As a creative type, I find myself constantly searching for the next bolt of inspiration to strike me. It isn't something that always just happens though, as convenient as that would be. Sometimes it requires a bit of coaxing in order to get the creative process in full swing. So for many years I would sit down at my desk, and would attempt to write. If you want to cull the lightning, it's obvious that you need a storm.
A brain storm, that is (I know you're all collectively groaning—sue me).
For the longest time I found the actual act of sitting down and writing very mundane. Painful, even. It felt like putting a cage around yourself, locking the door and throwing away the key until you got something worthwhile down on paper. Extra points if it sounded pretty. The tune of me rattling my chains against that cage has changed over the years, however. It's merely a matter of filling the empty spaces, and doing the hard work of writing when you aren't actually writing. Hold with me here.
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The world around us is filled with stories; both visible and invisible. We unknowingly draw inspiration from these things on a day to day basis and apply it to the things we write in the subtlest of ways. Cracks in the sidewalk, a strangely-well silhouetted cloud in the sky, your blistered lips; all things that have the potential to ignite that spark within us that compels us all to write and create, yet most of these things pass over our heads and get filed under the mundane and average.
Let me be the one to say that the only thing average about these things is your attitude towards them. The crack could be a daring hero; the cloud a poet. Even your blistered lips could be the subject matter for a 1200-page melodrama, eventually adapted into a Hollywood screenplay (they'd cast either Matt Damon or Kevin Costner as your lips, choose wisely).
When you're out and about living your normal life, write things down. I have an iPod Touch with a Notepad app that I've used for years. Despite my affinity for music, I swear I use that thing more for jotting down ideas than for anything else. Always keep some sort of tool with you that allows you to record information for later. Good ideas get away from you if you aren't prepared to remind yourself somehow later. Some other pointers:
- Eavesdrop on people, listen to the kinds of conversations they have. They will be the voices of your characters.
- Start simple, and expand. Nobody says you have to write The Illiad in one sitting. Homer already did that for us.
- Be specific when you take notes. I can't tell you how many times I've written something down but couldn't remember what the heck I was going on about.
My point here is that the writing is all around us, we need merely drum up the thunder to tackle ideas that seem odd or uninteresting and breath life into them. Doing the hard work and thinking about the possibilities when you aren't physically writing allows you to dial in and really just start tapping away at those keys without having to pause for a moment of mental organizing when you do sit down to do the deed. So the next time you decide to do a bit of word-smithing, stop thinking about the big picture and look at the smaller details. They'll provide you with a world of possibilities.
Or run out into an open field with a metal spoon in your hand toward the sky. Something will strike you eventually.
