The Secret Key to Inspiration

Today, we kick off our Everyday Inspiration summer drive, inspired by, well, you. NaNoWriMo’s head honcho, Grant Faulkner, shares about the first time he encountered the incredible creative spirit of the NaNoWriMo community, and how it changed his life:

In one of my first years of doing NaNoWriMo, I was greeted with NaNoMail from a writer named Contemplative Cat. I didn’t know who she was, but she asked, “Would you like some cheer-leading and encouragement and nudging this next month?”

As a personal policy, I never turn down cheer-leading and encouragement. As for nudging, well, that depends on how it’s delivered. But I said yes anyway. I didn’t know what to expect, but I started getting daily missives about my novel, The Fantasist, a story about a 16-year-old boy from a troubled home who runs away to try to live with his favorite fantasy author…

Contemplative Cat wrote things like, “What if young Festus met a traveler of Romanian descent who offers him some tidbit of mysterious information?” Or, “He’s in another state and wanders into a convenience store to buy some chips. The map section catches his eye and he checks out one of them. As he casually traces the compass design at the top, it starts to glow and change.”

I loved Contemplative Cat’s prompts because I hadn’t experienced such a capering spirit in other writing communities I’d been involved in. I was used to people dividing up into cliques, writing entirely alone, and then entering a somewhat forbidding circle of others to get unsparing feedback. Contemplative Cat’s comments, however, were generous and whimsical—fun imaginative gifts to unwrap each day before writing.

I decided to accept every prod she gave me, and it made the entire creative act into a joyful game, a whimsical puzzle, not the plodding and ponderous task I tended to make writing into. Other NaNo writers connected with me as well and offered me similar encouragement. This was the beginning of a shift for me: I realized how important it is to create with the flow of energy from others. By emphasizing the solitary aspect of writing, I’d lost the wonder that’s sparked when “playing” with others.

As Picasso famously said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

The word inspiration literally means to breathe in. For me that means breathing in the oxygen of my NaNo community of creators.

Every year, thousands of people break down the barricades of their to-do lists and dive into their creative selves during NaNoWriMo. They are galvanized by the fantastic community energy of what feels like the entire world writing with them.

At the end, we hold a precious gift in our hands: a novel. It might be a messy novel. It might be a novel with a hole in the middle, or a rushed ending. But it’s a creation that we gave birth to only with the cheer-leading, encouragement, and nudges from thousands of Contemplative Cats.

I thank you Contemplative Cat, and the whole NaNoWriMo community, for giving me this gift. I take it with me every day I write, in November and beyond.

— Grant

Our Everyday Inspiration campaign will run for the next couple of weeks! Every bit you contribute will go towards our programs and our mission to build a more creative world that values everyone’s right to tell their story. Plus, you’ll receive our NaNo Inspiration kit, with a pep talk from authors like John Green, Mitali Perkins, and Neil Gaiman. Donate today!