, network with other writers and immerse yourself with people like you. Many ideas come from the knowledge and conversations authors have at a great writer’s retreat.
10. Quiet Time and Prayer. We were made by the greatest Creator of all—God. He doesn’t call us into this profession and then abandon us in the middle. Spend time with Him every day and ask him to give the ideas, the words and the emotions to connect with readers. He never fails.

Shannon is a Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and her greatest hope is for her stories to immerse readers into a world of suspense and escape while encouraging faith, hope, and love in Christ.  She has three books published by Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line–Cave of Secrets, Secrets Left Behind and Mistaken Mountain Abduction. She is also one of the Managing Editors of Acquisitions for Spark Flash Fiction Magazine, where she received her first official published byline. Shannon is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube
Agency.