The abundance of stars, mesmerizing and captivating, strike my imagination and ignite my soul; a new life lies inside the burning figures in the sky. Two bright constellations create two beaming eyes. The yellow hazy dust, speckling the black above, paints the long waved hair. Instantly, a name comes to mind; something about those few sparkles, resembling freckles and glittering streaks of starry hair, calls a specific name and personality. Emotion emerges from the million dots, influencing a certain reaction from the one gazing upon them. The mind subconsciously crafts a whole new creation within the five minutes of staring at the stars. Although the stars might seem like a stereotypical place to find muse, every day scenarios yield such inspiration every single day.

In the morning coffee consumed everyday and in the tattered pair of shoes worn with every outfit, a whole new life, in the form of a story, surfaces. The images become souls and aspects of a fantasy universe. Suppressed ideas fulfill their full potential. With these new thoughts breaking through those simple figures, one can create one’s own universe. Imagination is the limit.

Not everyone sees and interprets the objects as new souls and potential stories; not every imagination is sparked by the simple picture of a rusted stop sign. Writers, however, read the symbols and turn every mundane detail into a story. They obtain the ability of cultivating a person, a design, from dust. Their passion of writing drives them every day, forcing their minds to implode with colors, stories, and possibilities. Having the mindset of a writer is some sort of disease, taking over your mentality of the everyday scenarios. When all these creative balloons continue to grow in one’s brain, space grows thinner, and the balloons overtake the mind until… one pops.

One after another, the millions of different sized balloons pop; the yellow, orange, even the marbled blue and white balloons pop like a chain reaction. Suddenly, they are all gone. Every balloon’s remains fall into black, leaving a single yellow one. Writers’ minds know when they see that story. The one they can expand into something beautiful and so intricate. They transform their simply elegant idea into a complex universe, only understood by them: this is their passion. The idea sticks out from all others like an elephant in the room and calls to their attention with a whisper that is so impossible to ignore. Pursuing the yellow balloon is no longer a choice, but a need. The balloon requires and demands attention, almost as necessary as water and air to the writer.

Although, the greatest joy comes from the words that spill from one’s mind, expressing all the feelings one could never seem to let out before. So effortlessly, they flow straight from one’s thoughts without even touching one’s tongue. Like a smooth dance or an acoustic song, the thoughts all circle together in beautiful and almost lyrical sentences, organizing your once jumbled thoughts. The euphoria of the writing fades as a calm content feeling takes over. There is always room for improvement in the work, but no other feeling is so perfect.

The creative writing process may seem difficult and complicated, but all you have to do is find inspiration in the stars and look for that yellow balloon.