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Inspiration



Erica Vetsch shares her warm smile around the Christian writing community. She is fully engaged in reaching out to others on facebook, twitter, and on her blog. She has a gift of inspiring others to do...whatever God has directed. More than thirteen of her books have been published.

Today, Erica discusses inspiration. When does it come. And what happens when inspiration strikes us.







Inspiration

Recently a friend of mine asked on her blog ā€œWhat inspires you?ā€ I loved all the answers. Some readers were inspired by music, some by walking in the mountains, some by reading great fiction, or looking at the sky. After some thought, I realized that my most inspirational times, the times when my imagination is most nimble, are those precious moments at night before I fall asleep.

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For as long as I can remember, I have daydreamed myself to sleep at night. When the house is quiet, everything is dark, and I can just close my eyes and let my mind drift to magical lands and places, peopled with characters I wanted to hang out with, adventures I wanted to take. As a child, I continued stories that I’d read, riding The Black Stallion, nursing patients with Cherry Ames, pioneering with Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

It was in those precious moments that I learned to spin my own stories, and even now that’s when I work out plot problems, talk to characters, or imagine settings. My mind is free from distractions, noise, electronics, tasks, and to-do lists. 

It is at this time that I can overcome writer’s block by shedding doubt and letting myself explore ideas that simply won’t come when facing a blinking cursor and a blank page. It’s when I can sink into the story and eventually into slumber.

How about you? Advent is here. Soon Christmas will be, too. When does your inspiration come? What inspires you to do what ever you are led to do?






Author Bio: Erica Vetsch is a transplanted Kansan now residing in Minnesota. She loves history and reading, and is blessed to be able to combine the two by writing historical fiction set in the American West. Whenever she’s not following flights of fancy in her fictional world, she’s the company bookkeeper for the family lumber business, mother of two terrific teens, wife to a man who is her total opposite and soul-mate, and avid museum patron.

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Thank you Erica for spending time with us, today.

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