Inspiration Page
Welcome to the Inspiration Page, a free online resource created and commissioned by TLC to help writers stay healthy, happy and inspired even in challenging times. Here you will find a range of inspiring and easy-to-follow writing prompts, short guided meditations, top tips on narrative craft and tips on boosting your resilience and overall sense of wellbeing. We understand at times of difficulty it can be hard to find focus, so please feel free to dip in and out of the Inspiration Page as you wish.
We hope you enjoy the contributions of TLC readers and friends here, and that this page helps you to keep writing. Please do explore, share, and get creative.
With best wishes,
Team TLC
If you enjoyed TLC’s Inspiration Page, please do consider signing up to the mail list for Being A Writer, our programme of online courses, podcasts and other resources designed with creativity and resilience in mind. You can sign up now by clicking the Being A Writer button
Writing When Life Happens
by TLC
TLC has always existed to support the writing community and help writers respond to these challenges. Although this guide has been written in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, it can also apply to writing during any challenging or uncertain time, and to writers at every level.
10 Minute Yoga
by Rakhee Jasani
Yoga instructor Rakhee has designed this short yoga sequence just for us, to help you feeling energised, and to re-balance the body when working from home. Please use the password ‘Yoga with TLC’.
Finding Meaning Through Memoir
by Anna South
Writers’ mentor Anna South demonstrates how to approach starting to write about your own life story in this creative non-fiction exercise.
How Do We Write When We Write?
by Penny Pepper
Writer, poet, performer and activist Penny Pepper talks about her writing process, and what she likes to use when she sits down at the page, from fountain pens to dictaphones.
Story in Screenwriting
by Shirley Day
A bite-sized video, with original sketches, on how to find and hold onto your story when writing for film or television, by TLC script reader Shirley Day.
Disaster Movie
by Ben Norris
Written as part of a series of poems during the pandemic, this playful but tender poem is a love letter to all we still have, in the face of what we have lost.
Five Tips for Writing Historical Fiction
by Dr Stephen Carver
Historian and novelist Stephen Carver takes us through his top five tips to writing compelling historical fiction, each with short creative exercises.
What’s Left of Me Is Yours
by Stephanie Scott
Stephanie Scotts reads a short extract from her thrilling debut novel, What’s Left Of Me Is Yours.
If I had a pound…
by Hannah Berry
UK Comics Laureate Hannah Berry shares a wry insight into a writer’s life.
Morning Meditation
by Roz Goddard
Join poet and Buddhist Roz Goddard in a mind-stilling morning meditation, followed by morning pages.
I Come From
by Dzifa Benson
Use your personal history to create a unique poem in two hours with this inspiring workshop.
Last Night
by Karrie Fransman
An uplifting original illustration by Karrie Fransman, reminding us to look for the light in the darkness.
Guided Meditation
by Sascha Aurora Akhtar
Take some time to tune into the mind and body and relax into meditative stillness with writer, educator and meditation instructor Sascha Aurora Akhtar.
Buildings and Characters
by Maxine Linnell
Imagine a building. Explore its rooms. Now what if that building was a person? Try this poetry exercise to inspire you to think creatively.
Ten Things I’ve Learnt About Love
by Sarah Butler
Former TLC client and now acclaimed novelist Sarah Butler takes us through the writing exercise that inspired her first book.
Comfort Zone
by Rowan Hisayo-Buchanan
Enjoy this original illustration by the author of Harmless Likes You and Starling Days, Rowan Hisayo-Buchanan.
On the Human Need for Narrative
by TLC
TLC Associate Editor Anna South reflects on the human need for narrative and story, and how we deal with that when the ending seems unknowable.
Quick-Fire Chakras
by Julia Forster
Spark your inner energy centres and further connect with the artistic impulse which has led to you becoming a writer with these seven meditations for the seven chakras.
Three Poems
by Alex Vellis
Alex Vellis reads poems by Anthony Anaxagorou, John McCullough, and Joelle Taylor.
The Re-type Draft
by Andrew Wille
Find a new perspective on your writing project with this surprising trick from writing tutor Andrew Wille.
Bright Energy
by Lisa Robbins
Licensed homeopath Lisa Robbins gives her top tips on staying healthy and in tune with your body’s energy.
Portrait of my Grandfather with Scissors
by Leo Boix
A poem by Leo Boix in which he remembers his grandfather. Can you write your own, about someone you remember, whom you loved?
Writing in Lockdown
by Tom Bromley
Sometimes it is easier to write something small and new. Tom Bromley shares three short exercises to start you on a story.
Biography and Autobiography
by Rodge Glass
How to represent real people in imaginative ways? Non-fiction inspiration through a simple writing exercise.
Bringing Your Characters to Life
by Emma Pass
Award-winning YA novelist Emma Pass takes you through some fun exercises to deepen your understanding of your characters.
Five Ways to Wellbeing
by Francesca Baker
Use this established wellbeing framework to help you build resilience and improve mental wellbeing.
Find Focus in Troubled Times
by Angela Clarke
Top tips from bestselling author Angela Clarke on how to find focus in challenging circumstances.
Ambient Track for Writers
by Ray Robinson
An original long-form ambient track from novelist and musician Ray Robinson, to create the right environment to help writers find that zen-like focus that draws the words right out.
Literary Crossword
by Richard Smyth
Keep your brain busy with this books-themed crossword from the author of An Indifference of Birds
Speculating on the spectrum: Light and colour
by Simon Barraclough
Solar physics, light and colour are fascinating and suggestive subjects for writing. Have fun with a creative exercise about colour.
Writing the body
By Khairani Barokka
Connect with your physical body to find grounding in your writing, with these short exercises by poet and body artist Khairani Barokka.
Fireflies
By Tom Vowler
A reading of a short story from the collection Dazzling the Gods, by writing tutor, and short story expert, Tom Vowler.
Dancing in the library
By Shelley Harris
When we trick our brains into making new connections, we often produce our best work – writing that surprises us, that wakes us up, that takes us to unexpected places.