Out of Inspiration? Nuh-uh.

Out of Inspiration?
Not for long. Here are 200 inspiring things to help you on your way to writer-hood. Pick on, or combine two or more. Have fun!

Characters.

1) An old woman with a grudge.
2) A young, aspiring musician who lost her hands in a car accident.
3) Character in complete denial about something trivial.
4) A business-man with a secret - he's actually a punk rocker.
5) A gay couple who want children.
6) An old man, driven insane by the sound of his pocket-watch ticking.
7) Main Character wants nothing more than to be a hero. Do they achieve their goal?
8) A deaf and blind piano-tuner.
9) Character grows out his hair, but has the unfortunate side effect of being the spitting image of Jesus.
10) Young teenager hopelessly in love with his best friend.
11) Character with a mortal fear of ginger people.
12) A young girl with synesthesia.
13) Ninja with a height complex.
14) Wacky teacher with blue hair.
15) Child with elective mutism.
16) Artist living in a high-rise apartment.
17) Young hippie with a secret talent for accountancy.
18) Child nicknamed "Ginger Biscuit" is forever mentally scarred.
19) Musical agent of a young woman who cannot sing in tune, yet has a succesful career.
20) Female character completely oblivious of their sex appeal.

Inspirational Quotes.
21) "Who do we grow up to be?"
22) "Every man dies. Not every man truly lives."
23) "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on."
24) "Normality is what you make it."
25) "In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?"
26) "You do what you must and you have to walk it all alone."
27) "Show me a person who doesn't have a past and I'll show you a boring bastard."
28) "Adversity introduces a man to himself."
29) "He not busy being born is busy dying."
30) "If you don't understand my silence, you can't understand my words."
31) "“Loving is a feeling that brings both joy and pain to my heart. Joy from being with you, being filled with an emotion so deep and tender that no other feeling can compare. Pain from knowing that I'm so in love, that I'm more vulnerable than I've ever been before."
32) "You are what you love, not what loves you."
33) "For or all sad words, or tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been.' "
34) "Love is a deep well from which you may drink often, but into which you may fall but once."
35) "Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing."
36) "Almost everything in life is easier to get into than out of."
37) "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
38) "Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."
39) "Learning how to learn is life's most important skill."
40) "Life is worth living, but only if we avoid the amusements of grown-up people."

Plots.

41) A young woman is tied to a tree. How did she get there?
42) The Doctor + companion get stuck in the TARDIS. Hilarity ensues.
43) Two nameless, faceless characters at a café. Why are they there?
44) An artist is gazing at the stars. Twist: they're sitting on the top of a tower-block, contemplating suicide.
45) A rat is trapped in a cage, but escapes and wreaks havoc.
46) The plight of somebody trying to get up the stairs with crutches on.
47) A young soldier has their tattoo discovered. How? Why did they want to keep it a secret?
48) A character recieves a letter from an old flame a few weeks before they are getting married. The letter contains a particularly shocking bombshell - how do they react? What does the replying letter say?
49) Sci-Fi - A huge trader ship, containing glass sculptures so delicate that the ship can only move at ten miles an hour. Where is it going? Why?
50) A photographer is exploring an old house, and finds the love-letters of the previous occupants. In her mind, she constructs elaborate imaginings.
51) A working mother with a stressful job joins a meditation club.
52) A young man is trying to propose to his girlfriend in interesting and imaginative ways, but ends up just doing it on bended knee after several failed attempts.
53) A hair-stylist finds out an astonishing secret of one of her client's after chatting while doing their hair.
54) A man is hopelessly in love with Nature herself, and has spent his life chasing her.
55) Character finally cracks and yells at somebody who has been annoying him for decades.
56) One of your characters keeps something in a box, buried where no one will ever find it. What is it, and what’s the significance of that object? What happens when it's been dug up?
57) A house-bound man has constructed an elaborate set of mirrors in his room that enable him to watch the person in the room next to him. He imagines a whole life for her. One day, she holds up a sign saying, "I can see you too."
58) Two complete strangers are trapped in an elevator. Three hours later, they emerge from the elevator, having shared their life stories, and biggest secrets.
59) A young man is held hostage at gunpoint, and it changes his life in ways he didn't expect.
60) A young care-worker working in a respite care home keeps track of how many patients die by collecting butterflies.

One-Word Inspiration.

61) Redemption.
62) What?!
63) Bygones.
64) Thanks.
65) Resistance.
66) Trapped.
67) Snowflakes.
68) Pulse.
69) Beauty.
70) Stellar.
71) Owl.
72) Waters.
73) Sensitive.
74) Blistering.
75) Darling.
76) Savoury.
77) Rage.
78) Futility.
79) Ice-fire.
80) Cerulean.

