Have you ever put off starting a project because you didn’t feel inspired and were waiting for inspiration to hit? If you plan to make a living from your art, waiting for your muse is probably not a good strategy.
Many successful artists have discovered that waiting for inspiration can be a waste of time. They don’t depend upon how inspired they feel to create. Sometimes, they produce work to feel more inspired.
Painter Henri Matisse - “Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.”
Writer Susan Sontag - “Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead.”
Painter Pablo Picasso - “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
Inspiration typically strikes when you least expect it—often while in the middle of working on something else.
Try using a schedule.
Schedules may sound like they’d restrict your creativity, but they can help it along. Some of the greats have stuck to schedules to help create fantastic work.
Maya Angelou rented a local hotel room, just for writing. She never slept there. Arriving early at 6:30 AM, she wrote until 2 PM and then went back home to edit, returning the following day to write more.
Prolific writer Haruki Murakami wakes up at 4 AM, writes for five hours, and then heads out for a run.
Schedules are good, but they don’t work for everyone. Inspiration cannot be forced. It would be lovely if divine inspiration would occur each afternoon at two sharp—blam, but so far that hasn’t happened. The muse likes to slip in seeds of ideas while you’re busy making other plans, or when the brain is “idle.”
Inspiration springs internally from:
Life experience
Personal values
Self-reflection
Externally from:
Other people
Animals in the wild as well as pets
Current events
Nature
Books, articles, movies, podcasts, blogs
Inspiration is all around us. Kris Maze has written a great blog on this topic.
How many ideas have flashed in your mind this week? A random thought while making breakfast, conversations overheard, a random meme that popped up via social media? Instead of letting these ideas slip by, grab them, and make them into something you can use. Keep a notepad of some sort nearby to get the ideas down before they fade away.
Do you think of yourself as a creative person?
If asked about your creative routine your answer might be:
“My best ideas arrive when I’m having a nice soak in the tub.”
“Ideas come out of nowhere! It just happens.”
“Some of my best ideas come to me in dreams.”
Is that all there is to it?
Problems with waiting for inspiration to strike.
Are you really procrastinating?
If waiting for inspiration is in truth procrastinating in disguise that’s a different issue entirely.
This may be fear.
What if I’m not good enough?
I don’t want to feel rejected.
Problems may come in the forms of limiting beliefs, self-esteem issues, ridiculously high standards you’ve imposed on yourself . . .
If you spend a lot of time waiting for an inspired spark, there may be deeper issues.
Self-sabotaging success.
If writing is a hobby, that’s great.
But what if you want writing to be your career? You have goals to achieve. There’s little time to waste while waiting for inspiration to strike.
If you’re not writing you can’t improve.
Practice doesn’t necessarily lead to perfection. However, inspired or not, if you don’t practice your art, you deny yourself the opportunity to improve.
When you practice regularly, you can look back and see how far you’ve come. Every writer I’ve encountered has commented about their early work and how much better a job they’d do on it at their current level. Every one of them.
Creative work requires practice. Make time for it. Try training your creativity like you train muscles.
What to do while waiting for inspiration.
Identify blockers.
Consider the following questions:
Does your work need to be perfect?
Are you afraid to fail? Afraid of success?
Do you feel capable of doing what you’re trying to do?
Are you tying your self-worth to your project?
Identifying what’s blocking you will free your creativity.
Set goals.
Not having a clear plan of action may result in procrastination. Get ahead of this by setting specific goals for how you’ll get there—the final outcome, not just what you’re going to create.
Set goals related to your process, like, “I’ll work on my story for at least an hour every day for a month,” or, “I’ll write two chapters every week for a month.” Not everything you write will be usable, but you’ll have a good start to your story.
Create more than you’ll need.
Keep in mind that not everything you write will be best-selling work. Some will not be stellar. No worries. Store those tales away for the future. You may find that you’ve created uncut diamonds that need to be faceted and polished into beautiful story gems.
Develop a working habit.
Having a routine can help the creative process. There is no one right way to develop a routine as it is a very personal thing.
Decide what works best for you. Some people prefer to work at their favorite pub. Others prefer a quiet room. You might find that writing at certain times of the day or night work best. Pay attention to what makes you feel most creative and use it. Maybe you work best with dimmed lights and light jazz playing in the background.
Try taking a walk, recording your thoughts on a cellphone app.
The key is to know when and where you’re most creative, then turning these triggers into a routine.
Stick to it. Experiment.
Life gets in the way, as it will always do, and mess up your routine. You may not feel like writing because there are so many other distractions that are more appealing. Look! There’s another squirrel!
Your creative time is sacred. Stick to it. Put a sign on the door, or on the back of your chair that says, “Writing time” or “Muse on board.”
If nothing is coming, experiment. Try spontaneous free association writing and see what you come up with.
David Bowie used to cut up magazines, rearrange words and phrases to create different meanings, and use them in his song writing now and then.
