Enriched by Words

Inspiration

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London

Inspiration is wonderful. It is grand. It is the frosting on the cake.

It is also anything but dependable.

Not the version of inspiration most people consider, anyway. The Muse, traditional dispenser of said inspiration, is fickle, frequently absent, and highly overrated.

Inspiration in all its capitalized glory does occur. Everyone has felt it at least once in their lives. It can move a writer to tears, a painter to feverish frenzy, a musician to transported heights.

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

However, down here on earth, Inspiration and its fickle Muse are nice, but not required. Writers who hope to publish, make a living, or bear fruit from their words must come to terms with the down to earth version of inspiration. It’s everywhere. You just need to open your eyes. There are so many topics for you to write about you will not cover a fraction of them in your lifetime. Look around you. Look inside you. Pick a thought and write it down. Then keep writing for two, five, or ten pages.

The secret of becoming a writer is to write, write and keep on writing.
Ken MacLeod

Waiting for the Muse to bop you on the head with a lightening bolt is about as productive as watching grass grow. Then, when she does show up, she retreats quickly from the writer with flaccid writing muscles and inexperience borne of a long wait for Hers Truly. It is like the parable about the brides waiting for the bridegroom. Those that were unprepared and got bored with keeping watch were left behind. Only the virgin who stayed vigilant and prepared was taken in.

In order to write well, you must WRITE. When you are tired of writing, write some more. And more. Every day, for weeks, months, even years, you must write.

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.
Jane Yolen

Here’s the incredible thing about developing discipline. You are writing. You are processing thoughts, feelings, impressions, imagination, and perspective. You are IN the process. And suddenly, that fickle Muse shows up to sit at your elbow…unbidden, but willing to stay and chat a while. She will share, guide, develop, and in general be helpful rather than absent. The Muse will do this because she is not wasting her time on an undeveloped, weak-muscled someone who merely “wants” to write.

The Muse respects preparedness and determination. She is invited in by virtue of discipline and fertile ground. Her job is easy and delightful when her essence is spent on the prepared mind. She will write through you, dance with you, and plant many seeds in the rich furrows of your mind.

Inspiration is there for the taking.

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