Inspired to Inspire Inspiration

Heehee...I love a good wonky title. This title is truly the truth of my post today. I want to take a hot poker - er - funny bunny and help inspire you to inspire your creativity...you're inspiration.

'Kay...enough of the run around. On to the "serious business" of posting. *Sets aside water gun and clown nose.*

Generalization heading your way...Writer inspiration is, well, everywhere. Writers see ideas in everything. The angry man honking his horn at the stressed out soccer mom in front of him. The seemingly sedated check out girl and the bagger who can't seem to stop doing some weird jig.

The worst moment - another assumption here...and we know what happens with assumptions - is when the creativity well runs dry and the world seems an uninspiring dry cardboard society.

What we've done is drained our natural source of creativity, but training yourself as writers can be a lot like training yourself as any other artist of medium - we just sometimes snub our nose at these exercises.

*Pulls nose out of air*...let's get artistic people.

Okay, starting point: Cardboard land.

Pull out a blank piece of paper or blank word document. Now....write. Anything. DON'T THINK (I saw you). Just write. Whatever comes out, even if it's just a grocery list.

Alright - yes, I used it...catch me if you can - now take one element of your writing. Using the grocery list example, pick off an item or two if you're feeling crazy. I'll just choose bread and butter.

Now exand on that item(s) using at least two of your five senses. In case you forgot, here's a quick overview of the senses: Smell, sight, sound, taste, touch.

Remember, it doesn't have to have any point other than your brain popped it out. It doesn't have to be good, just words strung together.

Got it? Good. Now look around (either in real life or through a website or magazine) and pick out a person. Male, female...heck, even an animal. Visualize that person. Their tastes, personalities, characteristics, mannerisms.

Now write what that person would do with the item(s) you just wrote about using the five senses.

End point: a constructed quest for creativity.

Here's my example:

Item: Bread and butter
Person: Corporate woman sitting on park bench

Lucy used the back of her hand to dab the sweat off her neck. The navy suit was a bad choice for a July interview. Pulling out the bread, she spread herb butter and took a small bite. Crap, she thought, realizing she'd forgotton water. Crumbs stuck to the roof of her mouth. She swallowed hard, forcing the dry piece down her throat. Perfect, just perfect.

Exercises like this won't totally get you out of your block, but it'll start refilling the well. Go ahead, try it. And if you have any other good exercises, feel free to share them.

Good writing all!

Writing Status: Anarchy

My muse is in full anarchy mode. I'm pulling my hair out. I got a sense she was starting to revolt when I posted my Veered off the Main Road entry, but it's official. Sadly, I don't think she even knows what direction SHE'S going in.

Last night was all over the place. By the end of the evening I'd given up any hope of working on Damarion, blurted out 3 horrible story ideas, 2 "maybe has potential" stories, and 1 "what the Wisconsin?" idea. Then I thought I'd try my hand at the rewrite request but found her refusing to speak to me.

I swear this Muse is going to take what's left of my sanity. I'll end up a babbling, old, grey-haired crazy woman with an imaginary parrot on her shoulder.

Good writing all! (May your Muses be better-tempered)

Break Through

I guess it takes getting crazy before the break through hits. At least sometimes. Unfortunately for me and Sorcerer's Carnival this was the route I had to take. The breakthrough happened in my sleep when I dreamed the solution. Well, more accurately, I dreamed the story the way it was supposed to be.

I can't say I woke up in excitement as I rarely wake up excited (I'm not a morning person by nature). But once I had several large glasses of caffeine in my system I was ready to tackle the story and reintegrate the vision I originally had for it.

It's now the end of the day and aside from mommy duty, I dedicated my energy and day to Sorcerer's Carnival. I'm now feeling the rewards of accomplishment as the draft is done and the story is how I wanted it. In fact, I've managed to also get through the first round of editing and it's pretty clean.

Writing wise it was a great day. Looking back at the fiasco of the last few days I realize that I was not really following the plan I outlined earlier in the week. I was trying to fix as I reread the original version instead of just soaking in the original story. This was blocking me from feeling the spark of creativity that started the story in the first place.

Now I just have to remember this the next time I face a similar dilemma.

Good writing all!

Frustration

Every writer faces that moment where they envision tossing the main character over a cliff...followed by the manuscript.

I'm there.

I want to take Barabin, my sorcerer in Sorcerer's Carnival, and heave him over after beating the living...sigh. Two deep breaths. One long shoulder roll. Unclench teeth.

I am trying the strategy I laid out in the previous post. As you can tell. It isn't working. I am so frustrated, I'm seeing red. (Yes cliche...it's my writing journal and I'll use them if I want)

Okay, okay. Enough with this attitude. I must get back on track here. Somehow.

Am I forcing this story? I've heard that some stories end up being duds. I've have a couple in my time. It's just that I was soooo excited about this one. And the anthology it's slated for sounds very interesting.

I don't know. I feel stuck. I feel that if I don't stick to my guns I will be taking a step back in my "writing-as-a-secondary-career" development. Is it that the story does in fact suck? Or is it that my writing is just sucking in reference to this story right now?

Something to think about.

Good writing all! (Hopefully better then mine right now)