One day last week when I was getting out of the shower an idea struck. “Oh!” I thought delightedly. “That can be what I write my next blog post about!” As I toweled off, I reflected cheerily on how nice it was to have my topic lined up and about how much stress that would save. And then, within minutes, I forgot it.
A different time last week I was driving in the car and was struck with the most brilliant idea for novel after next – Untold’s sequel. This is kind of a pet project of mine and while I know I should be spending my time and energy on my current project (about which I am very excited!) I can’t help but think ahead and try to figure out where my Untold crew are going to be in a few years. Without evening meaning to, I came up with the perfect character point for someone, and began banging the steering wheel in excitement. Dangerous, maybe, but not quite as dangerous as if I had pulled out a pen and written the idea down then and there. (I did later, don’t worry.)
Why does inspiration happen the most when I’m not in a writing state of mind? Besides the idea that life just likes to structure things in the most inconvenient way possible/is trying to get me to write down more of my ideas, I’m starting to think I know the reason. I think everyone can complain about inspiration hitting at the worst of times (say, right before bed), and I think this is because we don’t get inspired through sitting down and trying to manufacture a story. Yes, that part of the writing process is crucial (maybe I’ll write my next post on how bogus “only writing when inspired” is), but it’s not what we’re writing about. No matter the genre, we’re writing about the nuances of life and of human interaction, and ideas for that are much more likely to hit us when we’re out there living than at our computers/notebooks/typewriters trying to remember what it is that people who aren’t harnessed to their works-in-progress are doing.
Life is a balance between living it and reflecting on it. We grow through both experience and our own interpretations of those events, so it makes a lot of sense that we grow as writers not only when we’re sitting down with our work, getting our ideas out there and trying to make them sound the way we want. We also grow through the things we do, both mundane and extraordinary.
We need to write what we know, so let’s go out there and know as much as we can. And, most importantly, let’s bring notebooks with us. Try to keep those ideas from slithering away again.
Until next time,
— Amy
Inspiration is everywhere.