This will be the first in a series of posts about (you guessed it) the writing process. I’m not the first or the most qualified to speak on the subject. Then again, this isn’t really going to be a dissertation on how to write, this is my experience with the writing process. My only hope is that I leave you at best a little bit more informed, and at least a little bit more amused. With that said, let’s get started!
Before you write you need something to write about. You need an idea. So that’s step one.
This is the same as regular conversation, actually. You get an idea and you say it to the person. You don’t just go on jabbering without any point (I hope) but you have something to communicate. So it is with writing.
Inspiration is a very funny thing. It strikes at odd moments. You are sitting there with nothing on your mind or your bored or your out for a walk or whatever and suddenly inspiration comes knocking. Wham! Where did that come from?
That’s how it is for me, I’m not doing anything and I get an idea for a story. Specifically it most often happens when I’m doing something unrelated. I once got an idea for a story while looking up a word in a dictionary; actually I think that happened twice. Another time I got an idea for a story looking out at a city at night. I wrote a poem inspired by my glasses being broken and how different it was without them.
There was one time when I was just sitting there and a poem started writing itself in my head, and I had to write it down. Well I would write down a bit and I hardly had to think before the next bit came to mind. After a bit of editing and retouch it was done, all in all it took about twenty minutes. I got an award for that poem; that was one of my favorites. But to this day I had no idea what inspired that poem, it was just out of the blue!
So you need an idea. And I'm not just talking about getting some great story in mind, what's the idea behind the story? Why tell that story? Now don't get all introverted and defensive as to why your story should be told, it's a really good one. I'm the first to think so. But it needs a point, a purpose, something to make it worth while for the reader.
You can have the greatest plot ever, just an intricate masterpeice, but just a plot, no message behind it. And no one's going to read that, just no one. That's not just opinion (well yes it is, but shush), think and see if you can come up with one really great story that didn't have a message behind it? Uh-huh, told ya, story needs a message.
So how do you get inspired anyway?
As a writer you aren’t limited in your scope of what you can write about. There aren’t any limits. Why, I have confidence that you, this very minute, could sit down and find something and have it inspire you, no matter what it was. You could pick out something, anything, in the room and write a story about it, just get the plot and the message behind it and have it be a really good one and it wouldn't take you any time at all to do. You could do this, your imagination’s the only limit and imagination muscles were meant to be stretched every once in awhile!
Some of my favorite things to do to get inspired:
1. See some really great art! Nothing like it, get your hands on some real awe-inspiring stuff. Just take your breath away kind of works. A really great painting, or a song, or a story, whatever it is. Obviously you don't steal the other person's work, but you can get some really great inspiration this way.
My favorite story is Alice In Wonderland. Great story, all about a world completely created by a little girl which has the most fun and insouciant attitude I've ever seen. Wonderful stuff, I apply that attitude to life, of creating my own world based on my ideas, because it makes life more fun and encourages me to use my imagination when I write. The story inspires me to create, on and off the printed page, and so I call it my favorite.
2. Get a good night's sleep! Ever had a dream, bizzare as it was, that gave you an idea? Or maybe during that point between waking and sleeping you suddenly get some inkling of a story line or something. Even more so, just writing on a full night's sleep can be a wondrous thing. Have you tried writing when you're dead tired? Yeah, sometimes you get inspiration striking at the weirdest times and you gotta sit down and write it out. Then again, after a good night's sleep you get the rest of it easy in your head and you find you can write it out clearly. Fully rested = clear head = good story = more pay for you as a writer!
3. Talk to your friends! Important, if your mind's all in a twist and you can't get your fingers to hit the keys then you gotta cheer up! Sure you could push through it, grind out the wordage till your gears get loose again. Then again, why suffer? If you have some friends who are writers, or even just friends, then go have a get together. This is great if you don't have any story on the drawing board, you can walk away with six or seven of em!
4. Take a walk! My personal favorite, by far. You get so much space this way, just go for a walk and look around. I'd say most of my ideas have come from this. There's nothing I like more than a good walk to clear out my universe and make it my own, especially at night.
In summary, go out, get inspired, get a good idea, make a story out of it. Hope I've inspired you.
CME
Note: This blog post was inspired by numerous great artistic works, a good night's sleep and the author's self-imposed deadline for updating his blog.
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