Sunday, October 2, 2011

Desperately seeking....Inspiration!




     I procrastinate....always have and probably always will. I've found that I can deal with it in most areas of my life, but when it comes to writing, I'm having some issues with it. As I've stated before, until I'm lucky enough to call writing my full time job, I'm going to have to deal with snippets of time.
      Unfortunately, when it comes to writing, snippets are tough to deal with. They're pressure filled minutes, in which I stare at the paper/screen and attempt to string together coherent thoughts. Writing under pressure does not equal quality work. Part of the issue comes from inspiration, as in being inspired to write at any given moment. There can be hundreds of times during the day when I'm struck with the inspiration to write, but not necessarily the time. So it probably makes sense that when you do have the time to to write, you don't always have the inspiration.
      Maybe what I need is a ritual/process/lucky charm, that signals to my brain that it's time to write. Something that says, "It's Showtime! Let's put words to paper." Perhaps the spell ritual would trigger inspiration from within. An essay from Sarah Ban Breathnach's book Simple Abundance, called "Priming the Pump for Inspiration", speaks of this idea. Every time she sat down to write she went through the exact same steps. She chose the same pens, notebooks, location, and background music. She prepared a pot of tea and made sure to drink it from the same mug. She also would read something from her collection of books by women writers, prior to beginning to write. She felt that her brain recognized each of these things as a signal to begin writing and her mind would just take over from there.
      Another famous author (whose name escapes me) is said to have ended each writing session in the middle of a sentence. This way he always knew exactly where to begin the next time, and already had something to work with. Even, Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight Series) credits the music of the band Muse (ironic no?) with being her inspiration during writing sessions, as well as helping her through times of writers block.
     So maybe I need my own muse....all of my writers out there - any rituals you'd like to share? Do you have a lucky sweater you wear, food you eat, or music, that puts you into a writing state of mind?                                          


                         ~ Adrienne                                               

6 comments:

  1. It sounds similar to those sport enthusiasts that won't shave their beards during the playoffs or superstitions such as not walking under ladders...it's really all what you believe!! There are no lucky charms, magic rituals or superstitions...reality is that things happen for a reason!!

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  2. I wish. I've been known to get up at 4 am because I awoke with an idea and had to get it down NOW. If I don't get up and write I know I won't go back to sleep, so it's easier to just get up and put it down. I may make major edits in the morning but the bones are there.

    It's not the ideal situation, for sure, but whenever it gets in my head I need to get it out. When I need to conjure up something because I REALLY need to (like lately) I get stumped.

    I'm actually hoping to wake at 4am tomorrow morning and come up with something meaningful.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is... don't stress and don't over think it. It will eventually come.
    b

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  3. @ Anonymous - Are you referring to Ryan Fitzpatrick's beard? Because clearly it was not working today. :) But I do get what you are saying and it is absolutely what you believe. And either way, I'm not into growing facial hair so think I'll have to find another superstition....err.. I mean inspiration. :)

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  4. @ Barbara - Okay so when you get up at 4am, do you put some lucky slippers on or something? :) Just kidding!

    But your time idea is probably on the right track...that you need to get out of your comfort zone of what the "ideal" writing situation really is.....Hubby may have to get used to the idea of lights coming on at 4am. :)

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  5. The only thing I need is peace and quiet which is a rare commodity around here :)

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  6. @ Jotter - you're so right....completely forgot to mention how important that can be...maybe you need to get up at 4 as well huh? :)

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