I went on a walk with my family last week alongside a bundle of bubbling waterfalls amongst golden trees whose leaves were falling to the ground. It was raining. But that didn’t put me off. Robert Burns sat by the same waterfalls a few hundred years ago and was famously inspired to write a poem about them. I find trees and water and leaves and all that stuff inspiring too. Not really the trees themselves – like I wouldn’t write a poem about them or anything, it’s more about the space to breathe and create I think, the newness and beauty of the surroundings. Really I find some of the best inspiration in the things that are less than beautiful. Upsets, puzzles, frustrations, injustices – my own and those of others. I like it because I often find a peace about those things and a viewpoint about them actually within my work.
I’m very interested to know what other people find inspiring. If you are a writer what fuels you? Also as a reader – what did you read that inspired some action in your life?
G. S. Banks 