Settings.

81) A world where spoons are worshipped.
82) Inside the TARDIS. (You can't leave it!)
83) Underneath a bridge in the inner-city.
84) In a room where the only objects are a small wooden table and a knife.
85) A world where the number 'i' actually exists.
86) A treehouse, in a lightening-struck tree.
87) In the arms of somebody you or your character loves.
88) In a broom-cupboard.
89) Under a desk.
90) Sitting next to the one person you know you can never have.
91) In a wheel-chair.
92) A Narnia-esque world where the world has withered away, leaving no seasons and no colours except grey.
93) Lying, injured on the pavement, staring up at the sky.
94) Inside a space-ship designed for one person, knowing that you're pregnant.
95) In a field full of poppies.
96) Standing at the entrance to a cave.
97) Leaning against a tree.
98) Somewhere you have never been before in your life.
99) Sitting on a swing.
100) Standing next to a window, looking at...


Inspirational Lyrics.

101) "Our bodies to hand with the Jersey shoreline
Connecting the tide to the sand that was dry
And we both laid entwined, stared at the night
Clouds overhead, but that was all right."

102) "This is the end of the line
I've clearly read every sign
The way you glance at me
Indifferently
And you take your hand from mine."

103) "Born and raised
In the wrong side of town
You get so high
You can't come down."

104) "And remember when I moved in you
The Holy Dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah."

105) "You're afraid, it's all come down
To this place where dreams have fallen to the ground
Just look up, you'll make it through
'Cause there's a heavenly being
That's watching over you."

106) "I'm calling: can you hear me?
The angels will steer me
To your door, feel so sure
Tonight is the brightest."

107) "The sun is going down on me
As she surrenders to the sea
So steal the night and fly with me
I'm calling, I'm calling."

108) "The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.
Still, it's so much clearer."

109) "Same old story is back again
She's not a lover, she's just a friend."

110) "Midnight diamonds stud my heaven,
Southward burning like the jewels that line her place.
And the warm winds that embrace me,
Just as surely kissed your face."

111) "You should have took advantage
Of every waking moment
But you thought that you had time to wase
And you were so dead wrong
I tried so hard to do the best I could
You lied and now we go to get this understood."

112) "Stumbling in the twilight
There was no one there at all
I was groping in the darkness
Seeing dangers in the port
Tortured into silence
My back against the wall."

113) "Starlight
I will be chasing the starlight
Until the end of my life
I don't know if it's worth it anymore."

114) "She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side."

115) "Love me tender, love me dear, tell me you are mine,
I'll be yours through all the years till the end of time.
Love me tender, love me sweet, all my dreams fulfilled,
For my darling, I love you and I always will."

116) "Quicken your beating drums and
Draw me some wildfires."

117) "Two drifters, off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see."

118) "And I'll never let you go
If you promise not to fade away
Never fade away."

119) "I can't eat, I can't sleep anymore
Waiting for love to walk through the door
I wish I didn't miss you anymore
Memories don't live like people do
I'm sick for ever believing you."

120) "Dancing in the starlight
Swirling in the walls
Just like Venus on the ocean
The figures on the wall.”

</b>Writing Exercises.</b>

121) Write an all-dialogue story.
122) Write a story with no dialogue!
123) Write the inner thoughts of two people waiting at a bus-stop.
124) Describe a character as a blind person might describe him. Use every sense except sight.
125) Write a story backwards - anticlimax, climax, build-up.
126) Describe the journey taken through a back-alley in the dark.
127) Describe your home-town from the point of view of a visitor. Ie, the Queen.
128) Write a short dialogue between two trees.
129) Describe your perfect partner.
130) Imagine what it feels to sky-dive.
131) Describe somebody else doing something you love, from a spectator's view-point. (Eg, somebody singing on stage.)
132) Take a completely different view-point on something and write about it.
134) Describe the Northern Lights.
135) Say, in no more than 500 words, why you are God.
136) Explain why you can *never* find a pencil-sharpener.
137) Write several pages that would work as an obituary. It could be a true obituary, at first, of someone you imagine having lived interestingly. Explain the major moments in the person’s life.
138) Describe the day from the point of view of your mother.
139) Write the thought-track of a hamster in a hamster-wheel.
140) Expand any classic Christmas carol into a short story.

Little Excerpts to Get You Going.
* Note. All of these are written by me, and you may steal, but only 'cos I'm nice.

