Inspire Me

Inspiration is important to writing, folks.

I mean, certainly a willingness to write, an understanding of the process and having a story to tell are important, too.

But without inspiration, what is there to generate the desire to share?

I Googled this (in part because my Muse is on strike today, and didn't care to raise her voice towards generating worthwhile ideas. I'm letting her get away with it... for now) and found an article that (wait for it...) inspired me.

Inspiration through inspiration.**1 What's not to love!

I stumbled (through the power of Google) across a website called www.writetodone.com, that talks all about the writing process and offers support to writers through the process.

The article I found today was called "31 Ways to Find Inspiration For Your Writing" by Leo Babauta.

What originally caught my eye was the quote at the beginning of the article: 

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. - Jack London

Oh, Mister London, you bludgeoned the words right out of me.

My friends, there's a reason it's called the Writing Process. While I'm fortunate that my thoughts come together in (mostly) full sentences, and that I was a student in an English class that cold-cocked me into a high standard of grammar, there are oodles of occasions when I just don't have anything to say. 

Or that I do have something to say, but don't know how to say it.

Or that I don't care if I say it.

Or any mix of the three.

On these days, intrepid writers would make themselves follow one of these tips for inspiration, so that they could get back to work.

That's the process.

You write. You run out of things to write about. You seek inspiration. You write again.

Unless you're an amateur writer, such as myself, who doesn't get to write for a living but instead has to carve the time for it out of a packed schedule bristling with un-inspiring activities.

For my part... typically on those days where creativity escapes me, I just let myself Not Write.

Which is wrong.

(Not Write = Wrong. Har-de-har, I'm full of 'em today...)

But I'm also fortunate that my writing is pretty nonchalant, and that I don't really have to worry about who it's reaching.

This blog isn't making me famous.**2

It's not as though the whole of cyberspace is hanging on my every word, waiting for the next literary feat to leap from my lips.

I'm not writing Shakespeare. I'm filling out a high-functioning journal.

But there are writers who are much more fortunate (less fortunate?) andve a devoted following of readers with high expectations.

And for them, the process is so remarkably important.

Babauta explains:

No matter how much you love writing, there will always be days when you need inspiration from one muse or another.
In fact, I would argue that inspiration is not just a desirable thing, it’s an integral part of the writing process.

Every writer needs to find inspiration in order to produce inspired writing. And sometimes, it can come from the unlikeliest sources.

It listed a couple of typical solutions:

* Books/Quotes/Other completed written works
* People Watching/Harmless Eavesdropping**3
* Music/Art/Dance/Other visual arts

But some atypical solutions presented themselves that I hadn't considered in the past:

* del.icio.us, to share in what other artists and writers find inspiring
* Breaking Routines, to unlock inspiration lost in your mindless schedule
* Travel, to find new locations and discover new discoveries

But my favorite of these new options was a small, unassuming paperback called "The Pocket Muse" by Monica Wood. Written by a woman who, like myself, yearned to quit her "real" job and instead follow the path her writing told her she should take towards authorship. A woman who did just that: quit her job and chose to write.

The book is laid out in a visually interesting fashion, with inspiration on every page from her story in the introduction down to each carefully-selected image with accompanying query.

But perhaps the most striking concept within its pages was this, that I'll leave you with today:

"It is the deepest desire of every writer, the one we never admit or even dare to speak of: to write a book we can leave as a legacy. And although it is sometimes easy to forget, wanting to be a writer is not about reviews or advances or how many copies are printed or sold. It is much simpler than that, and much more passionate. If you do it right, and if you publish it, you may actually leave something behind that can last forever." - Alice Hoffman, from The New York Times

Through my writing, I could live forever.

And that would be inspiring.

**1 Inspiration inception? Nah... maybe that's too much.

**2 I'd love if it did. But I'm 200 posts in, without a single comment or response from readers. I'd say I'm pretty much shouting into the proverbial void here. And I think that's pretty okay. It opens up opportunities to plagiarize my own thoughts and opinions when I get around to writing a real book, and no one will be the wiser because no one will have read it in the first place.

Well.

No one except Boyfriend of Amazingness, and maybe my Mom.

But they're not telling.

**3 This is crucial, and something I do often. But it's vital, my friends, to remember to engage only in harmless eavesdropping. If you're at a mall and someone approaches your bench (perhaps to sit at a neighboring bench) and happens to continue their conversation within your earshot, you're welcome to half-heartedly listen for any tidbits that might inspire you. It is NOT acceptable to follow someone as they have a conversation, stare at conversing parties, or to lurk in corners trying to catch a juicy scoop. What you're more likely to catch is a bop on the nose, and not an undeserved one at that.