Inspiration

A favorite writer of mine, Neil Gaiman, once wrote in the introduction of a collection of short stories - and probably said or wrote it down many times before, and after - about how journalists and suchlike ask him where he gets his stories, and out of exasperation, he started answering each of these questions with "from the back of my head." After a while, he thought it over, and came to the conclusion that, though the answer was given as a sort of a quirky joke, it was the truth. Terry Pratchett, another writer I view rather highly, once said he simply writes down what comes to his head, and then waits for more of the story to arrive. I think he probably means the same thing.

I asked a friend of mine, who writes mostly poems, the same question, although as I write some myself, I knew the stupidity inbred in the question. He blogged about how he writes his poems: you can read his thoughts here. http://samuraikettu.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/4-ohjetta-taiteen-tekijalle-eli-miten-runoni-syntyvat/ The blog is in finnish, so here're the highlights: 1. Find out what you're good at, and use it in your favor. 2. Write a lot. Ridiculously lot. 3. Even bad and mediocre will do. There'll be pearls. 4. Good method is better than good work. After reading his post, and stumbling upon Neil's thoughts again while reading and re-reading his works, I started thinking.

My inspiration has always been sporadic: it's kind of like having a muse that spends most of her time sulking, or teasing by giving fragments of stories. I have some ten beginnings of a story, all different, written down somewhere, waiting for me (or perhaps someone else) to find out how they continue. Sometimes I might write ten stories in five days, while another time I might write three lines and have exhausted my literary givings for the day.

I lamented on the lack of a muse a couple of weeks back. On the same day, I went to town, talked to a friend about it, had an idea of a story where the ancient muses could actually be hired from the yellow pages for one-time kind of jobs. After I got home, I stayed up until four in the morning, writing the story and another one, which already is here: a story currently under the name of Night Gaunts. After this, I began to write something every day. Even if I wasn't feeling creative, even if I felt like writing nothing at all, I wrote: a poem with three lines, a haiku, two random thoughts mashed up together, anything would do. After doing this for a while, I now have more ideas, more musings bubbling inside of me than I've had in perhaps years. This brought me back to an idea I have had earlier, and that Mr. Fox (my friend mentioned earlier, Fox is the alias he goes by everywhere and shall be the one used here), I think, had in his post.

Writing spurs creativity. Writing calls for more writing. The more you write, the easier it is to start. If you write every day, you'll write something good one of those days. If you don't write at all, how could you write anything worthwile? Simply by imposing the compellation of writing something every day on myself, I have began to write different, to write anew. And I do write every day: I have woken up to find a slip of paper on by the bed, or a file on the computer I vaguely remember scribbling or typing in the night. By writing, I write more, and I write better.

I suppose I should draw this to a close by giving some kind of an answer to my question as well. Where does my inspiration come from? My inspiration comes from all my senses, from my feelings, from what I am and see and feel and smell and touch. My inspiration comes from the back of my head. I see the moon, and start thinking what it might see, on it's constant vigil in the sky. I see somebody dance, and think about how I could bind it down to paper. I think that, to write, you need the set of mind for it. Inspiration lurks somewhere in everyone's head: you just need to let it out.