Refilling Your Creative Well
Welcome to Being Endlessly Inspired!
Welcome to the Apple Hair CANON!
Here, I’ll explore creating a fictional universe, and I’m hoping you’ll follow along with your own world. I’m by no means an expert, so let’s discuss how to create a believable, magical, and captivating world. Let’s be storycatchers together!
Want to read Apple Hair, the boy band fantasy novel, from the very beginning? You can start here! Apple Hair is a fictional, Asian American boy band from Hawaii.
Welcome to the newsletter, and I’m excited to lay down the foundations of our storyworlds together, one word at a time.
Hi, storycatchers! I want to welcome everyone who joined the Apple Hair newsletter. I am super glad to have you here. Did you enjoy reading Our Crisp First Day? I am super excited to be sharing some news soon about the first Apple Hair book’s publication! Stay tuned!
Last time in the CANON, we talked about self-inserts. What a fun topic! For all the new faces, I feel the need to discuss how to refill our creative well.
First, have you heard of this term before? And what are some ways that you refill your creative well?
When I first heard this term, I was puzzled because I thought to become a better writer, the only method was to sit down and hammer out thousands and thousands of words. I didn’t realize it, but I was becoming quite burned out.
It was only after stumbling on successful authors on YouTube that I learned the term “refilling your creative well.” To create things, we need to be inspired. And being inspired can come when we watch our favorite shows, read our favorite books, and immerse ourselves in the worlds of other creatives.
It made total sense to me at that moment! I looked back at all the times I was writing my best work. It happened during times when I was reading a ton. And I mean, I was going through books on a weekly basis. (This is not as fast as my middle-school reader self, who could read a book in two days! Does anyone have any tips on finding that speed again?)
When I started my creative well journey, I felt guilty about “wasting time.” I soon realized that no time is wasted when we are reading or watching, because we are applying our brains in a different way and finding new perspectives to think about whatever we are crafting.
Say you’re working on a blog post. Watching a day in the life of another blogger can give you an idea of how to tackle a particular issue that always comes up in writing articles. And if you write fiction like me, you can take inspiration from various twists and turns from authors in the same genre—and even in different genres!
While acting like a machine and constantly pumping out things, it might feel good to produce so much content. At the same time, the content might come out repetitive. It might lack the spark that we had when we first started. Refilling the creative well brings joy and fresh insight into whatever storyworld we are building.
While refilling the creative well, I think it’s good not to have too much of a studious mindset. Sure, it’s good to take notes and learn, but it also nourishes our mind to read and watch with no other intention than to enjoy the journey.
I felt that recently with a recent read. For the first time in a long time, I lost myself in the “fictive dream.” It’s when we are so immersed in a certain story that we become a part of the world, walking among the characters without even realizing it. We become oblivious to our actual surroundings. Have you ever been lost in a fictive dream? Where you didn’t even realize you were wandering through a fictional world?
I hope this post inspires you to take a little bit of time to refill your creative well. I would suggest going back to childhood and thinking about what made you the happiest. For me, that was anime, fantasy novels, and comforting vlogs.
So I’m trying something different. I’ve made my subscription free for everyone! But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop giving bonuses! I’d like to ask—what would you like to read? I’m leaning towards giving early access to chapters of Debut in Broad Daylight! (A few chapters a month or so? Or maybe even exclusive oneshots with the boy band members?) So if you haven’t yet, you can take some time to catch up with the main storyline on Wattpad!
What would you like me to discuss in the next post? Comment below! Or jump into my Chat or on one of my Notes, and I’ll be happy to hear your input. Dream big while writing this week!