The Friend Called Inspiration: How a Life Cracks Open and Creates Again

This episode's image - “A Ship Called Inspire Me” - is doing double-duty. Yes, it’s a nod to a certain Deacon Blue earworm - but it’s also a play on the modern sense of “I ship this.”

 This episode explores what happens when you finally decide to ship your own relationship with Inspiration - not as a fleeting spark, but as a consistent, quiet companion that’s been trying to get your attention for years.

In this deeply personal episode of The Download, Jill explores her lifelong relationship with Inspiration — from childhood to the “millennium moment” in Jan 2000 that launched her into over a decade of publishing success, to the fall-out in and from 2011 that took everything away … and the surprising creative resurgence that followed.

This isn’t an episode about productivity. It’s about listening. Following. Trusting.
It’s about the friend who never leaves - even when the world does.

If you’ve ever felt creatively lost, cut off from opportunity, or afraid the magic has gone… this episode will remind you that Inspiration doesn’t disappear.
 She simply waits for you to hear her again.

🎧 What You’ll Learn

• Why creativity often erupts after heartbreak or loss
• How to tune in when inspiration is whispering - or screaming
• What Jung, Leonard Cohen, Wilke, Goethe and other greats understood about inspiration as an autonomous force
• The difference between external success and true creative alignment
• How inspiration fuels life choices, not just artistic output
• Practical ways to “make space” for Inspiration to return

🔑 Key Moments

00:03 — Meeting Inspiration as a lifelong friend like Bridget Jones
06:40 — The Millennium Moment:  the lightning bolt
10:20 — The golden decade of publishing success
16:55 — The 2011 collapse & the fall-out era
23:15 — Writing in the wilderness years
28:30 — Inspiration beyond books: moves, performances, podcasts, apps
33:00 — What Jung and the greats say about inspiration
39:45 — Nine essential lessons for living an inspired life
45:00 — Closing invitation to the listener

💬 “Inspiration isn’t fragile. She’s the friend who walks through fire with you - even if everyone else walks away.”

Enjoying the Bridget alignment? Listen to Jill's episode on creative vision in 'The Bridget Jones Blueprint'.  

And if you'd like to try Breathe, one of the YA novels Jill discusses in the episode, the Breathe Kindle is free on Amazon from 21 - 26 November 2025. 

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Find out more about Jill’s best-selling fiction and storyworlds on girlpowerpublishing.com.

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