Artistic Inspiration and Other Common Myths

Life is stressful enough already.  Why should art be too?  Anyways, a brief cloud of artistic inspiration: 

*made using https://worditout.com

Often, while writing, I use music as an inspiration and (yes, lamely enough), give my main characters theme songs.  This, and the rest, can be used for any art project in general.  

Tips for Understanding a Character's Personality

Admittedly, one of my greatest challenges in writing is creating characters that follow into every category: relatable, original, and non-stereotypical.  This possibly has to do with the one unexplainable universal law of life: people are and will always be the hardest thing in the universe to understand (okay, so I made that up, but point made.)  Hence, in my humble opinion, character development has the difficult equivalent to understanding quantum mechanics.  Possible greater.  But every great story must contain fascinating characters, as literature was created upon teaching people more about themselves and human characteristics.  Here are a few simple tips:

Analyze your Character's Personality using AI

Yes, sounds insane, but there's a site for that.  IBM Watson has Developed a Personality Insights Site that will describe your character if given more that 100 words in their POV (preferably several thousand).  

Give your Character a Zodiac Sign

Zodiac signs can display a lot about peoples' personalities (they may not be 100% true, but for the sake of writing, let's pretend they are.)  Assign your character to their own zodiac sign, and read upon the sign's characteristics to give your character a relatable personality.  The internet is the perfect source for all types of zodiac facts, whether serious or funny, so all aspects of the character can be covered with their zodiac.

The signs can indeed be very cliché, so to mix things up!  Give your character a cusp (a mix of two signs' personalities that occurs when in the first week of a sign's transition.)  Zodiac cusps are a unique way to create equally unique personalities. 

Use Friends, Family, or Yourself for Inspiration

Most of the time, we're inspired by our own experiences.  It truly shines through when you're connected to your own story.  Essentially, it's the real things that inspire the fake ones.  

World-Building

Practically the hardest part of writing any sci-fi or fantasy and any subgenre of these is considerably world-building.  While it does come to many writers naturally, it's essential to elaborate upon the newt-created world.  Listed below are some of the most helpful rules I follow by while building new worlds.

Listen to Music.
It helps.  Seriously.  Any genre of music helps, depending on what type of world it is- dreamy, maybe magical fantasy worlds?  Rebellious cyber punk?  Music sparks our creativity.


If you're a sci-fi writer and a total science nerd, using a world generator helps- and if you have the time and enthusiasm to research all of the scientific factors in between, it truly makes a difference.  The slightest facts, such as a planet's gravity, distance from its star, type of star, composition, and atmosphere can help build a shockingly different world.  And hey, it might even be scientifically accurate in the slightest (yet existent) bit.
Sci-fi terrestrial world generator: https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/world/
Sci-fi star system generator: https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/system/
Traveller System Generator: https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/tsg/

Act like it's going to be turned into a big-name franchise.  Even if you don't want it to.
Why?  Because it always ends up being more detailed.  Pay attention to all of the world- not only it's citizens, history, government, but its landscape, food, clothing, and daily activities.  Think popular franchises- one of the main reasons the Harry Potter franchise became so popular was its detailed world.

Live in the World.  
Not because it sounds insane, but because writing is much more appreciated by audiences if there is something that we can relate to- maybe a common concept, invention, or way of life that reflects upon our living.

A Short Introduction

It's all about the emotions when it comes to writing.  Well, it's either about the emotions or the ridiculous lack of emotions.  But seriously.  We're human and we want one of two things; emotions that we can relate to, or stupidity that we can laugh at.  That's why we read, write, listen to music, sing, dance, sketch, sculpt, paint, underwater basket weave... you get the point.  
But why exactly?  Because it makes us more secure knowing that in a fantasy world, someone, somewhere, is feeling the same thing us humans are often ashamed of feeling.  And sometime, it's very de-stressing and therapeutic to just think about another life rather than yours.  
So, let's just say, it's cool to be a nerd.  As Dr. Seuss said, "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."