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What influences you the most when you sit down to write?

This is a question I come across time and time again – especially in the inspirational or Christian genre.

“Surely,” I’ve been asked. “The well must run dry at times.”

You would think so. I mean how can a person have the strength to continuously pump out one story after another with some sort of inspirational message in it? I guess those people who specialize in this genre don’t really think about it. I know I don’t sit at my computer every day and say, “Okay, I’m going to be motivating today!”

It’s honestly not something you need to think about. You simply need to listen and to pay attention to everything around you. I compare it to seeing the world through a child’s eyes. Get down and investigate, ask questions, be curious, and, most of all, find beauty where you never thought there could be.

Most of the people and situations I’ve written about have been…well…simple things. You know, an every day person who does extraordinary things that would normally go unnoticed. I write about people who’ve touched me so deeply my heart overflows. How about writing about how you, or someone else persevered over adversity, beat the odds or “made it”? These make the best stories because people can relate to them. They inspire because they are about every day people: People we know, people we strive to be, people who are told they “can’t” but do anyway.

There is enough tragedy and negativity in the world today and, unfortunately, these feelings are contagious. But do you know what? So is happiness, love and peace. Think about what happens when you throw a smile at someone as you pass them. Even the sourest of faces will return a smile.

So, dear writers, you can see the well will only go dry if we let it. All we need to do is look around. There’s inspiration all around us. And as long as I’m writing, I’ll be sure to keep making deposits into that well so other people’s thirst for hope will always be quenched.

Happy writing.

Chynna

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