Ever sit down to write and feel like your creativity is running on empty? Perhaps the words just won’t come out, or your ideas feel flat or uninspired. We’ve all been there. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of the writing process. But, what if the answer isn’t just reading more books or staring at a blank page, hoping for a breakthrough? Sometimes, the most powerful creative writing inspiration comes from beyond the page. Whether it’s the haunting swell of a film score, the emotional punch of a painting, or the mood-shifting beats of a song, exploring other forms of art can be the secret to unlocking creativity. If you’ve ever wondered how to get inspired to write when nothing seems to click, turning to music, art, and movies may be the spark you need. Join us at What We Writing as we explore how to begin using art to inspire writing – with tips, examples and ideas to fuel your next story.
How Music Inspires Writing
Let the Music Move You: Writing to a Soundtrack
Music and writing have long shared a deep, emotional connection. Whether it’s setting the tone for a scene or helping you sink into a creative flow, music can be a powerful writing companion. If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming whilst listening to a song, you’ve already had a taste of how music inspires writing.
For many writers, building a playlist becomes part of their process, like creating a soundtrack for their story. Certain melodies, rhythms, or lyrics tap into emotions, memories, or even character dynamics in ways that words alone can’t. Writing with music allows you to shift your mindset, overcome writer’s block, and align your tone with the heart of the story.
Here are a few ways to use music and writing together to ignite some inspiration:
- Character Theme Songs: Pick songs that represent each character’s personality, inner conflict, or emotional arc. Listening to these before writing their scenes can help you tune into their mindset.
- Mood Playlists: Create playlists for different moods – melancholy, tense, romantic, triumphant – and let the music guide your scene’s tone (a real favourite of ours!)
- Instrumental or Ambient Music: When you need to focus without lyrical distraction, try film scores, lo-fi beats, or ambient soundscapes to help you get into the zone.
- Writing Sprints with Timed Tracks: Use shorter songs (3-5 minutes) as timed writing sprints. When the song ends, so does the sprint. It’s a fun way to build momentum.
Check Out Our Guide On How To Name Fictional Characters
Music Genres for Writing Moods
If you’re not sure where to start, try some of these pairings:
- Cinematic scores – perfect for epic scenes or worldbuilding
- Lo-fi hip hop – great for casual writing sessions and journaling
- Jazz or blues – good for character-driven or introspective scenes
- Classical music – ideal for complex or emotional writing
- Electronic or ambient – excellent for futuristic, fantasy, or sci-fi moods.
Music isn’t just background noise, it has the potential to be your creative fuel. Whether you’re crafting a poem or drafting a novel, writing with music helps connect your emotions to the page in a more visceral, intimate manner.
Using Visual Art To Spark Story Ideas
Seeing the Story: How Paintings and Photography Fuel the Imagination
Writers are visual thinkers at heart, which is why art as writing inspiration can be exceptionally powerful. A single image – whether it be a Renaissance portrait, a surreal collage, or a stark black-and-white photograph – can unlock entire worlds, characters, and emotional journeys in your imagination.
When you pause to study a piece of visual art, you’re not just looking – you’re interpreting. Who are the people in the image? What’s their story? What happened just before or immediately after this moment was captured? These questions turn a static visual into rich visual prompts for writers, presenting a fresh way to generate story ideas beyond traditional writing exercises.
Here are a few ways to use visual art to inspire your next writing session:
- Character development: Let a portrait inspire your next protagonist. What’s their secret? What does their expression reveal – or hide?
- Worldbuilding: Use landscape art or abstract scenes to build settings. A dreamlike cityscape or eerie forest can serve as a backdrop for your story.
- Emotion and Tone: The mood of a painting – calm, chaotic, haunting – can shape the emotional atmosphere of a scene or an entire narrative.
- Symbolism and Metaphor: Abstract or symbolic art can trigger deep thematic ideas. Let an image become a metaphor in your writing.
Not sure where to start? Try browsing an online museum archive such as The Met or the Tate, scrolling through Instagram artists, or even using AI-generated art prompts to challenge your imagination.
