Inspiration is Everywhere by Krysten Linsday Hager

 Inspiration is Everywhere by Krysten Lindsay Hager

                People often ask me what inspires me as a writer to create a story. Honestly, inspiration comes from all over. I can overhear a conversation and think that a comment made by a complete stranger sounds just like something  a character of mine would say. Pretty soon I’m inching closer to that person with one ear perked up like a dog’s trying to pick up bits and pieces without looking like a weirdo. I’ve often said I’d love to have an invisibility cloak—oh the fun I could have going around unnoticed and listening in!

                I’m very visual so a picture can spark an idea, character, or setting for me. Years ago, I was in a used bookstore with a friend in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan. The shop had a large box with vintage photographs for sale and I was going through them looking for things that might inspire me when I came upon a picture of a gorgeous house. It reminded me of an area in Detroit that is now being revitalized and seeing this house in its original glory was making my imagination go on overload. I had to have the pic to use for a story—I didn’t even know what story or when I would use it, but I had to have it. Then I noticed another huge box of pictures and went to look through those and, believe it or not, I found another picture of that same house from a different angle. I took it as a sign and bought both photos. Later the house inspired the setting for a humorous YA vampire short story I wrote in the Autumn Magic anthology.

                Unexpected road trips also bring me ideas galore. Recently, the GPS on my phone took us out of our way and we discovered a cute part of Cincinnati neither of us had been in before. I had never seen all these houses right on the water and it had my brain going into overdrive with ideas for settings and scenes. What started off as the wrong directions put me in the right direction for a story I had been working on that needed more a more scenic description.

                So inspiration is everywhere! You just have to keep your eyes open and your mind receptive. The world is one big muse.

Krysten Lindsay Hager is the author of the Landry’s True Colors Series, a clean reads young adult series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, modeling, self-image, crushes, and values.

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Krysten-Lindsay-Hager/e/B00L2JC9P2/

Follow Krysten’s writing journey at: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/