Fire

Today I am writing this with a pen in my mouth and a rather glazed look on my face as I wonder what to write. Then I look up at my blog header and it comes to me; ‘You can’t start a fire without a spark’ and I realise that this post is undoubtedly about inspiration.

Inspiration is a strange thing that can happen at any moment with any source. An example of this was my first novel idea came to be at the age of 11 when I was watching the Tweenies, not because I liked them but because I couldn’t find anything else worth watching on the television. Out of that brief moment sprung ‘Sir Bart’ a now unfinished and rather charming first attempt at the art of writing fiction.

I find it interesting that the word Inspiration literally translates to ‘breathed upon’. It is a nice image that comes to mind of an invisible muse leaning in and blowing inspiration into your face. Not all the ideas are good, of course, but that is likely just a case of bad breath.

Just like a actual muse, inspiration comes and goes, sometimes it is possible to become so overwhelmed with inspiration that you can’t even think where to start with it. That is when you start having too many projects to handle and simply don’t know where to concentrate your efforts. Other times ideas seem few and far between and it seems the fire will never be lit again, that the muse will never come back.

Now, I say why wait for the muse to bring you some matches? I would rather continue to write complete drivel for a while than not write at all and, who knows, maybe the drivel with spark a few ideas. It is much easier to be productive when the inspiration is there but it is when it isn’t that you need to be productive.

People are always talking about writer’s block but to me that is just another excuse. I have gone through periods with limited inspiration, sometimes I couldn’t write at all but the moment I really forced myself to try, stopped and considered what I was writing and where I wanted to go with it, it became much easier to plough through.

If you decide you have writer’s block then you are far less likely to be able to continue. It becomes an excuse not to try. I usually just say it is difficult writing at the moment then challenge myself to continue. I imagine it is a similar idea with other kinds of inspiration as well. Rome wasn’t built in a day but it wouldn’t have been built at all if everyone just waited around for the bricks to fall out of the sky.