As I prepare myself to view (for the possibly hundredth time), the wonderful world of Harry Potter, I am jolted, once more, by a desire to write.

It is no secret that the Harry Potter books were what inspired me to finally write (and finish) my own stories (up until then I'd only written and completed poems, nothing more), and when I closed The Deathly Hallows, I was struck with an intense...I wouldn't call it a desire, more like a severe...impulse, to merely write my own story. Now, I had already known what I would write about (Vampires), but just the fact that this...simple story could inspire me (and so many others, I'm sure), is something that has not left me. Not even to this day.

Whenever I am lacking the inspiration necessary to continue my own story (and it just so happens I find myself in a lethargic rut regarding my current work-in-progress, The Immortal's Guide), I reach for any one of the Harry Potter Books perpetually ready at my side. I read. I read. And I read. More often than not, they give me greater insight into the colorful world I see in my head about my own story and just how exactly I can give it the right touch to make it appear on paper.

Doing this (not every time I find myself tapping my forehead against the wall, mind you), has helped put me on the right track enough to quickly put whatever book I use for inspiration down and to continue writing my own story.

This brings me to any piece of fiction with colorful characters and wonderful worlds. Lord of the Rings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and many more all give me that sharp desire to continue to flesh out my own characters, their own stories. I am motivated by the magic in others' creations. And isn't that the way it should be?

Since publishing my first book The Dark World, I've gotten kind words and emails from friends (and people I don't know) asking me, not only how I went about publishing my book, but by how I inspired them to continue writing their own stories, or giving them that push to finally start their own at last.

It only shows me that creation constantly breeds inspiration and it makes me feel a bit better about being stuck in my current creative rut. Because I know, like the many that came before it, that it won't last, inspiration will come, and the words will flow.

For now, I lift my late afternoon cup of tea into the air, nod my head in acknowledgement of all the writers out there, stuck in their own writing, their own heavily-burdened thoughts, and I wish them the best. For we are not alone.

And as one brilliant Wizard said,

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

Inspiration is always there, is it not? We need not go high and low over the valleys of some lost terrain to find it, we need only recognize that it is always there, in many forms, in many ways, to remind us that what is deep within our hearts can always come forth if we will just let it.

-S.C./Sheron Parris 

Edit: 4/4/2022 - In lieu of the author of Harry Potter's incendiary statements against trans individuals, especially transwoman, I state that I am 100% for transwomen living their truths and abhor J.K. Rowling's statements on the "nature" of transwomen. Transwomen are women.