by Marie Barnes
There is no arguing that occasionally we need something to prod us into the right way. To lead us onto the path of creative beginnings and sparkle our unkindled fuse of inspiration. We need inspiration to produce and to conceive uniqueness and originality.
Every art feasts upon inspiration. Writing is no exception. Writing encapsulates inspiration. Irrefutably, there is no quality and engaging writing without either something that inspires you or someone to muse about. Therefore, we often venture out of our way to seek inspiration to fuel our creative engine. However, it might prove quite difficult to find someone to draw inspiration from.
What are the hallmarks of inspiration? We are inspired by certain individuals, oftentimes, on the basis of their past exploits and achievements, their strong will in seemingly insurmountable trials and tantamount passion. Today, we will take a scrupulous glance at some of those creative geniuses that can help you open the inspirational Pandora's Box.
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood has gained an unprecedented popularity and justifiably so. Her works are not only splendidly written, they pose questions that our modern society fears the most. Thought-provoking and unique might be the best epithets to describe her craft. She inspires many with pensive themes on so hotly debated topic of feminism. Recently adapted The Handmaid’s Tale is probably the most glaring example that exemplifies her tone of work while also emboldening and awakening your inner feelings.
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is a writer of an exquisite nature. His works are not only entertaining and full of adventure but also, as he describes it, “positive catalyst for introspection”. He spawned a whole lot of controversy regarding his most famous and bestselling book The Da Vinci Code for being anti-Christian. Although his book simply depicts the other side of being and is an invaluable inspiration for someone who’s seeking new nuances to an all beaten spiritual story.
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho is an eccentric and impulsive author. That is in no way diminishes his literary ingeniousness. It empowers it. Before writing his one of the all-time best selling book The Alchemist, he claimed to have witnessed spiritual awakening, which enabled him to fathom how valuable and precious the life of his is. Whether you believe in stuff like this or not, the fact of the matter is that his works are laudable and deserve the praise they’ve harnessed. The story of The Alchemist is comforting and rewarding. It extrapolates onto the ideas of worry and unnecessary anxiety, presenting an inspirational view of the world.
Ben Grant
Now let’s sidetrack from universally famous personalities to someone who’s less of a novelist but more of an educational figure. Ben Grant is English Literature Lecturer at Oxford who’s works encompass topics of quite an interesting nature. His main areas of interests are world literature, psychoanalysis and travel literature. His first published work Postcolonialism, Psychoanalysis and Burton: Power Play of Empire expands upon the famous explorer Francis Burton and his interactions with a non European contingent.
R.L. Stine
Stine tapped into unusual genre or, better say, a mix of genres children’s literature, horror and science fiction. Quite bizarre, isn’t it? It panned out. His success has kept him second on the list of all time bestselling book series, accumulating an enormous list of achievements and praises. He also successfully transitioned his works into movie adaptations.
His success story is a living evidence of how even the strangest ideas and concepts can become stupendously original and wanting with the right execution.
E.L. James
Fifty Shades is a relatively recent sensation. Its brave and enlivening depiction of sexually sensuous and romantic scenes have managed to amass a devoted audience. Fifty Shades steered in quite an uncharted territory that it can't but amaze how timely it struck the need of many. The need for something so frank and naked, so bold and mature that, looking back, we notice the untapped opportunity that now has been fulfilled. Evidently, it’s not for everyone, it didn’t garner an universal acclaim. Nevertheless, as we can see now, there is a target audience and it’s obscenely vast.
Success stories like that exude inspiration and facilitate risky ventures.
George R.R. Martin
Creator of an iconic series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire or more commonly known as Game of Thrones. He put a titanic amount of work and creative force into Game of Thrones and it is now a paramount example of a medieval-fiction genre. He may not be the one who pioneered it but he, most definitely, is the one to promote it. His character depiction and depth are unmatched. He masterfully crafted a new living and breathing, harsh world from the ground up. It takes a true master to write it but it takes double that to come up with something like that. And now Game of Thrones is probably the most recognizable TV and book series out there. George R.R. Martin inspires us with diligence and creative vitality.
Yuval Noah Harari
Who knew that history can be presented in such an ingenious and thought provoking way. Lo and behold Yuval did just that with his best selling book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Not only is it written in a jesting and fun manner, it also manages to simultaneously convey to the reader the gravity and tragic connotations of the happenstance on the Earth.
Sapiens is a concoction of both: to enlighten and to entertain. It shows how engaging and immersive history class can be without insipid statements and unnecessary notions.
Daniel H. Pink
Today we see the overabundance of motivational self-help books/guides that call to immediate action or give unsubstantiated promises. Daniel, on the other hand, calls for refining inner motivation towards something. Take up challenges and absorb new ideas and concepts because that is exactly what fuels our motivation and extols our creativity. Motivation is a Drive (name of his book) so we must do our best to keep it running.
Marie Barnes is a Marketing Communication Manager at LinksManagement. She also writes for Photza, photo retouching service. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs.