Finding Inspiration Through Conversation
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Digital Painting WIP – Naomi
Technically, I’m not sitting and waiting. I’m digital painting. Still, it’s a case of me not writing because I’m inspired to do something else.
I’m the type of squirrel who uses her half hour of free time a day to indulge in pursing the passion of the moment. That doesn’t make me a very good role-model. I read fellow blogger Sarah Brentyn’s post about how the boot-camp approach to writing overwhelms some people. I don’t get overwhelmed. I’ve just got too small of an attention span to feel obligated to stick to one thing. I don’t let myself feel bad because I know myself enough to know I’ll get back to it if it’s important to me.
When it comes to writing, I want it to be inspired, to stem from a scene that plays vividly in my mind, to have me voicing dialogue in the car on the way to work (everyone does that, right?). I don’t want it to be forced because I’m obligated to get down words when I could be adding detail to my current digital painting WIP.
In the past two days, I’ve had a wealth of writing inspiration. I got ideas for one POV from a writing buddy in Taiwan after I stalled out. I chose a direction for a character in book 4 after chatting with my friend Dani. I figured out how to set up this character direction starting in book 2 after talking with my sis-in-law last night. This gives me more content and a greater role for a book 2 POV character I was struggling with. BAM! Inspiration! Guess who is back to writing?
I love analyzing people’s opinions. So what’s yours? Are you adamant that you must write every day? I’m not talking about taking breaks because of stress. Do you feel disdain towards the people who talk about writing, but struggle to find time to get words down every day? Does the expectation that you must write every day affect you negatively if you don’t achieve it? Do you shrug and say different people have different processes?
P.S. Don’t forget today is the last day to pick up The Ancient for only 99 cents!
The post Finding Inspiration Through Conversation appeared first on Squirrel Talk.
