Monday, October 10
The writing fairy
Weird how the mood to write comes and goes. People call it inspiration. I find it's mostly energy. Willingness. I probably always have something to say, something I'm thinking about, turning around inside my head. But do I have the patience and the drive to sit down and type it all out in some kind of organized fashion? Not always. That's why I'll go for days without really writing anything down, then all of a sudden I'll write five pages. I imagine the hardest part of being a professional writer would be the discipline involved in making yourself write every day, regardless of how you feel. Like with anything else, discipline converts potential into actual and separates the dreamers from the doers.
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3 comments:
the question is and it's one I've never answered: can you coerce creativity, the elusive muse, to come to your aid through routine and persistence? I'll explain.
In creative writing class in high school, my teacher suggested we write in a journal at the beginning of every class. it didn't matter what we wrote. She even recommended we write only what popped into our heads at that precise moment. Gibberish was fine. No one was going to read or grade it. I don't remember if it really worked to get the creative juices flowing. At the time I didn't much care for what people were trying to teach me. In truth, I probably doodled more than I wrote in that journal.
I definitely think there's something to be said for the discipline to write even if you're not in the mood. It's probably the only way to ever get a novel completed, for instance. But can you force yourself to be in the mood? I dunno.
Maybe it's like getting into shape; you never feel like going out there the first few times and you really do have to force yourself to do it. Then eventually something happens and you feel like you need to exercise and you do so without thinking. It would be interesting to find out if the same idea holds here.
My own theory is that being in good physical condition gives you more energy and more enthusiasm and probably increases the chances you'll feel like writing (or doing anything else). I don't know that forcing yourself to write a lot as 'mental exercise' is the ticket, but I suppose it works for some people. Hard for me to say since I write in some form or other throughout the day, pretty much every day. It's almost compulsive. But that feeling of having something worthwhile to say, and of words coming so easily, still comes and goes.
Come to think of it, you really need to get out and do things to have anything to write about. Travel, intelligent conversation, and inspirational music seem to fire up the imagination and lube the pen. Sitting around in your underwear all day doodling in a journal may get you to produce pages of writing, but that writing is liable to be dull and self-absorbed.
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