Playing Hide and Seek with Inspiration
The never-ending search
Inspiration is a fickle mistress. One minute, she’s your best friend and the next, she’s stealing your boyfriend and leaving town. I’ve come across many moments of pure joy while being inspired. Days, weeks, months, even, of non-stop blissful ingenuity—followed by a greater than or equal to amount of time in the barren waste land of my suddenly uncreative mind.
In a Ted Talk, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) talks about inspiration. (I would recommend this talk to anybody, not just writers because I think it calls to all creative-minded people). Gilbert mentions an American poet named Ruth Stone who talks about poems as if they are fully-formed beings coming to visit her. She quotes Stone in her talk, saying:
“She would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. And she said it was like a thunderous train of air. And it would come barreling down at her over the landscape. And when she felt it coming, because it would shake the earth under her feet, she knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, ‘run like hell.’ And she would run like hell to the house and she would be getting chased by this poem, and the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it and grab it on the page. And other times she wouldn’t be fast enough, so she’d be running and running, and she wouldn’t get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it ‘for another poet.’”
I truly connect with this idea about inspiration as a fleeting moment—something that flows toward you, through you. You are given the choice to grab onto and hold tight or just let it float away, onto the next artistic mind. I’ve felt more than enough times that feeling of creativity popping into my mind and if I don’t write it down instantly, it will disappear. That’s why I don’t think about my stories when I lay down to sleep. If I did, I wouldn’t get a wink of it.
But it’s not always inspiration city for me. So, how do I find my encouragement when I’m not just waiting for it to hit? Well…there’s a few different ways:
Reading
Sometimes the hardest part of writing is finding something original. I have a terrible habit of reading something, liking it, and then immediately trying to write it myself. Obviously I never follow through on any of those stories but it does help me get my own creative ideas out. So, if I’m ever feeling truly stuck, I’ll pick up a book in my typical writing genre and get some ideas. Just something to start the engine, and usually that helps me continue the rest of the drive on my own.
Strangers
It may been uncouth but there is nothing better than listening to stranger’s conversations and drafting life stories about them in my head. That is one reason I can look at the NYC subway system and say “Hey, maybe you aren’t so bad after all.” The number times I’ve sat and listened to enough drama to fill an hour-long, midday soap opera is innumerable. I’ve even gotten some great dialogue bits from strangers on the street. That’s why I always keep my ears open and my notes app ready.
Quotes
I know, I know. It sounds cheesy to say that inspirational quotes inspire me. But it’s true! The right quote can really get the gears going in my mind. Three such quotes are:
“Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor”
- Cinderella, Into the Woods
“Inspiration exists but it has to find you working”
- Pablo Picasso
“Writing is something you do alone in a room”
- Jennifer Probst, NYT Best-selling author
I’m not a “mood board” person, but if I had a dedicated office space to do my writing, you better believe these three quotes would be displayed front and center.
Music
Last, but certainly not least: Music. Much of my first novel was inspired by the music I was currently listening to at the time. With each writing session I have, I need to make sure I have the right playlist, the right sounds to fill my ears so that the words flow through me. If I’m writing a cute, romantic scene, it’s Parachute (probably a lesser known but definitely worth listening to band). For an angsty scene, My Chemical Romance or some other emo pop-punk band I used to listen to in 8th grade. For a saucy scene, Jason Derulo all the way. And I’m not embarrassed to admit that (I probably should be though). Music has and always been be one of my biggest inspirations and I’m grateful for that because I don’t know what I’d do without it.
So, what do you think? Feeling inspired yet?