Getting back the inspiration

[Jestro]

I haven't been inspired for quiet some time now to write. (No, this is not a good thing) I'm almost afraid that I will turn out to be the average writer, but in ten years no one will like reading much because of the popularity of the video game world/movie world.
I'm at a rather hard time in my life...I don't know why I am always wondering these things. Grrr...
If I knew for sure that I could make a living in writing in the future than I would really be sharpening my skills.
I need some major inspiration right now! Haha.
But my question is this: "will people still enjoy reading as much?"
*Sigh* Thanks a lot guys!
The Jester~

 

[Stargazer1976]

I have never been a reader but I would not hesitate to say that reading will always be big. As far as video games go. I am 36 and can remember a huge rush on video games around 1980 which eventually faded out. There have been many things come along through the years due to new technologies but reading/writing are a couple of the oldest things around. Neither will die out!

 

[dwndrgn]

I will always be a reader. Just remember this, if nobody writes any good stories, reading will die out...you don't want to be responsible for that do you? So write already!

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I don't think being able to make a living out of writing is something to depend on. OK, that's what I do, but it's a totally different kind of writing (web content, online ads, that kind of rubbish). Many published writers don't reach a stage where they can give up that dayjob until after a novel or three. Some continue to keep their hand in at their non-writing job, freelancing or consulting.

And as far as readership goes - sometimes a writer's work will fnd its audience, or a wide audience, only long after their deaths. Consider Franz Kafka for instance, or HP Lovecraft. Reading as such is certainly not about to die out altogether.

Do continue to believe you can be immensely succesful and get real paid for doing what you love. Do continue to believe that there are people out there dying to read the stories you're trying to tell. But none of that is primary, what is, is as simple as: just get on with telling those stories.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Inspiration isn't the hard part - the hard part is sitting down and making a full life-consuming effort to get a well-rounded high-standard piece of literature developed from the set of ideas.

Reading is great for inspiration - read this forum, read your genre, read science mags if into sf, and history mags if into fantasy - then wonder "what if..."

 

[polymorphikos]

Reading won't die. Comics and books and magazines and websites and newspapers are all interesting enough to keep people on baord. As for inspiration, often the best bet is to sit down with an entirely off-the wall sentence and see what happens. And I've basically assumed that I will not make a career out of writing, but a hobby. A very fun hobby that, due to the miracle of friends and the internet will get seen, but a hobby nonetheless. And I think that J K Rowling, if nothing else, has proved that in the era of movies and videogames and the like a good book can stil be ridiculously popular amongst the very people most likely to stop reading.

 

[Maxwell Jennison]

There are still plenty of people who prefer books over movies, even in the MTV generation. Granted, I'm not one of those people, but many of my friends are. I'm too wrapped up in Hollywood and Broadway and the like. That's not to say I don't read (I'm reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz right now), I just enjoy the other forms of storytelling a little more.

And don't worry about being an average writer. In fact, if you START OUT as an average writer, you should feel very proud of yourself. Most people have to sharpen their skills before reaching that level. Everyone starts somewhere and works their way up.

If you don't write, you won't improve. So, get started already.

If all else fails, you could always WRITE movie/game scripts. Sure it's a different format, but even novelists try their hand at it from time to time, so it can't be all that bad.

 

[Princess Ivy]

Reading won't die. As already said.
However, a piece of advice that was given to me by a lecturer. Writing is a craft not an art. If you want to do it, work at it, gain skill and control and then just do it. even if its rubbish, like any craft, if you don't practice, you will forget how to.
Poets and painters have the liesure to sit and mope about inspiration and muses, writers have to be more practicle, unless they like eating paper and ink

 

[Leto]

I haven't been inspired for quiet some time now to write. (No, this is not a good thing) I'm almost afraid that I will turn out to be the average writer, but in ten years no one will like reading much because of the popularity of the video game world/movie world.
I'm at a rather hard time in my life...I don't know why I am always wondering these things. Grrr...
If I knew for sure that I could make a living in writing in the future than I would really be sharpening my skills.
I need some major inspiration right now! Haha.
But my question is this: "will people still enjoy reading as much?"
*Sigh* Thanks a lot guys!
The Jester~

tips from a non-fiction writer : try to write every day, even very small pieces, and give you some constraint - decide not to use the letter "a", orto avoid adjectives or to have make all the first letter of a sentence a word :
Then the day came down
He reach for the lamp
Even with one missing arm, he could do that.

Then your brain will get more ideas.

 

[evanescentdream]

Inspiration is neither easy nor difficult. In my belief, ideas for stories are found, not created. When I write, I have the sense of taking what is already there and then recording it. Consider this analogy: when manufacturing a car, you don't really make it. Sure, you put the pieces together, but you did not create the individual pieces. You found them.

No, inspiration is found.

What is difficult is sculpting these ideas, treating your inspiration as though it were a slab of wood which needed to be carved into something more beautiful.

 

[Esioul]

I haven't written anything since last October....

 

[polymorphikos]

Watch lots of movies, and whenever you feel the urge to jot something tell yourself you're not allowed to, or that you can only work on the one thing.

Reverse psychology usually seems to work.

It's really hard to write advice on the internet without sounding sanctimonious.

 

[FelineEyes]

Reading will not die as long as there are people like us around.

If you're really stuck for insparation there's this book called "What if?" you may want to look into it.
Hey, and if all else fails, there's always fan fiction. That's a great way to kill time if you really want to write something.

 

[Ash]

Inspiration isn't the hard part - the hard part is sitting down and making a full life-consuming effort to get a well-rounded high-standard piece of literature developed from the set of ideas.

That sums up my problem perfectly. I have a set of idea or two but I lack the time, determination and self discipline to be a writer, even though it is something I love.

I have to admit I'm finding this forum, just skimming old posts, to be a bit of an inspiration and in the last few days actually put pen (fingers) to paper (keyboard) a couple of times.

Maybe I'll get my act together at some point