I've developed a new process of writing that relies heavily on in-the-moment flashes of inspiration, but the one part I'm missing is the inspiration part. How would I get "inspired" so that I can do more naturally flowing writing?
I find that writing is a lot like sex. Sometimes you just aren't in the mood, however if you are willing, it generally ends pleasurably. I make it a point to be "inspired" every day.
I can't ever predict it, it just happens. But there are certain things I do to facilitate it. Listening to music while walking, jogging, or driving will make the gears rotate. Also reading and absorbing well-written media [books, films, short stories, video games, tv shows] also helps inspire me. One bit of advice I enjoy is to "write what you want to read." Unfortunately I don't remember who said it. If there is something out there that you'd like to read more about that doesn't exist, write it!
Interesting comparison. But what do you do to get inspired? (let me know if i'm making any sense.) So basically, just do what ever I mostly do (Music, reading, video games) plus integrate a few others (films, TV)?
I think they mean that to write better, you have to force yourself to write, even when it just isn't coming. I'll even resort to fanfiction or writing critiques if it means I'm writing something. More than once I've not been looking forward to writing a scene, but I grin and bear it. Halfway through, inspiration strikes and I just keep typing. Ideas that hadn't crossed my mind before come to the forefront. EDIT: By force yourself I don't mean mental rape XD
Possibly just the opposite http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11492867/Boredom-makes-people-more-creative-claim-psychologists.html
"Creativity" isn't the same when comparing tangrams to literature, in my opinion. It takes a different process. I play the alto saxophone, and my creative improvisation process is much different than when I speculate for things I write. Just like how a painter probably doesn't draw inspiration from the prose of Les Miserables.
So what I'm getting is that I should write even if I'm not in the mood, and that being bored helps your creativity.
You could try it, what I posted. I wouldn't take it as a miracle cure or anything or let it dissuade you from enjoying media. Just a thought.
It's fine, I just have lots to try now. I'll watch a boring movie when I'm not motivated to write then write directly afterwards! But in all seriousness, I'll try everything I can.
I have plenty of that kind of music! Seriously, I have a lot! I'll check how many songs in a few but I'll try that! Edit: 587 instrumental songs.
It may not be the most healthy thing to say but drugs work pretty well for me. Not that I'd suggest such a course of action anyone else of course. The thing about 'inspiration' is that it can mean a bunch of different things. Does it mean sitting doing nothing until you have a great idea? Because for me at least I have a big document full of story ideas (of varying qualities) that I can pick up whenever I have a free moment, and even then I certainly can't just sit and write a whole book in one go. So clearly that's not really what we're talking about. I think what you really mean is 'not pushing yourself to write when you don't really feel anything there'. Which I think is good advice. Forcing yourself to write when whatever you put on the page comes out bad or boring or just bland, well it's frustrating and I think pushing yourself to keep working anyway is how you teach yourself that writing isn't enjoyable. As for how to get back to 'the zone' where whatever you put down feels good and you get into a real flow with it and just stop realizing that time is passing, just there with the story... Well, I do drugs. I never managed to write anything even vaguely extensive without it, never managed to make myself focus on anything for longer than a few hours at a time, was always just fussing over word choice and beating myself up for not quite expressing myself perfectly but now, no problems. Not that I'd suggest it to anyone else. Just, well, it works for me.
I don't believe in inspiration as a regularly-used tool. The things that I've written while experiencing the emotion of "inspiration" have not been reliably better than the things that I've written while not inspired. I am trying to work on a related, but different goal for times when I sit down to write: Ways to energize myself. This seems like a more reliably achievable goal. Bright light, music, exercise, an attractive writing space, habits, whatever. I don't have it down yet, but it seems more like a goal worth pursing. At least for me.
I think inspiration is less likely to come in "flashes" for me, more likely to come as a more-or-less constant glow with occasional spikes. "Flashes" makes it sound like the ideas just appear, totally disconnected from anything else, and my ideas are almost all developed in connection with what's come before. So, if I'm struggling to figure out what to do, creatively, I'll generally review what I've already done, and the next step will become obvious.
