by Can Tran

Created on: February 21, 2009

All writers need a source of ideas and inspiration. Even the world's best writers need inspiration. From what I have learned, you do not get the inspiration if you spend all of your time writing. For that reason, writers would need to take breaks. When it comes to writing, we are like sponges. We soak up information as sponges soak up water. When we write down our knowledge, we squeeze all that information out. Like a sponge, it is empty.

In that respect, we run out of ideas and inspiration to use for writing. We are similar to sponges. We are "human sponges." After we are "empty," we have to fill ourselves again for the most part. That way, we start to find ideas to help our writing. The thing you need to know is that the ideas are everywhere. You need to search high and low as a result. You cannot simply see things that are only in front of you.
If you want to find ideas, you have to look for them.

Think about what you are writing. What are you going to write? In my case, I usually write screenplays, stage plays, and novels. However, I do also write character biographies. When I create character biographies, I end up writing up new characters and so forth. There are times in which I get mentally exhausted or I run into a writer's block. Writer's block can be a surefire pain. That alone can hinder weeks to months of progress.

If you are feeling writer's block, think and write why you have it. You should keep a diary of entries of when it comes to writer's block.
Hopefully, it should help overcome writer's block and help find ideas for writing.

Think about what you want to write about. If you are writing a story, thinking about what kind of story you want to tell.
From there, do research. In my case, I read up on history and keep track of the news. I learned that being a news and TV junkie helps a lot when I come up with writing stories, concepts, and characters. In this case, I would suggest the news. You get current news in real time. Because of that, you can get bombarded with an influx of all sorts of ideas.

The news enables me to learn about so many things in the world and this country. These things become my source of all sorts of ideas.
I am able to implement these ideas into my stories.

I also can get ideas by playing video games. I learned never to underestimate video games. Today's video games are a source of intellectual value. Mainstream Hollywood has recognized the potential of video games.
Role-playing video games have very deep storylines, characters,

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