Planned Inspiration
Posted by Anne
“Inspiration comes when you stick your elbows on the table and your bottom on the chair and start sweating. Choose a theme, an idea, and squeeze your brain until it hurts. That’s called inspiration.”
-Carlos Ruiz Zafon, from The Angel’s Game
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from blogging, it’s that you can’t plan inspiration. You have to find it. I used to imagine that writing was something one did in the heat of a beautiful or captivating thought. Inspiration strikes, and you follow it with your pen or keyboard. You capture the intensity of that shot of verbal brilliance, and the rest is history. Oh, how I wish that were always the case.
It’s not that I don’t feel inspired—often I do. And those are the moments when I truly want to write something—when I can feel the urgency taking charge of my words. It’s that urgency that drives the construction of each sentence, and the selection of each adjective. They are wonderful moments, those moments of inspiration. But I have to admit—just as often (or more often), I find my writing process best described by the quote at the top of this post. It’s not until I sit down to just write that I begin to feel the murmur of inspired thoughts and words.
Perhaps this is why a blogging “schedule” generally works for me. Elizabeth and I alternate our days, giving me a very clear awareness of which days are “my blogging days” and which are hers. I know when to stop waiting for inspiration to find me, and when to just plant myself in front of the computer and stare until I find the words I need. I enjoy this process—of putting my fingers to the keyboard and pushing my brain to grind and work. Except…
Except there are some days—believe it or not—when I just don’t feel particularly thoughtful. These are the days when a long walk seems like the most appealing activity in the world, and when I can’t bear the thought of forcing my words. I don’t feel inspired, and I don’t want to seek inspiration either. I just want to be. I have all sorts of strategies for combating these inspirational black holes.
- I take a break, and write when I’m fresh. (This worked in college too…hence some very odd study hours for a 21-year-old…generally 5:00am.)
- I’m never afraid to scrap a subject when the words don’t come. (If a topic feels stale to me, chances are it’ll feel stale to you too.)
- I consult my running list of possible blog topics. (Do I even need to explain why this appeals to me?)
And yet…with all these strategies, I believe there’s still nothing that replaces those true moments of creative productivity. When you lose time, find your flow, and allow the words to seamlessly work their way onto the screen or the page. And this is why I find my writing “schedule” both wonderfully productive, and likewise frustrating. Sometimes I wish I could just drink tea until the spirit moved me to write. But I know…deep down…I’d succumb to the laziness of waiting for that inspiration. And so, I must trust that it will find me eventually. In the meantime, I pick myself up, sit myself down at my desk, look at the screen, and begin to squeeze.
Do you have a creative outlet? Do you wait for inspiration, or do you find discipline helps you create?
January 5th, 2010 at 5:22 am
Generally, I just let my writing flow but I do keep, as you do, a running list of topics that have come to me. I do type write into my blog’s editor most times, meaning I don’t start a word document and then leave it, go back, then copy and paste to my blog.
I also find a schedule good. Number one, I work from home as a freelancer so scheduling my “extra” time is important so I get work done. Number two, I can constantly update my blog if I schedule time to do so.
I can tell, when I go back and read posts from the past, which would fall under the flow and which would fall under sit down and do it.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Your post made me think of a chapter on writer’s block in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. She writes: “The problem is acceptance, which is something we’re taught not to do. We’re taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been given – that you are not in a productive creative period – you free yourself to begin filling up again.”
I think my approach to writing is similar to yours – and that’s largely by necessity. I have two little kids and I can’t always count on inspiration touching me when they’re napping. But I do love Lamott’s metaphor of writer as creative vessel, and long for a time when I will be free to be empty and full according to my own rhythms.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Before I found your blog I never wrote much of anything. I have terrible penmanship and I can’t spell (thank god for computers and spell-check). Even now, except for my responses, I don’t write that often. I started writing a novel once. Starting on the second Chapter, because I heard somewhere that you never start on the first, I didn’t get past the third page because I didn’t like where the story was going and I wasn’t up for the research. There wasn’t much inspiration there. I was just board. I find that it takes a lot of energy to sit and write and I am impressed that you girls are able to do this every week.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Interesting insight into your writing process. I tend to follow a hybrid method – I let inspiration strike me as it relates to topics. And I too keep a running list of post ideas. But then once I’ve identified a potential topic the writing itself is more an exercise in discipline than inspiration.