Writers Write for Inspiration
Recently I was reading an article in Psychology Today Blogs about the ritual and routine of writers. There is a quote in this article that really struck a chord with me, and put into words something I’ve known instinctively as a writer, but have had a difficult time verbalising.
As Dana Reinhardt, an author of young adult novels, said in a recent interview,
I think inspiration only comes in the middle of writing. I think thinking about writing doesn’t work; writing works. And the act of writing is when the inspired moments come, I believe.
I’ve had many writing instructors and mentors over the years pound the idea into my head that “writers write”. That the simple work of it is the only thing standing between anyone and being a writer. I even had one say to me that too many people want to be writers, but the successful ones want to write. (I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this quote before in my blog. Sorry about that, but it’s a good one!)
But all that being said, the why of it is critical. I agree with Dana Reinhardt. Thinking about it isn’t the same as doing it. Outlining, plotting, planning, mulling… those are all great things, but nothing is as inspiring as letting the words flow. Writing can be a very strange process for me, and it doesn’t always have to involve paper, at least in the early stages, but I do have to go through the process to find inspiration, to see the scene from beginning to end and to feel the words as individual living things.
Do you agree? How do you find your inspiration?
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My predicament is a bit different but I cannot think about writing I write and things just starts flow out actually my the stories flows so fast in my head that I have a hard time keeping up with typing it, sometimes in my head i’ll be on 3rd chapter of the book and still typing the 2nd, I tend to skip lots of words, nothing that a good revising can’t fix but it is still a pain. My real problem is not writing is actually stopping writing which can be problematic since I have to catch with my mind and it’s very hard to do so sometimes I must draw the line and just leave for another day however when I do that lots of cool stuff gets lost, so I could write and write forever it doesn’t mean it would be good writing it would probably be really bad because I need to be quick otherwise the idea vanishes, see I am writing to much in this comment already, another reason why I joined twitter to learn to say a lot in a little space.
It appears I still have much to learn, great article tho.
I get the initial burst of inspiration to write the whole story in the first place but yes, I don’t get really inspired until some spark illuminates my characters and brings them to life and that DEFINITELY doesn’t happen right away
This is why I’m a seat-of-the-pantser and not a plotter. Even when I’ve tried outlining and plotting my stories, when I sit down to write them things happen and my characters run away from me. All those things I had so nicely plotted out for them are flung out the window.
Inspiration hits constantly, but that’s a small spark of an idea. When you sit down to write the spark, the rest of the idea takes shape and becomes a story. And the process is so much fun.