That’s helpful, isn’t it?

Writing for other people has a decent amount of inspiration built in – they provide the topic, I write about it. While some of those topics are harder (more boring) than others, at least I know what I’m writing about. And, for me, the topic is the hardest part. The quality of the writing needs some inspiration of its own, but if I don’t have a topic, there’s no quality to judge.

Note to clients, future clients, clients of other writers, and anyone thinking about hiring a writer: You Must Provide Topics. We are not mind readers and plucking subjects out of thin air is a great way to be unhappy with the results.

Writing for myself, however, is a different story altogether. When I’ve got a hot idea, the words tend to flow. The problem is that hot ideas are hard to come by and rarely arrive on any sort of schedule. Yep, that inspiration is a fickle … um … creature.

Inspiration, though, is not hiding. It is out there, big, bold, bright, and shiny, just waiting for someone to see it. And that’s the catch, am I seeing? The hardest way for me to see inspiration is to be in that desperate, “I NEED A Blog Topic!” mode of looking for it. The hot ideas come when I’m open and letting my brain make its own connections.

In fact, I would say that looking for inspiration is the surest way to keep yourself from seeing it.

Maybe that’s why so many “inspired” artists drink and/or take drugs – to open the brain and get the conscious out of the way. (I think I’ll get off this line of thinking before I get myself in trouble.)

In an attempt to add something that people might find helpful, I went to my second favorite resource, Google.

The search that got me something that piqued my interest was, “finding inspiration for business writing.” And yes, I got 11 million results – some of which I may look at later.

The one that got my attention was 10 Tricks For Getting Inspired to Write (another one of those damn number and list titles). Some of the tips are ones that I may use in the future, but the really important point was tip number 10: Find your joy.

In this point, author Jon Morrow reminded me of something critical: I love to write. Writing is a key part of who I am. Turning writing into something I hate is not an option.

Lately, I let myself get caught up in trying to come up with useful blog topics. Well, you know what? I don’t always have something useful to say. However, I regularly have something random, silly, or pointless to say. And those things can lead to something useful, or not.

I’m going to pay attention to that big, bold, bright, and shiny inspiration – no matter the topic.

So, be warned. To honor my business, and the “need” for a business blog, I’m not going to worry about usefulness. I’m going to go back to my love of writing. Posts may be long, short, relevant, pointless, frequent, or sporadic. What’s important is that I write, so I’m going to do more of that.

-Lorrie Nicoles