141) You tremble like a jelly,
Your legs have turned to stone.
You turn around and blink,
For you really are alone.
142) I miss you - more than you can imagine, and more than I can explain.
143) The fitful man sleeps
Inside the poet gently swears,
"No poetry works."
Broken cold screams poverty.
Lovers boldly touch the stars.
* note. this is a 'tanka'.
144) Her arms around him felt like the last leaves of autumn clutching to their branch, refusing to be swept away by the cruel winter wind.
145) The sky looked as if some benevolent being had wandered across it, scattering glitter across its dark depths.
146) One leaf
Wrinkled face
Two others
Give chase

One leaf
Cracked and dry
Lies under
Clouded sky.
147) The wind was rushing up around me, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was sitting on a swing, feeling myself rise up to meet the clouds. But this time, I was falling.
148) Every inch examined, every inch too much.
149) Every time I look at him, all I can think about is how happy we would be together, and why that'll never happen.
150) He looked into my eyes - I looked into his, and the next thing I knew, I was being surrounded by the comforting weight of his arms.
151) His grey eyes (weren't they blue once?) surveyed the horizon with the weary exhaustion of one who had seen too much, and yet, not found what they were seeking for. But - there, there on the horizon. A shadow, a silhoutte?
152) His eyes are deep pools of hurt, as he walks away for the final time, and I am left alone.
153) She trailed a finger down his face, leaning upwards for a kiss whilst her hand meandered across his chest.
154) And as they took
His lifeless body down,
I broke away.

And as they buried him,
I flew away.
Free.
155) Lines of moonlight shone across her wrists where the pain had been bled away.
156) I was sitting on one of those hard wooden chairs with slats that push into you when you lean back and edges that hurt when you lean forwards.
157) Yesterday is dim and dark,
The light fades into black.
Time stands tall, impervious
To mankind’s harsh attack.
158) "I was young once!" He roared at the clouds. "And look what you've made me!"
159) I should be depressed; I should be in mourning, but strangely, all I can feel is hope.
160) Soft petals stroke softer eyes.

Questions To Think About.

161) If you were given ten minutes to live and a mobile phone, who would you phone, and what would you say? (And why are you waiting?)
162) You're on an escaped boat, fleeing the Titanic. Who are you? What do you feel?
163) What would a pair of scissors say if it could talk?
164) What would happen if whatever you drew came to life?
165) You have a TARDIS. Where do you go?
166) What if people showed their relationship status (eg, single, taken, don't come near me with a fifty-foot pole right now) with carefully coded stickers placed on the collar?
167) Who is the strangest person you know? Why?
168) Imagine you’re the creator of a fantastic weight-loss formula … with one odd side effect. What’s the drawback?
169) What if sellotape were holy?
170) When was the last time you didn't say what you felt, and wished you had?
171) Are you really alone?
172) You've been given an inheritance that is more than you could possible imagine. What is it, and what do you do with it?
173) What is the one secret you want to keep from the world? Why?
174) If you could say anything, to anyone, what would you say?
175) Who would you be today if things were ever-so-slightly different?
176) If you wrote what you were feeling, right now, what would you write?
177) What do you want?
178) You're running away from home. What do you pack, and why?
179) Who was the last person you wanted to compliment?
180) Do you dare touch the soft skin of the calm water?

Story-Starters

181) The elevator doors opened.
182) "I'm sorry - you did what?!"
183) I love you because...
184) All my life, I've been an outsider. I mean, it's nothing that I particularly dislike, but I don't particularly like it either.
185) [name] licked one of her fingers and turned the page, her forehead wrinkling in concentration as she did so.
186) There is nothing - I tell you, nothing - more irritating than waking up in the morning to discover that all the hot water has been used. And that was the beginning of the worst day of my life.
187) "Who ate all the pies?"
188) The landscape looked like Death, and, if [character name] was going to be perfectly honest with himself, so did he.
189) What hope was there when you were hopelessly in love with Nature herself?
190) For the third time that day, I found myself...
191) It sounds a cliché, but it really was a sunny day on the best day of my life.
192) "I think you're beautiful." The statement came out of the blue; completely unprepared for, and completely spontaneous.
193) And so let us journey into a fantasy world, occupied by only those who believe in it.
194) I'm a compulsive liar. Do you believe me?
195) Gasping for breath, he opened his eyes, searching blindly for the nightmare he'd just seen.
196) I don't know why I chose to wear...
197) "And that's when it hit me. Literally."
198) I don't know why I'm writing this: but I know I have to. People deserve to know.
199) I love him.
200) Some people say life is something you live for - others say something live is something you live with.