where for art thou inspiration?
What is it and where does it come from? In a job like mine where inspiration is often needed in a hurry I quite often find myself at a loss. Sometimes music will do it while other times a movie or magazine. The more I've thought about it over the years the more it becomes obvious that experience outside your own lazy bubble is required. Even a trip to the beach can do it rather than just sitting inside your house staring at the idiot-box.
One downfall I'm certain of is the forced search for that illusive intangible. It's a-more often than not-pointless task. A little like trying to bail-out a sinking ship with a sieve. Often at times of short deadlines and great pressure i've all but failed due to not being inspired enough. I've rushed out and bought magazines, cds and DVDs hoping to find a spark. Sometimes it worked but often it simply took up more of the precious time I was running low on.
While reading a few authors handy tips to writing I found an almost constant tip. I figure an author will say it better than I will so here's Craig Clevenger's take on it (his website can be found to the right):
Don't wait until you're inspired to write.
Write to become inspired.
Find your own method. If your read enough of books and articles about writing, they start to conflict. One says to work in the morning while your brain is fresh, another says to work in the evening. They're all wrong. Every writer's method is as unique as his or her own work, and you have to find your own-the time of day, longhand vs. typewriter vs. word processor, the sequence of rewrites, etc. Half of writing is finding what method works for you.
I think it's great advice that can be applied to any creative field. Actually sitting down and pushing through the mire can create solutions better than wondering how best to tackle them. Like all great truths it's obviously easier said than done.
quote for the day:
"They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday."
- Robert A. Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
One downfall I'm certain of is the forced search for that illusive intangible. It's a-more often than not-pointless task. A little like trying to bail-out a sinking ship with a sieve. Often at times of short deadlines and great pressure i've all but failed due to not being inspired enough. I've rushed out and bought magazines, cds and DVDs hoping to find a spark. Sometimes it worked but often it simply took up more of the precious time I was running low on.
While reading a few authors handy tips to writing I found an almost constant tip. I figure an author will say it better than I will so here's Craig Clevenger's take on it (his website can be found to the right):
Don't wait until you're inspired to write.
Write to become inspired.
Find your own method. If your read enough of books and articles about writing, they start to conflict. One says to work in the morning while your brain is fresh, another says to work in the evening. They're all wrong. Every writer's method is as unique as his or her own work, and you have to find your own-the time of day, longhand vs. typewriter vs. word processor, the sequence of rewrites, etc. Half of writing is finding what method works for you.
I think it's great advice that can be applied to any creative field. Actually sitting down and pushing through the mire can create solutions better than wondering how best to tackle them. Like all great truths it's obviously easier said than done.
quote for the day:
"They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday."
- Robert A. Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
posted by brent c. airey at 12:40 PM
1 Comments:
I always find a sentence or two from a favorite author can do the trick.
Try Oscar Wilde... Art also does it for me, sometimes it's a sentence sometimes it's a lot more. I think as Kerouac would say "I was born a writer" it comes natural to me, it is a calling and a love...
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