How cultivating wonder can keep your creative energy flowing, and why it's so important to nurture it...

This time last year I was able to travel to Scotland for a very happy reason — to party with my my parents on their 60th wedding anniversary.

The journey didn’t exactly go smoothly, but travel always offers the opportunity to see things in a new light: for example our inexplicably cancelled connecting flight from London to Glasgow turned into an impromptu train journey up the west coast of the UK, past Industrial-Revolution-era factory towns1, old canals, rolling hills, fantasy-inspiring forests, and seas of purple heather.

I couldn’t stop looking out the window.

The locals? They were watching The Matrix on their phones...

Why Wonder Matters for Writers

It’s hard to maintain a sense of wonder in your everyday environment. But not impossible…

And that very sense of “wow” is what fuels our writing.

Process vs Product

When we’re focused on creating the finished product — a story for a market, a novel in a particular genre — it’s easy to become anchored by expectations. That, in turn, kills our curiosity, our willingness to take risks, our sense of having fun.

And it defers all the opportunities to feel accomplished until “The Project Is Over”.

What a drag.

Cultivating a sense of Wonder brings back the fun.

It awakens your curiosity.

It keeps possibility alive.

PLUS behavioral scientists assure us that celebrating those little sparks of joy is what help you stay motivated for the long haul.

Practice Off the Page

Athletes don’t just show up for the game — they drill, train, and practice behind the scenes.

Writers need “practice time” too.

Think of some things you can do this week, away from the page, to exercise your Wonder muscles:

This “non-product-related” time feeds your creative brain.

Ways to Find Wonder...

...without Buying a Plane Train Ticket)

• Change your route home from work. Notice what’s different.
• Switch your grocery store. See how the new one is arranged.
• Wind down the car windows and pay attention: the smells, the temperature, the sounds.
• Order something new at your coffee shop, then describe it in writing.
• Talk to a stranger. Find out what lights them up.
• Visit an odd museum you’ve been ignoring (National Mustard Museum, anyone?).
• Pull a random nonfiction book from the library shelves and leaf through it.
• Look closely at weeds in a patch of earth — the shapes, the colors, the insects, the cracks they grow through.

This Month’s StoryADay Theme is Triumph

At StoryADay, Triumph means celebrating every tiny win. Spotting wonder counts. So does jotting down a phrase, or noticing a Story Spark like: the exact way you could represent the rhythm of rain on the roof.

Small celebrations keep you energized, curious, and writing.

Your assignment this week

Go somewhere new (or look at somewhere familiar in a new way) and find one small thing worth noticing. Write a few sentences about it — just for you.

Ready to turn those sparks of wonder into finished stories?

Take the 3-Day Challenge and write three short stories this weekend!

find out more

Take the 3-Day Challenge — a short-story writing course you can finish this weekend. Go from “idea” to “The End” in three days, and give yourself the gift of an achievement you can celebrate.

Keep writing,

Julie

Julie Duffy, Founder & Director, StoryADay

P. S. Join the discussion: Where did you find wonder this week? What tiny moment felt worth celebrating?

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