How does inspiration tend to hit you?
Do you have a certain playlist of music that you put on to get into the writing mindset? Perhaps you have several playlists saved for different scenes of your stories, to set certain types of mood. Maybe you’re the type who is able to stick on a favorite movie, letting the familiar lines serve as comfortable background noise as you type away. Or are you the type of writer who needs noise-cancelling headphones to work in complete silence?
Perhaps your inspiration is trained to turn on at a certain time or place. Six o’clock in the morning at the desk in the den. Ten PM on the sofa in the living room. Two thirty-six in the afternoon on your bed with your favorite pillow behind you and your laptop resting on your legs.
Or maybe it’s not the inspiration that allows you to write a blessedly easy two thousand words in a sitting… Perhaps it’s just you pushing through the imaginary writer’s block, saying to hell with waiting for so-called inspiration.
Does your hard work come from inspiration or does your inspiration come from hard work?
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Ndrw
May 17, 2017 at 5:53 pm
I often find, on the rare occasions I am spontaneously struck with a wave of “inspiration”, it completely robs me of my inclination to work. On the other hand, forcing myself to write something — anything — often leads to some of my most useful material.
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Kris P.
May 18, 2017 at 9:32 am
Huh, that’s an interesting take on inspiration… by the sounds of it, though, you make your own inspiration by working hard. 🙂
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Ndrw
May 18, 2017 at 6:35 pm
Absolutely 🙂 the trouble I have with ideas spontaneously popping into my head is that I tend to just kind of sit and enjoy them, but when I come to actually WORK on them, I tend to get frustrated by them when I realise they’re not quite as wonderful on paper as they were in my head. Inspiration that comes about as a result of hard work on the other hand is fruitful and rewarding.
Usually. 😀
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JunkChuck
May 17, 2017 at 6:01 pm
It’s not a specific list, but older favorites are better, stuff I know my heart. Genre is irrelevant. Old bootlegs of Grateful Dead, or Sonic Youth. The Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime plays a lot. Or maybe boring electronica, like Porttishead. What I go for is something that buffers me from the outside world but doesn’t pique my curiosity and provide a distraction of its own.
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Kris P.
May 18, 2017 at 9:31 am
The last sentence of your comment is gold. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
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