Six Word Story Challenge: Inspiration

And suddenly you’ve got it. An idea. Something that leads you onward on your path, or sends you in the opposite direction. Makes you try out something new. A warm feeling when you listen to someone, absorbing every word. Suddenly you know the solution to a problem you’ve been wrestling with for ages. INSPIRATION.

What gives you a good feeling? Who or what inspires you? When and where do you get these inspiring ideas?

Inspiration refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or other artistic endeavor. The concept has origins in both Hellenism and Hebraism. The Greeks believed that inspiration came from the muses, as well as the gods Apollo and Dionysus. Similarly, in the Ancient Norse religions, inspiration derives from the gods, such as Odin. Inspiration is also a divine matter in Hebrew poetics. In the Book of Amos the prophet speaks of being overwhelmed by God’s voice and compelled to speak. In Christianity, inspiration is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

In the 18th century philosopher John Locke proposed a model of the human mind in which ideas associate or resonate with one another in the mind. In the 19th century, Romantic poets such as Coleridge and Shelley believed that inspiration came to a poet because the poet was attuned to the (divine or mystical) ‘winds’ and because the soul of the poet was able to receive such visions. In the early 20th century, Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud located inspiration in the inner psyche of the artist. Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung’s theory of inspiration suggests that an artist is one who was attuned to racial memory, which encoded the archetypes of the human mind.

The Marxist theory of art sees it as the expression of the friction between economic base and economic super-structural positions, or as an unaware dialog of competing ideologies, or as an exploitation of a ‘fissure’ in the ruling class’s ideology. In modern psychology inspiration is not frequently studied, but it is generally seen as an entirely internal process.

Tooooo much information right? 😉

Then show me YOUR story about INSPIRATION in just six words. Let a photo or image inspire you to write a story. Or first write the story, and then make or search for a picture to go with it.

Here’s a Six Word Story by Ernest Hemingway.

Such an impact and unseen images in only six words…

Publish your Six Word Story on your own website/blog and paste the link to that post in a comment to this one here at Figments. I will include your contribution in this post, forming a list of stories.

Will you join me? Will you? Say you do   And share the challenge news!

Have fun writing,
Marion

READ THE INSPIRATIONAL STORIES OF:

• Marian Allen: #6WSC Inspiration
• Ramblejim’s Blog: #6WSC Inspiration
• Crackerberries: The Birds & The Bees
• Mormors klagemur: Six Word Story Challenge: Inspiration
• I am: Six Word Story Challenge: Inspiration
• Colonialist’s blog: Six Word Story Challenge: Inspiration
• Figments of a DuTchess: 6WSC: Inspiration
• Masadiso: Six Word Story Challenge: Inspiration
• Gray Poet: Mind – Six Word Story Challenge
• Dauw’s Stekje: Volgt u mij?

Who’s next? 

The next challenge will be posted already next week, so on Wednesday, July 3rd. During the summer holiday there will be no 6WSC at Figments of a DuTchess, but you can visit my dear sister from overseas’ website Marian Allen. She will take over the 6WSC during the holiday, and on alternating Wednesdays after. Doe je liever mee in het Nederlands, ga dan naar Verbeeld een Verhaal in Zes Woorden: Inspiratie.

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Older stories:
130226 – Poverty
130313 – Spring
130327 – Writing
130410 – Light
130424 – Music
130515 – Transport
130529 – Pets
130612 – Regret