A Search for Inspiration

Being a writer is not an easy thing.  For some people, the idea’s may be plentiful, but the art of putting pen to paper and the magic of turning thoughts into words is simply just too daunting of a task to undertake.  For those who do dive into some form of writing as a form of personal expression (be it blogging, songwriting, poetry, fiction etc) getting your ideas on paper isn’t the hard part, its that whole “getting an idea” that is the hard part. Writers block is a term that is thrown around a lot, and in some cases it is a pretty accurate description.  You sit down, you have your favorite artist playing on the ipod (or if your anything like me, your still stuck in the dark ages and you don’t own an ipod, so your listening to one of your favorite cd’s) You had every intention of sitting down and writing something profound, but instead what came out, (if anything) was a pitiful attempt at the written word, and usually an insult to the American literary movement.  In those times most people just abandon the writing session and move on to doing something else, only to return some time later and knock out the best writing they’ve ever done… Yeah, that’s a perfect world scenario, one that would be great, but all to often its doesn’t happen.  A real world scenario would look a lot like what I tend to go threw when I try to write.  Music is playing, Coffee and Cigarettes acting as my muse as I sit down and….. Nothing!  Nothing comes to mind, nothing comes out, nothing ends up on the page (Yes I still do a lot of writing on actual pen and paper, you should try it some time.) Despite my best attempts I can’t seem to formulate any new writings. Normally in that situation I usually just try to recycle some old ideas, but after a few minutes, you remember why you abandoned these old idea, and I’m right back at square one. Sometimes those recycled ideas may bring you a new flood of inspiration which may result in either a whole new piece, or a new take on the same piece you were working on before.  Either way, you’ve moved past the crippling effects of writers block and you are now well on your way to having a productive session, filled with clever antic dotes, inspiring tales of heroism, or simply an entertaining view of the world around you. Again that’s and ideal scenario, for most though, at the end of the day the same things that were in the recycling bin are still there, except now they are twice as long as they were before, and you still haven’t gotten anything meaningful out of your work.  That is when you know it is the time to start looking at your whole concept of writing from a different perspective (I mean just look at me, I sat down to write, but couldn’t find any inspiration for a new idea, so I just decided to write on the concept of inspiration and writers block and low and behold here I am writing!) A change of perspective is quit possibly one of the most important elements in any good writers arsenal.  Whether its a change of perspective on a particular piece of work, or your change of perspective on writing as a whole. If what you’ve been doing isn’t working then maybe it’s time to try something new!  If you have been working on that short story, and it’s not going anywhere, try writing an album review for your favorite cd, or if that blog of yours is starting to feel watered down, maybe you should try to write a haiku that reflects your lack of inspiration.  Here’s and idea, If you have writers block, write a short story about a writer who is struggling with writers block, how it effects his or her life as well as their writing (lack their of.)  Instead of fighting the lack of inspiration, embrace it, figure out how to use it to your advantage. Now I have to be honest, I’m not the most varied writer, I pretty much just write songs (I’m also a Musician) and I write a lot of opinion pieces.  Maybe that’s why I don’t tend to encounter as much writers block as some people I know (because really, if you have trouble expressing your opinion on something, then you shouldn’t be writing in the first place) but writers block does still attack me from time to time. Most often, rather then try to work threw it and end up with a bunch of writing that feels forced, I’ll just let go and start writing what’s on my mind, letting the words flow out of me like a river, almost uncontrollably.  Sometimes these sessions can go on for hours, and by the time I’m done, I usually have an epic length (and quit unreadable) look into my brain. The final product is usually a mix match of ideas that go from reflections of the past, thoughts from the present, to my hopes and dreams for the future. I’ve never shown any of this kind of writing to anyone.  In fact, in most cases, I usually do these mental purges on the computer, simply so I can delete them when I’m done.  (In fact, a lot of the time I don’t even go back and reread any of it.  I simply let the flood gates open and we are off to the moon.)  When I’m done, I always feel a since of accomplishment.  Sure I may not have anything worth reading on the page/computer screen, but I have conquered my writers block.  From there I normally take a break from writing for a day or two to clear my head, and when I do finally sit down to do some serious writing, I always find it easier to write about whatever topic I previously wanted to touch on.  Or, more commonly, I have something totally new to work on. In either scenario, It feels as if I’ve opened up a door to my muse; and the inspiration flows, and the art of writing feels as natural as breathing. There’s an old saying I’ve heard, “writers write, every day!” Most people misinterpret that statment. Obviously you can’t write your best work everyday, In fact I doubt very seriously I could write material even worth reading everyday, let alone quality work.  But the act of writing everyday will benefit you tremendously, right of the bat.  Sure, you’ll find that your throwing away a lot more stuff then you ever have before, but you’ll also find that your producing more work of better quality then ever before, and that my friends, is worth the price of admission…