Im writing a book that I intend to sell on amazon kindle someday.  (I know I will probably never make any money doing this, but its been a goal of mine to write a book for a long time)  

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to find inspiration?  



I already have my story started and some good overviews, but filling up pages is really hard lol

Your novel needs structure. If you don't know where you're going, your reader won't.
Creating a path of What Happens Next let's you make sure your story is going someplace.

Some folks make detailed outlines. Others Don't.
Look up "the snowflake method" for one technique.

Finding a good writing group locally might be worth the effort.(or a colossal waste of time. Depends on the people.)

Good luck, and let us know how it's coming.

I went in not knowing what I was really, really doing; figured I'd just figure it out along the way, and I have although I know my place in the self published food chain as it is.

However you write, structured outline , shotgunned conversations that you insert and let the story swirl around (my default style), dont rush it and make sure its good to go. Make sure its really, really ready before you ever pass it off to someone for editing and proof reading.  I released my first book like five times after my editor and I missed a bunch of mistakes. Also, I do the most reading of other books when Im actively writing. Again, this is just my style that I didnt choose, but it helps me to 'see' stories better and what authors have created now that Ive done my own. Call it research or continued education or refinement, but you will pick up on formatting, word use, and grammatical stuff and it will transfer into your own work, making it better.

You can read some of my anecdotal reports on writing on my website/blog (link in sig) and feel free to hit me up for anything else as well. There are a handful of authors on this site that can chime in with much more and better experience than me, but from what Ive found, everyone finds their own path to what works best for them.

Tagging for info as I'm in the process of getting start on writing my first book.

I'm one of the few that will make a small outline. I make the outline after I have started writing the book. I find that I start with a scene in my head and write it. Once I get to the point of adding people into it that are going to be around or something that I need to remember later on I write it down. I have an idea of how I want the book to go and just feel it out as I write it. I never know what my ending is going to be. I let the storyline of the book tell me what my ending will be. One will find you if you let it.

I do set a word goal and after I pass that if the story is not done I just keep writing until the ending hits me. I used to have trouble getting to 70K words. That is novel length. I'm now having trouble keeping books under 90K. My last three books that I have written have been 95-150K. The book I'm working on now I just hit 92K and I feel I have about two to three chapters yet before I can say it is done. The last chapter I just wrote setup the ending and I now know what and how I want to end it. But I will let the next couple of chapters play out and see if that is how it will end or not.

If you feel your story is going stale take a break. Maybe read a book along the lines of what you are writing. If you still feel that the book is not going where you want it to try writing something else and then come back to it later on. I have 10-15 stories that I have started and walked away from. I'm planning on revisiting a few of them later on. One of them I have re-written twice and I feel the second draft is my best draft so far. I plan to finish that book.

Writing is about having fun. We do it because we love to do it. We never do it for the money because if we did we would never be satisfied with what little we get from writing.

Inspiration is all around you.

Example 1: I got pulled over a few months ago, 80 in a 65. Cop was cool, when asked if I had firearms in the truck I said "Yes".
(CCW info comes up with DL here and I had metal targets etc in the back seat.)
I told him I had been testing for reviews and had a couple of shotguns and rifles encased, etc...then gave him a copy of my latest Magazine.

As I left I was thinking...this could have been interesting if it had been a week earlier when I had 3 suppressors, 5 handguns and 2000 rounds with me.

So a plot device came to me....what if our character is a hitman en route to a job and something upsets his plans like this?

Example 2: I was walking into a fast food joint and had an obnoxiously over polite jerk in front of me. When he went to his table he erupted into a tourettes like stream of obscenities yelling at his kid.  A three-year-old who wouldn't eat. For a split second I considered intervening, but didn't. What if the guy was having an off day, what if the kid was being an asshole, would I be seen as an aggressor, etc.

So...in the world of fiction, let's say the character from the first example runs into this. What does he do? How does he intervene? What consequences come from his actions? Does he get arrested? Does he get away with it? Does the child remember and someday hunt him down for killing the only father he knew?

It's my latest work and a studio is interested in it as a screenplay or more development into a series.

That's where I get some of my ideas...random acts that could have different outcomes. Of course you have to have a way to end up at the outcome you want. I'm a big believer in redemption, so that's where most of my stuff goes.