“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” — Dan Poynter
What role does inspiration play in your writing? Do you need it? What happens if you don’t have it? How do you get “up” for writing when it isn’t there?
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The signature on my emails, above URLs for my author site, my daily Journal, and my publisher site, is a take-off from Peter DeVries: “I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at 3 a.m.” 🙂
It would be tough to add constructively to Harvey’s comment, other than to recall Thomas Edison’s oft-repeated observation. “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Kind of like mowing the lawn.
Ooh, and one more, from none other than Joe R. Lansdale: “I don’t wait for inspiration, since it’s me doing the inspiring.” 🙂
Inspiration gone? No writing for me. Good news is, it always returns, once I clear the day-to-day out of my head.
Good point. Charles Bukowski would agree:
“if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut”
I’m not that much of a morning person, so my version of Harvey’s quote says “9 A.M.”
I’ve been using my “I can’t, I have to write” excuse for so long, I just sit at my desk and start writing. I have a delete key, and I’m not afraid to use it.
Is that why so many out-of-work writers end up as waiters?
Go for a walk.
Dig through “ideas” file
Read.
Finish a project I’ve been putting off. The sense of accomplishment leads to inspiration for new projects.
Sometimes I have to wait for inspiration. Sometimes I sit down and write anyway and it gets me in gear. Since writing is just one of my interests, I bounce between writing and other things. Even if I didn’t have to work full-time, I don’t think I could do ONLY writing. Too many interesting things to do.
I wake up inspired and ready to write. My problem is that if I get involved in other things that need to be done, I have trouble shifting back into writing gear. My strategy is to write in the morning. Everything else can wait until afternoon.
I can so relate to this. Currently, I get up before dawn to write for a couple of hours, but am softly slow off the mark. Then, it’s a walk with my wife, breakfast, exercise etc, with a second, longer writing session after lunch. Still trying that out, my preference is to get writing done first thing.
I wonder if “being inspired” isn’t different from “having ideas.” Sometimes the writing doesn’t flow because we’ve run out of ideas. I recall multiple suggestions in JSB’s oeuvre how how to generate ideas. Sometimes, however, the writing doesn’t flow because we’re tired or stressed or distracted. Then we might not “feel inspired” to write. The question then becomes, “Am I feeling lazy, or is there something I have to take care of before I can write today (this week?).”
“Taking care of the something” may just be recognizing it and putting it on the calendar for this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon or…. But sometimes “taking care of it” means doing it now and not writing now.
It may not be good for a writer to be concerned with “inspiration.” Etymologically “inspiration” means the same as “enthusiasm,” but the mystical aspect seems to have dropped from “enthusiasm.” The better question is, “Why am I not enthusiastic about writing today?” rather than, “Why am I not inspired today?”
I’ve benefited from the advice from TKZ contributors and commenters to be “inspired” to write six days a week. The discipline in itself seems to generate inspiration.
I’ve commented before about the benefit of aerobic exercise on creativity. As Poirot would say, it gets “the little gray cells” moving along with the rest of me.
I get essential chores done before sitting down to write. That keeps my head in the game and not wandering to “this must be done” or “that must be done” – the only thing now that really has to be done is make up some words and get them recorded. I’m with Joe and TE on the 1% / 99% rule.
Ditto as well as the 1% / 99% rule. So true in my experience.
I don’t have trouble with inspiration, there’s always another idea. I don’t worry about the muse coming to me–as King observed, I get to work and the muse will eventually show up. The harder challenge is dealing with “resistance,” as coined by Steven Pressfield, which is that inner force that wants to hold us back in order to keep us safe. But writing isn’t about being safe, is it?
I’ve heard of writers who pull together ideas for a book like they are pulling ingredients out of a pantry to make a pan of brownies, but that’s never been me in my fiction. The spark of an idea, images, and passion come first. Then I go to the pantry for the rest of the ingredients.
I only need inspiration to come up with a new idea. The sitting and brainstorming thing doesn’t work for me. Luckily, I get said idea every six months to a year. After that, it’s fun, craft, and getting the work done, assuming I’m not at the end of writing my previous work (which I usually am). I don’t understand how some of you can live with tons of ideas just sitting there. I have trouble keeping track of just three or four at a time.
Inspiration has never been a problem for me. Books pop fully formed into my head. I usually need only to name the characters I see. But, I have fully 40 books in a notebook I keep. It’s the actual sitting down and writing that stops me. I don’t know – is that laziness?
Emotional times bring the most inspiration to me. It’s like being zapped into action. By writing, I’m sorting and digesting the occurrence. Not that I write only during emotional times! The truth is life swings good and bad with it, so I don’t have to look all that far.
A sure inspiration is The Why. Why does the wind blow? Why did she slap that guy? Why did that guy jump up and down when his friend said, “Peanuts”? Why does the state of Texas exist, and why does it matter? Follow The Why.
Another sure inspiration is The Who. Who put me here? Who does he think he is? Who cheated thousands of good, honest folk? Who killed my dog? Who thought it a good idea to wage war on…? Discover The Who.
And, the best inspiration is the combination of The Who and The Why—it’s what our readers want to know.