The arrival times of ideas are strange. Often when I feel like writing, there is nothing ready to come out. Then at other points, ideas come at the wrong times and never get to fruition. Despite thinking about the ideas, and sometimes writing a blog post in my head, they are gone as soon as I get distracted. As I strain myself afterwards, willing my neurones to make the same connections they did before, I am typically led to think about inspiration and where it comes from.

For me, it frequently comes from the strangest places. Occasionally, I do go looking for it, consuming books or watching videos and jotting down some ideas, willing for the ideas to coalesce into a blog post. These can then be incubated and sometimes appear later on, but often times trying to force it doesn’t work. Every so often, it is as if my emotions block me from thinking too deeply about anything.

At the points, quite out of the blue, something will be said in passing and hit me with a burst of energy. A throw away line can cause me to become excited at where my thoughts are going, or pause whatever I am doing and just think for a while. At moments like these, it is not a surprise that some people believe the inspiration for things comes from a magical place. Inspiration regularly doesn’t make sense to me, and when you don’t understand things, it’s easier to blame the gods!

Of course, the inspiration I need to write a terrible blog post is a lot different to the ideas needed for great pieces of art. Writing a book, or creating a masterpiece, requires study, dedication and the using of time wisely. Perhaps when your life is dedicated to such a thing, inspiration strikes much easier, that it is like a skill that needs to be worked on, or a muscle that must be trained.

The fact that my brain can get from one throw away line listening to a podcast, and produce a few hundred words is still a little magical to me, and I hope that never stops.