Ideas for stories come from a myriad of different sources, but here are the top ten Apps on my phone that I use for creative inspiration.
- Hoopla allows you to instantly borrow digital titles from your local library 24/7. It has thousands of audiobooks, movies, music, comics, e-books, and TV. Checked out items on my Hoopla right now are, The Cows by Lydia Davis (ebook), To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (audiobook), The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (ebook), Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad (audiobook).
- PressReader provides access to free digital copies of newspapers from all over the world, all you need is Los Angeles Public Library card. What’s great is you can search for papers from a map (the USA or World) or by list and the copies are in their original printed format. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction but I’ve been inspired by some great characters who’ve made the news. My daily downloads are LA Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and The New York Times.
- Newseum gives just the Front Pages of about 1000 newspapers from all over the globe, similarly to Pressreader you can search from a map or from a list. In just a quick scroll you have headlines from around the globe.
- Meditation – Sometimes inspiration is in the gap between thoughts and the best way there is to establish a practice of meditation.
- Tune in Radio provides access to internet Radio broadcasts from all over the world. You can search for specific shows or listen live. The stations are categorized by location, language, talk, podcast, news, sport, music or local radio. I feel like a fly on the wall listening to the news in Senegal at 6 am.
- Rb digital allows you to download free audiobooks, ebooks with your library card but you also have free access to popular magazines like Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, bon appetit. Fashion and food are great ways to procrastinate, I mean, to stimulate the senses.
- A local map I use my Map app to plan walks that force me to use roads or paths I’ve never taken before. It’s incredible how you can live somewhere for years but always walk or drive the same routes. The same can probably be said for our thought patterns, which is why physically choosing new paths is a great way to open up to new ideas.
- Overdrive is similar to Rb digital but allows you to be logged into different library accounts so if the book you need is not available you can search another library. If you ever have to sit in traffic an audiobook is a great way to get some reading done.
- Kanopy allows you to stream from a choice of over 30,000 classic cinema, indie film and documentaries with just a library card. There’s even a category for Literature with documentaries about authors, Film adaptations of literary works, and interviews with authors.
- Microsoft Onenote is the app where I compile all my ideas, pictures, audio recordings, drawings.