"August 24th 2008 - Inspiration pt 4", by Stephen Poff. No changes made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode One of the most common questions I get as a writer is: "How often do you write? How much time does it take?" Once I've answered that question, I'm told: "Wow, you must be, like, inspired all the time."
Nope.
Nope, that's not it at all.
I'm not sure where people get the impression that authors have endless amounts of inspiration, but it's a myth I intend to bust in this short article. I think I can remember maybe five moments in my life when I've felt decently inspired and one when I was hugely inspired. Other than that, I labour under the heavy disadvantage of a blank mind.
Let me tell you how I write books. I open a document. I grab a coffee. I check social media. Now that I have four books published, I check my current sales ranks too (which vary from being tolerable to mildly depressing). Then I sit there with my eyes screwed shut and wait to hear something in my head - anything that doesn't sound unforgivably trashy. Once something comes to me, I write it down. Normally I start right in the middle of an action scene, because if I start with a description or a slow winding up of narrative tension, I get too bored to finish the scene. As a result, the book won't get written. So I need something that wallops me in the eye right away, before my eyelids drop shut from sheer disinterest.
Then I write. Some days I write wildly, because I've some partially decent ideas that I'm terrified I'll forget. Often I do. Other days, I push myself to finish a scene. Everything I've just written feels like junk. Sometimes I consider deleting the entire document in disgust or highlighting the last two days' work and pressing the backspace button. I don't because I trust that there's something good in there, somewhere. I just can't feel it at the time.
Writing a book is a bit like trying to pick up manure in a manure-dominated field. You might have done well in your small corner, but you feel no closer to making the place look remotely acceptable. Everywhere you look, there's refuse. That's what writing a book feels like.
Editing a book feels like walking into that same field after working in it the previous day and discovering that there's ten times the manure than before. However, there is one thing that I like about editing, and that's discovering the odd really good bit, which I read in utter disbelief.
"I wrote this? This is actually interesting. And exciting. Ah, cool. Ah, crud. That sentence looks like a twelve-year-old's work."
And on it goes. Many writers work in the knowledge that they will never get to appreciate their improvements, because they're too worried about the ones ahead. I certainly do. I keep writing because I need to. Spiritually, therapeutically, I need to. It helps me clean the muck out of my internal life. My passion in writing is the story. A good story, a beautifully crafted sentence - these two things are beyond price. A serious author will give anything to get to them, even their sanity.
I didn't write all this just to depress any prospective writers (although sometimes this can be fun for the cynical in the profession). I wrote this because my point is there is no better time to start writing than now. If you wait for a golden moment of inspiration, you'll be waiting a long time. Stories favour the thick-skinned and hard-headed. Pursue yours.
Stop waiting. There was never a better time than now.
Nope.
Nope, that's not it at all.
I'm not sure where people get the impression that authors have endless amounts of inspiration, but it's a myth I intend to bust in this short article. I think I can remember maybe five moments in my life when I've felt decently inspired and one when I was hugely inspired. Other than that, I labour under the heavy disadvantage of a blank mind.
Let me tell you how I write books. I open a document. I grab a coffee. I check social media. Now that I have four books published, I check my current sales ranks too (which vary from being tolerable to mildly depressing). Then I sit there with my eyes screwed shut and wait to hear something in my head - anything that doesn't sound unforgivably trashy. Once something comes to me, I write it down. Normally I start right in the middle of an action scene, because if I start with a description or a slow winding up of narrative tension, I get too bored to finish the scene. As a result, the book won't get written. So I need something that wallops me in the eye right away, before my eyelids drop shut from sheer disinterest.
Then I write. Some days I write wildly, because I've some partially decent ideas that I'm terrified I'll forget. Often I do. Other days, I push myself to finish a scene. Everything I've just written feels like junk. Sometimes I consider deleting the entire document in disgust or highlighting the last two days' work and pressing the backspace button. I don't because I trust that there's something good in there, somewhere. I just can't feel it at the time.
Writing a book is a bit like trying to pick up manure in a manure-dominated field. You might have done well in your small corner, but you feel no closer to making the place look remotely acceptable. Everywhere you look, there's refuse. That's what writing a book feels like.
Editing a book feels like walking into that same field after working in it the previous day and discovering that there's ten times the manure than before. However, there is one thing that I like about editing, and that's discovering the odd really good bit, which I read in utter disbelief.
"I wrote this? This is actually interesting. And exciting. Ah, cool. Ah, crud. That sentence looks like a twelve-year-old's work."
And on it goes. Many writers work in the knowledge that they will never get to appreciate their improvements, because they're too worried about the ones ahead. I certainly do. I keep writing because I need to. Spiritually, therapeutically, I need to. It helps me clean the muck out of my internal life. My passion in writing is the story. A good story, a beautifully crafted sentence - these two things are beyond price. A serious author will give anything to get to them, even their sanity.
I didn't write all this just to depress any prospective writers (although sometimes this can be fun for the cynical in the profession). I wrote this because my point is there is no better time to start writing than now. If you wait for a golden moment of inspiration, you'll be waiting a long time. Stories favour the thick-skinned and hard-headed. Pursue yours.
Stop waiting. There was never a better time than now.
