Inspiration

There's a thread about this in the Roundtable forum. Just so you know.

The next time you want to search for something writing related, use the search option on this forum. You'll get more links than Google.

But about inspiration...

I pay attention. My brain sorts through all the little ideas and unconscious 'what ifs...' that trickle around my head all day, and makes connections. The connections make sentences. Sentences make paragraphs.

All I have to do is neaten it up a little, delete the paragraphs that make absolutely no sense (Once two of my characters had a discussion about architecture that was completely random.) and make sure everything flows nicely.

One thing: I don't get caught up in writing only when I'm inspired. Inspiration is for amateurs (Music & Lyrics is an awesome movie) and the moody types who never get any writing done. Write even when you're not inspired. It won't be as bad as you think, I promise.

It's different for everyone. I think many people, however, including myself, would say something like "life." Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to be looking with the right eyes.

Esopha said:

One thing: I don't get caught up in writing only when I'm inspired. Inspiration is for amateurs (Music & Lyrics is an awesome movie) and the moody types who never get any writing done. Write even when you're not inspired. It won't be as bad as you think, I promise.

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Ten years ago, I would have despised anyone who said this and assumed they were a hack. Now, I agree.

JoNightshade said:

Ten years ago, I would have despised anyone who said this and assumed they were a hack. Now, I agree.

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I felt like this for a while, as well. Then I realized I was being whiny and slapped myself upside the head.

Inspiration is fickle.

If you wait for inspiration you'll be waiting forever. Just make yourself write.

Having said that, sometimes there are reasons why you don't feel inspired to write and just can't make yourself. For me it's usually my subconscious telling me something's wrong with my story. So if I find myself procrastinating in a big way, I have to face the probability that something's just not working. Once I figure it out, I can fix it and get going again.

It's funny, but my muse is more likely to show up when I get my arse in my writing chair...

Yep. I sit down every day and write whether I feel like it or not. It's not optional.

Sit down and write. I've had spells where nothing would come. Where I would know exactly what I wanted to do with a scene, but just couldn't figure out how to actually write it. But I kept at it, and when the dam finally broke...whoah.

I've also found that taking walks or going on a solitary drive can do wonders for getting those creative juices flowing.

I haven't done any writing in a month (did some editing instead and had a baby that quit sleeping as she discovered her mobility), until Sunday. The day before I had some of those half-asleep "dreams", though these were more flashes of scenes. I saw something I liked and decided to throw them into a story. I had to take a nap and worked out on more of the story while resting (not quite asleep). Sunday I wrote something like 1,500 words. It's slowed down since then, but I've been working on making the different ideas connect in somewhat logical ways.

So, inspiration can come from anywhere, even lack of sleep This is a first for me, though.

I get my inspiration from I-mart, cheap.

Inspiration doesn't make me write, it just helps me write a little faster now and then. I have ideas and am inspired to write randomly throughout my day. I rarely act on it, sometimes because I'm just not able to.

But what generally inspires me are stories, music, movies, TV shows that leave me with an emotion, that move me. Watching the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough to Last" does it every time. So does listening to "A Night On Bald Mountain." So does going for a walk on a crystal autumn day when the air is cold and sharp and the world is red and the colors are brilliant and you scuff through leaves.

I think we should all live like Ray Bradbury and take wonder and inspiration and delight in everything around us. I try to.

Inspiration is what happens when you're too busy working hard to notice.

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

"If you wait for inspiration, no matter how long you live, when you're on your death bed, you'll wish you'd written that novel." -- me

When I'm stuck, the first thing I do is turn off my word processor. No way I'm going to waste my time writing crap. I basically beat myself up for as long as it takes to solve whatever problem I've created for myself. As I mentioned in another thread, I had a problem with the last novel I wrote. I had to figure out how one character could tell another character what she needed to know, while concealing the information from government spies who could hear every word that passed between the two (and read any notes passed, too). That stopped me cold for about two months, during which time my alcohol consumption went way up and my mood way down. For a long time, it seemed like I'd given myself an impossible problem, but I just kept thinking about it whenever I had time, and eventually, when I came up with the answer, it felt terrific. And my alcohol consumption dropped like a rock.

If you wait for inspiration you will never write a thing. I have been inspired to create a character or two but my stories come from inside naturally.

Ispiration is ok but I would rather use my brain.