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Monday, January 25, 2010

Inspiration

Ah, inspiration. Something that writers have very different views on. I've read numerous articles with authors who said they would never had published anything if they sat around waiting for inspiration. I have usually scoffed at those articles, refusing to believe that a person could write anything worthwhile without some sort of inspiration.
Recently, a writer friend of mine mentioned how sometimes it's best when you come back to your writing project and find that you've left yourself in a boring spot. You have to really be inventive to get the story back on track. I agreed wholeheartedly but still felt that, personally, I couldn't come out of those situations with any sort of quality writing. This all changed the last time I sat down to write.
I had, unfortunately, left myself without a cliffhanger. I had the rare opportunity to write in the late afternoon and I didn't want to squander it on Facebook. (ahhh Facebook, enemy of procrastinating writers everywhere). Anyway, as I was trying to figure out a way to get out of the story doldrums inspiration struck me a mighty blow. A scene I had crafted years before came to me in an electrified form and set my story on fire. Everything fell into place and I typed furiously for 2 glorious, uninterrupted hours, and easily completed two chapters. I would have loved to continue from there, but the baby woke up, my husband came home with our daughter, and the spark was snuffed by reality.
The experience taught me that my friend was very wise when he said the dreary scenes can lead to inventiveness, out of necessity. Of course, once the first draft is completed, I will revise and delete the dreary scenes. If they don't grab me, they certainly won't grab my readers, but that's a story for another time. For now, I have completed my writing goal for January, even managed to sneak a little ahead of the plan. 36 chapters are complete. 13 remain. This is inspiring news for sure!

2 comments:

  1. A book and a blog!?!?! I have trouble just writing a 400 word blog post about tea... You're a rockstar!

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  2. Inspiration may seem spur of the moment, but I think it is more often a look at something which has been percolating in the swamp of the subconscious for some time.

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