If you’re stuck do something related, like:
Reading a story in your genre
Drawing one of your characters
Have an imaginary conversation with your characters
Stay in a creative mindset. You may be inspired to write!
Give yourself some down time.
Don’t expected yourself to create all the time. You need time to energize.
Spend time with a friend
Relax with a good book
Play or listen to some music
Watch a movie
Eat
Drink
Be merry
Balance in all things is important for creativity.
How do you stick to a creative routine? Do you wait for inspiration to strike?
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About Ellen
Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.
Since then, AI has gotten stronger, faster, and more than a little overconfident. It can generate beautiful prose, fix dangling modifiers, and churn out whole chapters on command. I’ve learned to work with it as a tool for productivity, letting it help with early passes and busywork so I can focus more on the creative parts I love. I actually enjoy vibe writing with a trained AI companion.
But no matter how shiny the technology gets, one truth hasn’t changed: a skilled human editor brings something AI can’t.
Here’s my updated list for 2025, now even longer, of why tech still can’t replace a good editor and why I don’t think it ever will.
I once read a scene from a book where the same character entered the same room twice, both times sitting down on the same sofa. It wasn’t a repeated page. The second instance was very different from the first. The author had just forgotten that they’d already brought the character in. Every word was spelled correctly. The grammar was flawless. And yet, the scene made no sense.
AI might have flagged a typo, but it wouldn’t have caught that moment of déjà vu. An editor sees it immediately because they’re holding the story in their head, watching the thread weave through every moment.
One of the fastest ways to flatten a story is to “fix” what wasn’t broken. A fragment for impact. An odd turn of phrase that reveals character. Repetition used like a drumbeat to drive a point home at just the right crisis moment.
AI can be taught to leave these alone. But it’s not reading for effect. It’s not using those techniques for power or tension. It’s reading for conformity or stylistic patterns. A human editor understands that voice matters more than rules, and that sometimes breaking the rules is exactly what makes a story sing.
Years ago, I gave my editor a scene I thought was vivid. She said, “I can’t see it. Where are we?” I realized I’d been seeing the image in my head, but never put it on the page. She could tell it was supposed to be important, something was supposed to be there. And she cared enough to help me track down the missing bits.
An AI might suggest, “Add description here,” but it doesn’t know if that detail fits the mood, the pacing, or the character’s emotional state. An editor will guide you toward what belongs in that moment.
Some scenes need more than correctness; they need power.
For instance, AI can tidy up grammar and even expand a scene if prompted. But it can’t feel when a turning point lands flat, or when the ending doesn’t deliver the emotional release the story has been building toward. A great editor will push you to take it further, to dig into the rawness and risk that transforms “good enough” into unforgettable.
Stories aren’t built in straight lines. One moment we’re trapped in a corner, the next we’re staring at a loose thread, and before we know it, a scene has grown so heavy it collapses under its own weight.
AI can suggest fixes, but it doesn’t know the emotional logic or subtext behind your choices. An editor will talk you through the mess, ask the questions that matter, and help you find the clean path forward. A good editor will care as much for a story as the author does and will help find a path that works for the story you meant to tell.
AI learns from massive datasets, but those datasets lean toward the familiar. That can mean “helpful” suggestions that actually pull your work away from your genre’s expectations and tropes.
A human editor who knows your genre will protect its nuances: the rhythms of a cozy mystery, the stakes of a thriller, the lyricism of fantasy. Instead of sanding them down into something generic, a skilled editor will help you make your work uniquely yours.
Sensitivity is more than word choice. It’s about context, history, and impact. AI might catch certain flagged terms, but it won’t stop to ask whether a character’s portrayal could hurt the readers you most want to reach.
A talented editor can. They’ll spot the moment where an unintended implication slips in and causes harm, and even better, they can help you address it without losing the heart of your story.
AI can mimic your style. If you’ve worked with it long enough, it can help you maintain consistency. Sometimes it can even help you grow, but in predictable ways, showing you techniques that are powerful but not showing you how to make them your own.
An editor will challenge you to deepen your voice, to stretch in new directions, to polish what’s uniquely yours. They don’t just hold the line; they push you to do better.
A human editor knows the struggles an author is going through. When you have a good relationship with a talented editor, they’ll notice when you’re starting to falter. They’ll remind you why this story matters, celebrate with you when a stubborn scene finally works, and nudge you to keep going when you want to walk away.
AI doesn’t care. It doesn’t notice when your confidence falters or when you’ve been staring at the same sentence for an hour. It may mimic empathy, but it can’t really understand what you need in a moment of crisis.
Every tool writers use leaves a smudge of ink on the page. AI is no different. It might lean too hard on certain turns of phrase, produce paragraphs of suspiciously even lengths, or fill a page with words that sound polished but say almost nothing. It will use an em dash every chance it gets. And while it can learn to sound like you and write like you, there will still be moments when its voice interrupts yours.
