Struck with inspiration - starting the idea that’s eating at you

Published on September 22nd, 2025 by Emma

As I said in my last post, I am someone quick to fall to the whims of writer’s block. Faced with any myriad of writing issues, a creative block, a starting-this-shit block, or just anything else that interrupts my flow state, I find that there is one thing that can get me focused again. A blank notebook and a “fancy” pencil.

There’s also no comparable feeling (to me) creatively than having a couple blank pages where you can just write out any and all ideas in your head, just to reorder them later. It engages more of your senses, writing in a notebook as compared to typing on a laptop to generate ideas. You have to feel the paper under your fingers, be consciously aware of where you’re writing. The scraping of pencil lead on paper, the shorthand messes that usually generate from fits of creative passion. The physical feeling of moving a pencil on paper. And personally, as a right-handed person, I end up with a mess of graphite smudges on my hand (specifically the outer part of my palm that extends from my pinkie, which had rested on the paper). It’s unlike any other feeling, especially when you see that you’ve been just head-down flow-state-ing it for like 30+ minutes, and look down to see smudges along your hand, a whole spread of ideas physically there, and usually a VERY dull pencil.

When I want to really really commit to writing something, I will almost peer-pressure myself to deck-out my notebook and use “fancy” pencils/pens (we’ll touch-base on that MUCH later). That way, there feels like there’s stakes, an almost guilt that’ll come with putting attention and time into the visuals of a project where you think “fuck it, guess I DO have do writing/think about/work on this project, I used my cool stickers for this notebook”. I like to think of the 3 main essentials when getting a notebook “ready”:

1. What’re some themes/plot-aspects I have in mind for this project?

2. Are there some pieces/points of inspiration for me?

3. What will I like looking at?

My stickers always carry a meaning. For themes, I want to have stickers that connect/remind me of the ideas I have for the story just when reaching for it. I’m also a firm believer that art inspires other art and everything ever made was inspired by SOMETHING else. In that same vein, I like to have reminders of all my inspirations for a work front-and-center. Sometimes, that’ll be a literal list of inspirations amongst the first couple pages of my notebook, other times it’s having stickers from those pieces of media on my notebook. The last point of “what I want to look at” is my “prettify” aspect of notebooks. Those are stickers that just keep me going, get a good laugh out of me, or serve as overall writer inspiration. I’ll use my notebook for the story I’m working on in tandem with this blog as an example.

The stickers to the left are both related to themes/aspects of my story, being Pandora and a take on “live, laugh, love”. With Pandora, the story will have this overarching theme of knowledge and the consequences that come from knowing/learning things. The top is a bit funnier but also a reminder that the characters that die within this story still remain relevant and relative to the plot.

For the inspirations from other works (seen to the right) I literally have stickers from other forms of media. It’s a superhero story that’s meant to hit-home with the reader-base, thus a Superman “being kind is punk-rock” sticker. The one above is from a series, “Tokyo Ghoul” which is a main force behind the inspiration for this story, and why the characters are usually masked within this world. Seeing both these physical factors can sometimes serve as points of further inspiration sometimes too.

The last aspect “what I like to see” comes in with these last two stickers. The top on the front was a sticker gifted from a friend, which holds no relevance (outside maybe the “power of friendship”) but I just like it. The back one, however, does relate to themes of being an author as a whole. Books are a driving force for me, they’re relevant, and I like this sticker. Thus, it’s here.

These little factors–like a pretty notebook–just add some nuance to the writing process, acting as another form of inspiration and developing the idea. If you ever need that extra “push” to just start, start with something a lot less stressful than the beginning of the story, start with a notebook.