Whether you’re stuck for ideas or looking for a new lens through which to view your writing, tapping into visual art can shift your perspective in unexpected and rewarding ways.
Finding Writing Inspiration In Movies
What Writers Can Learn from Film
Movies are a goldmine for creative writers – not just for their stories, but for how those stories are told. If you ever felt creatively blocked, turning to movies that inspire writing can offer a masterclass in pacing, character development, and visual storytelling.
Films don’t just entertain – they show us how to build tension, reveal character through dialogue, and evoke emotion with imagery. Watching a movie through a writer’s lens helps you pick up tools and techniques that you can take back with you to the page.
Here are some ways films for creative writers can spark new writing ideas:
- Pacing and Structure: Notice how movies are paced – how scenes build, breathe, and shift. Try breaking your story into cinematic beats, or analyse a film’s three-act structure to shape your plot.
- Character Arcs: Strong movies have memorable, dynamic characters. Pay close attention to the ways in which characters grow (or fail to grow), and try mapping your protagonist’s arc in the same way.
- Dialogue: Film dialogue is often sharp, revealing, and natural. Study how subtext and tension are used, then apply that to your own character conversations.
- Visual Storytelling: Even without words, a film tells a story through visuals. Challenge yourself to describe a movie scene as prose – what emotions, setting, and action come through?
Writing prompts from movies can also be fun and effective:
- Rewrite a dramatic film scene from a side character’s POV.
- Use a movie trailer as a story starter – what’s happening beyond what we see?
- Watch a scene on mute and narrate it as an internal monologue or description.
Whether you’re watching an indie drama, a sprawling space opera, or a classic noir, every film has something to teach you about storytelling. Movies can help spark your passion for writing by showing you fresh ways to think, see, and tell a story.
Practical Exercises And Prompts
Sometimes, the best way to tap into inspiration is to stop thinking and start creating. These quick and effective exercises are designed to get your imagination flowing – especially when you’re looking for writing prompts inspired by music or movies (or art!).
Try one – or all – of these the next time you find yourself needing a spark:
1. Write a Scene Based on a Song
Choose a song that conveys a strong emotion or tells a story. Listen to it once with your eyes closed, then again while freewriting for 10 minutes. Write a scene that captures the mood, setting, or emotional arc of the song, without naming it.
Bonus: Share it with a friend and see if they are able to guess the song.
2. Create a Character from a Work of Art
Find an intriguing portrait or abstract piece. Ask yourself: Who is this person? What are they feeling? What happened just before or after this moment? Write a character sketch or short story based on your answers. This is a classic way for writers to use visual prompts in a fun and imaginative way.
3. Reimagine a Movie Scene in Prose
Pick a memorable scene from a favourite movie – something emotionally charged or visually rich. Rewrite it as if it were a part of a novel. Add internal thoughts, deepen the sensory detail, or even flip the POV to a background character. This helps you practice visual storytelling techniques while sharpening your narrative skills.
These exercises not only help you overcome creative blocks but also demonstrate the ways music, art, and movies can inspire writing in tangible, exciting ways. Keep them in your writer’s toolbox for any time you find yourself feeling stuck.
Wrap Up
Inspiration doesn’t always have to come from the page – sometimes it comes from what surrounds it. Whether it’s the pulse of your favourite song, the emotion in a piece of art, or the cinematic sweep of a film, looking beyond books can unlock powerful new pathways for your writing.
Exploring creative writing inspiration through music, visual art, and movies invites you to see stories everywhere. These mediums can offer fresh perspectives, deepen your emotional resonance, and spark bold new ideas when the words just refuse to flow.
So, if you’ve been wondering how to get inspired to write, try stepping outside the usual writing advice. Tune into a soundtrack, wander through a gallery, or lose yourself in a movie scene – you may just find your next story waiting there.
What’s your favourite movie, song, or artwork to write to? Let us know in the comments, and let’s inspire each other!
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