Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the lovely Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. Today’s podcast and blog post centers around places I can find inspiration for my various art. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…
One doesn’t always find inspiration for their work. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. There are a variety of things to look for to get inspired. I find that I am most inspired by spring, summer and fall. I love the beauty and changing weather patterns that you find. I love taking pictures of flowers, trees in bloom, birds, insects of all sorts, and animals that I come across in the spring and summer. In the fall, the trees with their mixed colours of foliage are beautiful to behold. As far as photography goes, it is a cornucopia of delights including beach life, water views and sunsets. I know there are people who are inspired by winter. Unfortunately I’m not one of them. Though I can see the beauty of a newly fallen snow and enjoy it, after a few months it does tend to wear some. This inspiration from nature comes naturally to me and I can spend all my walks with my camera capturing the world around me.
When it comes to blog posts and podcasts, there is a different type of approach. I can see some inspiration in nature. I find often, there are life lessons that can be more easily discussed using nature as a starting point as it can help people suspend their underlying conceptions about things like physical differences and such. I can use art for the same purposes. People often find it easier to think about artistic topics than to deal with the bigger issues of prejudice, racism and other things. Yet, they appreciate the beauty of nature and you can gently point toward the bigger picture using the microcosm of art and nature to make the same points without people feeling as threatened. So, there is a lot of scope for the writing imagination in nature and art.
One can also find inspiration for blog posts and podcasts in the daily news. There are times when I have read something and it has bothered me to the point that I have been able to construct whole blog posts and podcasts around a news event. So, everyday life can give one the inspiration to pursue a topic that you think is worth talking about to make others think. It gives a chance to put another viewpoint across for people. Your view point might be a different angle for someone to follow or may inspire someone else to see things in yet a different way.
There are some days that, despite your best intentions, inspiration just doesn’t hit. Sometimes it is a good time to take a break. Sometimes I practice my fabric arts where I get inspired by the boho styles out there or a particular medium that I use…like an especially soft yarn. I find that there are times that I don’t feel like writing or coming up with a blog and so I practice some other crafts for a few days and then tackle the writing. When it comes crunch time, those are times when it can help to look at what things people are talking about on other blogs and of course, there are listings of blog topics. You may be able to give a different angle on things or you might find that you can think of it differently. For example, there are a lot of advice blogs out there. They tend to center around what is suggested to be good way to do something or use something.
There are a lot of things, due to my age, I do not see the same way as the younger people. That is one of the benefits of being an older blogger, podcaster, author and photographer. It is both a benefit and a detriment. It is so because I can think of things differently, but at the same time, I do not see the same things as the younger generation. For example, when I use work in my blog posts and podcasts, I tend to add the links in the blog post and the write up for the podcast. I just see it as being like a bibliography in which you give credit to the author that you got the idea from. Imagine my surprise that there is a whole thing behind the scenes that some people increase traffic and/or make money from these. For example, blogger Pooja https://lifesfinewhine.ca/2020/07/01/how-to-increase-traffic/ has a different way to use these to increase traffic which is very interesting. I’m not sure how that works and you’d be better off to ask her as she seems to have that figured out. I think one has to have paid accounts for that to work. This is where having $0 budget for my work has its biggest downside. There are a lot of bells and whistles that I don’t qualify for.
The one thing I would suggest is try to have some fresh perspective on things. You can find topics out there…see a few of the articles written on a particular topic. Then see if you can find something new and different or a different way of seeing it. I found that I had more fun writing what I think of when looking whether to follow someone on Twitter or not than trying to tell everyone what is good to do on Twitter or not good because there are people who already did that. I found a different angle to talk about. I don’t want to copy what others have done. Part of my inspiration is that I want to talk about what I haven’t seen. It’s not always possible to find some different perspective on stuff, but it is always something you can try to do.
The one thing that I don’t try to be is the authority. I just talk about what works for me and what doesn’t. The only person I’m an authority on is me but it might help others come up with different ideas. I do the blog post and podcast because it is something that lets me tell people that the world isn’t perfect, but it can be closer to perfect. I like to point out the world of nature and how we can improve as people by learning from nature. Things in nature are not always perfect. The flower missing petals, the butterfly with the slightly asymmetrical wings and yet they are happy and at home in nature. They live just as well as the perfect flowers and the perfect butterflies. They are just as worthy of photographs. They are worthy of as normal a life as they can live.
Sometimes I am inspired to throw a wrench into the works and point out that the Emperor has no clothing. That’s old people talk for like to make people think about something and point out logical flaws. I like to do it gently when possible. People need to understand that no one is perfect and that we are still a pretty superficial lot in humanity. We are working toward being less closed minded and more open minded. We need to stop hiding imperfections. We still use Photoshop on pictures of models. We talk about the need to accept ourselves as we are, while we get plastic surgery to look younger. We talk about the need to be more inclusive while we hide things that are different. Sometimes I like to gently point out this dichotomy to make people see it better. These are things that inspire and motivate me to continue writing and doing blog post and podcasts.
My inspiration for my e-books comes from nature and the world around me. I love to show people the beauty of the world as it is. It is the reason I don’t do a lot of editing of pictures. I believe that nature and the world can be perfect as it is. I love showing the beautiful area that we come from to the world. I’ve also had the pleasure of living in other areas, so have been able to show various areas in my e-books.
As Wayne W Dyer said, “Inspiration responds to our attentiveness in various and sometimes unexpected ways.” So, sometimes finding inspiration depend on finding something that we feel deeply about or finding something that we think we have to offer others. It is both all around us and sometimes can be elusive. No matter what, you cannot be inspired if you don’t stay open to what is around us. The important part of inspiration is to keep an open mind and be willing to explore things and part of your psyche that you don’t usually look at. Look deep into the world and see what you can come up with. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!
Just one more thing. I have one of my children’s e-books up for a 2021 TCK award Category is General Non-Fiction https://www.tckpublishing.com/2021-readers-choice-voting-page/. The Big Kids Magical Path to Colours in Nature (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093K2FN4M/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_GBTXKZW5EVAX2C92PCY1). If you have a moment, we could use some votes.
Our Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://wordpress.com/sites/aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20155854.E_Jean_Simpson_BEd_BA_MA/blog
Podcast are available on Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://anchor.fm/a–j-pei-treasures iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-jean-simpson-bed-ba-ma-a-82327485/
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-jean-simpson-bed-ba-ma-autho-1715585
My e-books can be found on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/E.-Jean-Simpson/e/B089Y5LWHS
Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! Currently working toward getting my e-books up on Smashwords and will be an affiliate when I do! We’re always working on something!
A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA 
That’s a lovely image and thanks so much for the mention! I started out with no budget for blogging too and it can be difficult to grow when you can’t invest anything in your blog but it’s totally possible. It takes longer though but over time you can definitely start making a steady income from blogging.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. I keep going. Lets me write 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person