It didn't occur to me before, but now I'm worried that my "id tag" title might perpetuate a myth. I chose it to remind myself how absurd my perception of creating a story can be, following the realization that only directed focus will bring about a story. So thanks for bringing that to my attention, if only inadvertently, @BayView
My advice - write to get inspired. It's great to read books on writing, watch movies and read. But nothing will get you there except actual writing. There is a famous quote (there's a discussion on who said it and when but that's not the point): “I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at nine o’clock every morning.” The point of this is that you have to write every day, make it a habit. Every day I have lunch and then I have a cup of green tea and sit down to write. Even when I don't feel inspired (seriously, I dread the moment I have to sit down and face the blank page even if I wrote 2.000-3.000 words the day before and finished a short story). Every day begins with a struggle to actually start writing (as my dad says, a human being is a very lazy creature). But I set a goal for myself and I write. After a couple of hundreds of words, bam! comes the inspiration And it's a lot easier if you write every day. It's like working out, the more consistent you are, the easier it is to do the exercises because your muscles are used to do the effort. It's the same with imagination.
It's better to train yourself to write regardless of inspiration. Right now in my WIP I can't tell which scenes are better -- the ones I was inspired to write or the ones I chugged through. Also at this point it doesn't matter. Cause when I chug through I get more done then waiting. One good thing I like to do in between writing is to scour for photographs on the internet to help me with the visuals and details of my story - I look at Google images typing in everything from places to artwork, and even go to Ebay and look over things for inspiration. A good walk prior to a writing session can also help, especially if you keep it distraction free - no texting.
Another thing, try to build a routine. I always write at the same time of the day. As I've said, a cup of green tea is kind of a bell for my muse. So now when I make a cup of tea around 2 o'clock for my brain it means writing time.
I was reading a bit in the thread on how do we decide the gender of characters, and that got me to ruminating about my writing process. When I am uninspired and am trying to write something anyway, I am aware of actually making choices: that's when I choose a topic, choose how the story starts and eventually how it ends, and I may change my mind and question my choices. I craft those stories with effort. There are other times though when the story just seems to come out on its own accord, fully formed, almost effortless, and I feel like I have not consciously made any choices at all. It's almost like the story was already there, and I just wrote it down, and sometimes I wonder in awe where those ideas came from. And that's how the stories that I am usually most pleased with emerge. Do any of you have similar experience? What do you think: is writing more about decision making or more inspiration ideas that come as insights from who knows where? If you too have the experience of some stories being crafted through decisions while others came to you just like that, do you think that the crafted stories can be as good or even better than the inspired ones, or is there something to those stories that originate within and just tell themselves that makes them more powerful?
To me it feels like inspiration. The inspiration comes from the part of your mind that you have trained, through practice, to generate story material: plots, concept, dialogue, narrative, descriptions, and all the other viscera that comprise a story. When it is time for me to write, I direct this part of my mind toward the task of progressing my story, focus it through concentration, and begin to write what comes out. I do have to step back from time to time to cognitively manage the big picture side of things: deciding what scene to do next and what elements I need to include in particular passages. I think this is more a feature of my imperfectly developed story-mind. I think that with practice, I won't have to step back and do this as much, it will happen organically as I write the story out. The more synapses you lay down in your grey-matter story factory, the more of a story you will be able to see at once. I've always been a dreamer, though. Got me into heaps of trouble at school, but it is very useful for writing. I just focus my daydreams toward the story and write what comes out. I guess that would be inspiration guided by practice.
I've described it before as mathematical: I input the characters and the situation, and the scene that results is whatever output makes the most sense. My outline is a rough estimate, but writing scenes out in full requires me to fill in more details that can potentially change the outcome. My least cliched and most unpredictable stories tend to be ones that deviated from the outline after an added element changed the direction. I'm still consciously thinking about what the characters are doing and why, but they've effectively "surprised me" by naturally leading into things I didn't intend.
Either way Kate, everything you write comes out deep and thoughtful. Me, I just sprinkle words on a page and see where they take me.
Everything I write comes out deep and thoughtful?? Thank you, but most definitely not. My secret is that when I see something that I have written that is complete crap and drivel, I try not to share it with anyone else. Actually I often wish I did not have to see some of the crap I write myself. I know that it is good practice to write every day, and I have been practicing it now, but some days it's like all i can pit on paper is disjointed cliches that i had to sow together with brittle thread that kept breaking, and the end result looks like something my cat would refuse to spit out because she knows better. Some days I question whether I will ever write something good again. Today is one of those days. All I could come up with that pleased me was one phrase, but no matter what I tried the phrase refused to become part of a story or poem, so the phrase stands alone.
Okay, have it your way but I think your crap and drivel is the most deep and thoughtful crap and drivel I've ever seen. *Smile*
