As I pen this post, I’m sitting on a nearly empty bus, listening to the automated Hawaiian bus voice tells us which stop is which.  We’ve just driven past Kaaheman. We’re on our way back from Haleiwa at North Shore. It’s Spring Break for the Mathmagician. I lured him out of his hobbit hole with promise of tasty treats.

As we’re bumping along, I started thinking  about inspiration. What gets this pen moving? How do I get myself pumped to write? I rarely go on long bus journeys. I generally don’t like buses. They make me anxious and nine times out of 10, I end up lost. And I really just hate riding the bus. They’re like moving anxiety machines for me and with the last debacle with my head injury, I’m just not about the bus life.

So, I always need a distraction.

Usually, I have a book paperback or an ereader. I always have a pen and paper (of course). There’s something about The Bus that frees up my mind and allows my thoughts to flow. It could be the lack of anything requiring my attention. When the laptop is put away and I’m away from  WiFi, I get a mini break from my daily responsibilities. It might be that on the bus I’m a captive audience. There’s no real option out with one of the 101 ways I distract myself regularly. There’s also that I can zone into the thing. In fact on a long bus ride (Almost 2 hours this one) I need to pt myself in a world, just to cope. In lieu of

It might be that on the bus I’m a captive audience. There’s no real option out with one of the 101 ways I distract myself regularly. There’s also that I can zone into the thing. In fact on a long bus ride I need to immerse myself in a world, just to cope. In lieu of Xanax, writing has to act as my sedative. Then I can ignore the too cold temperatures, the whiny baby, the man who smells like alcohol and gym socks and the high school kids talking about Britney and Tall Britney- not like Tall Britney’s 20 years old not that one our  Britney and the swim meet because O.M.G. some stuff went

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This bus ride was over two hours. During it, I wrote this blog post, a poem, and  scene for Blood Roses and Honey Suckles the first book in my mainstream fiction trilogy. The Mathmagician suggested I should take long bus rides every day. I can’t tell you what I suggested he do in turn. (It was anatomically impossible and possibly illegal.)

I suggest you find your writer sweet spot. It may be in the bath tub after the kids are sleeping. It might be during lunch break at a nearby park. Maybe going to the local watering hole and writing while someone is plucking at their acoustic guitar at the open mic is wailing is more your speed.

Where do you feel comfortable or feel challenged? Is there a place where you’re able to concentrate best? Find that place and go there when you need of inspiration. We’ll talk soon about other ways to bring inspiration into your writing life.

Have you found your writer’s sweet spot? Let me know down in the comments. And remember, I’m still accepting submission for the Horror Anthology and The Reverie Journal’s poetry anthology. And here’s the #writestuff flash fiction challenge for April.

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