You experience something brand new, something grand, something big.

You wake up in the middle of the night with a dream that seems farfetched but you can rewrite it like a movie.

You read a book that evokes such emotion you want to share it with the world.

How does someone find inspiration to write? How does someone sit at a desk with a notebook and a pencil or pen, or a laptop, and just start to write?

Well, for one, that`s not my style. Writing isn`t always just I thought of an awesome book and I sat down to write it. I furiously wrote into the night, writing for hours until the first draft was complete.

Although that would be pretty amazing, it`s just simply not the way life tends to inspire us.

I don`t always find inspiration, but I do make inspiration find me.

I set up a time, every day or almost every day, where I sit down at a beloved spot, notebook and pencil in hand. For me, it`s under the willow tree on a sunny day when it`s not too hot, or it`s in the sunroom of my house where I can see the outside but maybe don`t have to feel the experience, if it`s not sunny.

You see, if I set a time every day for it, inspiration can find me. It knows where to find me. I`m waiting for it everyday. Some days, it doesn`t come. Other days, it comes in waves that almost drown me and I can`t move my hand across the paper quick enough. My thoughts come quicker than I can write it all down and I fear I might miss some of it.

Setting a time for inspiration to come find me is key.

I don`t always find inspiration, but I do make inspiration find me.

Then, making it a habit to continue to write. Maybe sometimes what I write is silly what I ate for breakfast, what I did at work yesterday, how I felt when I came home from work, etc. If my mind knows that every day, at this time, I`m going to be in one of two places, and I`m going to force myself to write, some days I`ll have better things to write.

One day, it might be what I had for breakfast. But the next day? It might be an amazing short novella that elicits controversy or extreme emotions, or maybe it`s just a short love story.

I don`t always find inspiration, but I do make inspiration find me.

Finally I use those life experiences to create writing topics my daily living, my work experiences, my personal experiences, my love life, my family life, all of it it creates a baseline for how I can create realistic lives for other people, for characters in my stories. The dream I can`t get out of my head, the car accident that slowed traffic on the way into work, the cooking my fiance did for dinner last night they are all the beginnings to new stories that create the lives of other people.

Inspiration is all around us. It`s like the air we can`t always see it, we don`t always think about it, we don`t even really always feel it unless it`s windy but it is always there and always has an opportunity to change us.

I don`t always find inspiration, but I do make inspiration find me.