Some would say that it’s easy to write what you know the best. Thus, there might be chances to take a part of yourself for writing. Unless you’re writing an autobiography, it won’t be a large chunk of yourself, usually some fragments. Let’s look on some of the options.

Hobbies

Hobbies can be a good source of inspiration – directly or indirectly. I’ve already written two posts about how hiking inspired me, whether through the landscape or mishaps. In theory, the more hobbies you have, the more things you can use just by your knowledge. Doing martial arts can be a great experience for fight scenes. Being a chess player might give you some degree of understanding the ability to plan ahead – a trait of great strategists and warlords. Sport can make you understand some aspects of anatomy such as fatigue or injuries.

Pets and livestock

Having a pet of your own can help you make a character with a pet more convincing when you know how to care for it. Living on a farm can help you understand different aspects of animal care and use. Having experience with horse care or riding is a great advantage for writing fantasy. All of that will help much more than theoretical research.

Family

The sole child will probably never understand the relationship between siblings just as well as someone who had personal experience. Yet, inspiration can come in many shapes: unique skills or knoweldge of relatives, memories you have of them, appearance…

To give an example, the MC of my to-be fantasy lives in a house inspired by the layout of my grandfather’s house.

Training and skills

Having some specific skills is something that can give you an edge, should they be something you can use directly. Yet again, it can be a very indirect source of inspiration. At some point during my studies, I’ve worked with infrared satellite imagery. Those are usually turned into false-color montages where various shades of red are dominant – and eventually became the inspiration for a place in my fantasy I call simply “crimson peaks”.

Personality and memories

This will get its own post soon.

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So, this is what I’ll share for today. I’ll welcome your comments – especially if you can share some creative way of self-inspiration for writing.