Real editors see these tells. They can hand a page back to you and say, “This doesn’t sound like you.” The right editor will restore your voice.
AI is powerful. I use it for brainstorming, outlining, research, even drafting. I value what it can do and I growl when an update changes it. But an AI doesn’t care about you or your story. It doesn’t notice the small nuances that make a reader lean in. It doesn’t hold you accountable to the best version of your work.
As an indie publisher, I’ve worked with many editors. Some good, some bad. If you’ve only worked with a mediocre one, you might think an AI could do better, and you might even be right. But the real magic happens when you find a skilled, professional editor who understands your vision and challenges you to meet it. My favorite editor is a self-proclaimed “Grammarwitch” with skills that exceed mere mortals.
A good editor is rare and precious. They see the book you’re trying to write and become a vital partner in the adventure.
What about you? Have you worked with both AI and human editors? What differences have you noticed in the way they shape your work?
About Lisa
Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.
Writing in multiple viewpoints is a great way to explore a story from more than one angle, but it creates problems if readers can’t tell who’s talking. You don’t want them feeling lost or disconnected from the story. So whether you're writing a dual point-of-view romance, a family saga, or a thriller with alternating perspectives, here are six tips for being clear about who’s speaking.
Who Should Narrate?
Before we tackle how to differentiate narrators, there’s a key question you need to ask: who should narrate each scene? It’s an important decision because each narrator will tell the story differently. As an example, just think about the first Harry Potter story being written from Hermione’s viewpoint, or Ron’s. Or Snape’s. Each viewpoint would change the story dramatically.
So when you’re deciding who should be in charge of a given scene, ask yourself: which character has the most at stake? Who will be most emotionally impacted by the scene’s events? Which character can provide new or unexpected insight into what’s happening?
If you’ve planned your story beats or outlined major turning points in advance, look closely at the key emotional shifts in those moments. The character who’s experiencing a big change, is being challenged, is experiencing the most emotional turmoil, or has a choice to make will often make the most compelling narrator.
One at a Time!
Once you've chosen a narrator for a scene, stick with that character’s point of view until the scene or chapter ends. Head-hopping—jumping between characters' thoughts in quick succession—can confuse readers and pull them out of the story. To maintain clear transitions, wait for a scene or chapter break to change narrators. This keeps the focus on one character’s experience throughout the scene so readers can stick close to them.
Give Each Narrator a Distinct Voice
When the narrator changes, readers should be able to tell.
A character’s voice is a reflection of who they are, so each one should sound different. A teenaged girl with a rebellious streak won’t think, process events, speak, or notice things like a retired detective who’s seen too much. Factors like age, personality, regional influences, education level, and emotional range will influence each character’s word choices, speech patterns, and tone. Once you know these things about your character, you can write their scenes in their voice, and readers will begin to recognize it.
This is especially important when you’re writing in first person because there are no proper nouns to remind the reader who’s talking. If narrators sound too similar, readers will have to puzzle out who’s speaking. Whatever point of view you choose, make sure each character is narrating in their own particular style. You can find more tips on nailing a character’s voice here.
Alternate Between Viewpoints or Tenses
For a dual narrative, consider using a different tense or viewpoint for each narrator. So, one speaks in past tense, and the other talks in present. Or one speaks from the first-person point of view and the other is in third person. Each viewpoint and tense has a slightly different flow and sound, so readers will pick up on the pattern, and it will be easier for them to identify who’s talking.
The trick here is consistency. It's easy to forget which tense or viewpoint belongs to each character, so you must pay close attention to avoid mistakes that will impact the reader’s engagement in the story.
Use the Chapter Title
A simple hack that works well is to indicate who’s speaking in the chapter title. When a new chapter starts, it says Jennifer. Chapter Two is Matteo, and so on. Authors often use this technique when they’re writing parallel stories in different time periods; the principle is the same, and it’s an easy way to provide clarity when you’re writing from multiple viewpoints.
Study the Masters
One of the best ways to write a story in multiple viewpoints is to study authors who do it well. Find stories with distinctly different narrators that you—the reader—could easily tell apart so you always knew who was talking. Analyze them to see what tips or tricks the author used. Find character voice exercises online and practice developing each narrator’s unique style and perspective. With a little study and a lot of practice, their individual voices will become natural and easy to write.
Multiple-viewpoint stories are a bit more complicated than those told by a single character. But when they’re written well, the payoff is often a richer story with more depth that explores themes, events, and relationships from varying perspectives. With some background work into who your characters are, thoughtful decision making around who gets the spotlight, and consistency, it will be clear who’s narrating. And readers will stay grounded in the story, no matter whose head they’re in.
Have you written a multi-viewpoint story? What has your experience been?
About Becca
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online resource for authors that's home to the Character Builder and Storyteller's Roadmap tools.
