Hi ladies,
This is an essay I'm working on, perhaps for RWR. I'd appreciate your thoughts...
k.
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Waiting For the Idea Fairy
        Where do great ideas come from?
        Every one has their own notions about where great ideas come from. The Greeks credited the Muses—goddesses of arts and inspiration—and some still try to invoke "the Muse" before embarking on a creative endeavor. Still others believe ideas come from God; others from dreams. And some readily admit they have no idea where ideas come from.
        I don't know about them… but I know that my ideas come directly from the Idea Fairy.
        In case you've never heard of her, she's a distant relative of the Tooth Fairy. When you were a child, you might have put a tooth under your pillow at night and received a small sum of money in exchange in the morning. Now that you're all grow up, I suggest you write out a request for inspiration and put it under your pillow, in the exact same spot that you might have put that tooth years ago. When you awaken, reach under your pillow. You're sure to find…
        That same piece of paper that you wrote your request on….
        And sometimes, in the back of your brain, a solution.
        I'm serious. Sometimes, this actually works. I don't know if it's in the writing, the sleeping, the dreaming or the Fairy herself, but every so often, I write an question on a little piece of paper and get sprinkled with dust while I sleep. I wake up, rub the stuff out of my eyes and race to the computer filled with inspiration.
        But there's one huge problem with the Idea Fairy: she's inconsistent as a temperamental two year old with a toothache! Waiting for her is like waiting for Enlightenment—you could starve to death before it happens.
        So I guess, what I'm really saying is, wonderful as the Idea Fairy is, as grateful as I am when she appears, and as excited as she makes me when she comes, I've learned to write without her... and you should too.
        Waiting for the muse, the Idea Fairy or any other external deity to provide me with the insight to start, continue or finish my projects is the surest way to remain stuck or blocked for as long as possible. Try years. Decades. Centuries. Eons. And I can't wait that long. I'd like to be Bestselling Author before I die. To do that… I have to write books. And finish them. And that means, whether I've been dusted with fairy dust or covered with iron rust, I've got to keep writing.
        I've known many a wannabe writer—whoops. Let me re-phrase that. I've BEEN a writer, however, who depended on the Idea Fairy. Without her beneficent charms, I wouldn't lay pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Ever. And in repayment for my devotion to the Fairy, she bathed my words in her special dust and everything I wrote was fairly glowing with the power of her inspiration. Every word they wrote was sheer poetry… if I do say so myself.
        The only problem is that Fickle Fairy would eventually flit away. Return to her a favorite nestling places under the pillow of the prolific Stephen King or the duvet of Nora Roberts. And once the Idea Fairy was gone, talented though I might have been, whatever talent I might have withered under the suns of my own inertia, its possibility dying on the vine.
        Okay, so that's a bit dramatic… but you get the point. You've got to have some really good digs to keep the Idea Fairy around. In short… you almost have to already have a million of your own ideas, and be actively pursuing them daily, to get the Fairy to pay you any attention. In other words, it seems the Idea Fairy most often visits those who write whether she comes or not. The more you write, the more visits you get. The more visits you get, the more brilliantly and productively you write.
       
        Which turns into the very circular, chicken and egg proposition: which came first the inspiration or the effort?
        I think it may go something like this: the wannabe writer waits for the Idea Fairy. But the professional knows better.
       
This is an essay I'm working on, perhaps for RWR. I'd appreciate your thoughts...
k.
******************************************
Waiting For the Idea Fairy
        Where do great ideas come from?
        Every one has their own notions about where great ideas come from. The Greeks credited the Muses—goddesses of arts and inspiration—and some still try to invoke "the Muse" before embarking on a creative endeavor. Still others believe ideas come from God; others from dreams. And some readily admit they have no idea where ideas come from.
        I don't know about them… but I know that my ideas come directly from the Idea Fairy.
        In case you've never heard of her, she's a distant relative of the Tooth Fairy. When you were a child, you might have put a tooth under your pillow at night and received a small sum of money in exchange in the morning. Now that you're all grow up, I suggest you write out a request for inspiration and put it under your pillow, in the exact same spot that you might have put that tooth years ago. When you awaken, reach under your pillow. You're sure to find…
        That same piece of paper that you wrote your request on….
        And sometimes, in the back of your brain, a solution.
        I'm serious. Sometimes, this actually works. I don't know if it's in the writing, the sleeping, the dreaming or the Fairy herself, but every so often, I write an question on a little piece of paper and get sprinkled with dust while I sleep. I wake up, rub the stuff out of my eyes and race to the computer filled with inspiration.
        But there's one huge problem with the Idea Fairy: she's inconsistent as a temperamental two year old with a toothache! Waiting for her is like waiting for Enlightenment—you could starve to death before it happens.
        So I guess, what I'm really saying is, wonderful as the Idea Fairy is, as grateful as I am when she appears, and as excited as she makes me when she comes, I've learned to write without her... and you should too.
        Waiting for the muse, the Idea Fairy or any other external deity to provide me with the insight to start, continue or finish my projects is the surest way to remain stuck or blocked for as long as possible. Try years. Decades. Centuries. Eons. And I can't wait that long. I'd like to be Bestselling Author before I die. To do that… I have to write books. And finish them. And that means, whether I've been dusted with fairy dust or covered with iron rust, I've got to keep writing.
        I've known many a wannabe writer—whoops. Let me re-phrase that. I've BEEN a writer, however, who depended on the Idea Fairy. Without her beneficent charms, I wouldn't lay pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Ever. And in repayment for my devotion to the Fairy, she bathed my words in her special dust and everything I wrote was fairly glowing with the power of her inspiration. Every word they wrote was sheer poetry… if I do say so myself.
        The only problem is that Fickle Fairy would eventually flit away. Return to her a favorite nestling places under the pillow of the prolific Stephen King or the duvet of Nora Roberts. And once the Idea Fairy was gone, talented though I might have been, whatever talent I might have withered under the suns of my own inertia, its possibility dying on the vine.
        Okay, so that's a bit dramatic… but you get the point. You've got to have some really good digs to keep the Idea Fairy around. In short… you almost have to already have a million of your own ideas, and be actively pursuing them daily, to get the Fairy to pay you any attention. In other words, it seems the Idea Fairy most often visits those who write whether she comes or not. The more you write, the more visits you get. The more visits you get, the more brilliantly and productively you write.
       
        Which turns into the very circular, chicken and egg proposition: which came first the inspiration or the effort?
        I think it may go something like this: the wannabe writer waits for the Idea Fairy. But the professional knows better.
       
