Goodreads asked Serina Hartwell:

How do you get inspired to write?

Serina Hartwell Writing is something I have to do - I don't have a choice - but coming up with original ideas when you write all the time can be hard work. Inspiration is different for every writer. Some are inspired from one thing over another. I'm a little more random and instead prefer to go with whatever turns up on the day or wherever my mood takes me.

I will actively avoid seeing films or reading books if I feel that they might influence my writing at the time, because I want to create something as original as I possibly can. This is important to me. In the past, this has led me to picking random things and run with them.

I write ahead of my book releases, so I'm currently working on book 4 - Stay, but one example of using random inspiration can be seen in book 3 - The Awakening.

I like to walk part of my journey to work. Being a writer means sitting down a lot and being far too busy to exercise, so this is how I build in exercise. The advantage of walking to work is the walk itself. I live in a very small village in Yorkshire and have to walk through it to get to work. The village is very old. Some of the houses were built in the 1800's and it's clear to see where a road has been put through the village since some of the houses were originally built.

The pavement, as a consequence, is right on the boundary of some the houses, so I literally walk right outside the exterior wall of some. One day, I walked past someone's kitchen window. I do this everyday, but on this occasion the resident was inside their kitchen and I noticed that I was on the outside of the kitchen window, but literally a couple of meters away. There was nothing to stop me from standing there and watching the resident go about their business and there would have been nothing that they could do about it, because I was well within my right to stand on a public pavement. The idea that came to me inspired a whole chapter in the book and took me in a direction I never would have considered without it happening. It was a brilliant piece of inspiration and one that I'm really grateful for.

I do, like others, become inspired by music. I can listen to a song and write a complete story based on that one piece. In fact, this is my favourite way to become inspired. I use music to cleanse my distractions, to help me write action pieces or to feel emotionally charged when writing. Photography and artwork have the same effect. I can look at a picture and write a story based upon the images that come from the picture.

By not limiting my imagination and thinking outside of the proverbial box, I hope to keep my writing inspirational to others and to take my readers off in all kinds of directions.

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