A few weeks ago I saw this on Twitter—“Inspiration is for amateurs. Real writers write.”—and (as we say in the South) it just about made me lose my religion. Meaning it made me so furious I ranted about it on Facebook.
What in the world is this person talking about? And what do ridiculous pronouncements like this do to people who are earnestly trying to write? Gaaaah!
Oh, I have an idea what he might mean. You need measurable output if you’re going to call yourself a writer. The whole butt-in-the-chair, ten thousand–hours thing. Word count.
I get that. Back when I was still at work in the corporate world but copywriting on the side for extra income, I used to try to make sure I had a weekend before the deadline—because I was convinced I did my best, most creative writing in the morning.* I needed that Saturday morning. When I went freelance, I figured out that I could write any time—because I had to.
Or as novelist Chuck Wendig notes in a post with tips for creativity,
Work through fear. Work begets work begets skill begets talent. You build confidence by doing. Riding a bike for the first time is scary. Riding a bike for the seventh time, less so. The 70th time? Not at all. Art is not so plain as that—some fear will always be present, and doubt will forever be a goblin in your pocket. And some of that is good: it keeps you moving, keeps you making and working. But the way through is always to do, do, do.
(It’s a great article, but take note, Wendig uses strong language.)
The thing is, kids, you can’t create—write—without some sort of inspiration. Inspiration (an idea) is the thing that brings you to the keyboard, for heaven’s sake! You get that inspiration, sometimes, by hard work, as Chuck Wendig suggests. Sometimes you get it from what (in the privacy of my own head) I call “good thinking,” which sometimes looks like procrastination, but is that place of relaxed, creative thinking that is most useful for a project.
Years ago I needed some kind of white noise to get to that place—what worked for me was Gregorian chant. It both turned my mind off (all the need-to-do stuff) and turned it on to creative problem solving. See, you need something to occupy (distract) the parent so the child can play. (This is discussed in more detail in my post called The Waiting Is the Hardest Part.)
Nowadays I just get in the car. I live in a smallish historic town southeast of Nashville. For years and years I commuted to a publishing company there, so I still have lots of connections in Music City. I drive in probably once every ten days. And the minute I get behind the wheel, it’s like magic—some edit I’ve been working on becomes crystal clear and I see the key that’s been eluding me. Some people clean house, wash the dishes, take a shower (that one works for me too). But I drive.
Now, I don’t know what you call them, but I call ’em moments of inspiration. Sure, I’ve prepared the ground. Or, as Julia Cameron says in her book The Artist’s Way,
In order to create, we draw from our inner well. The inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well-stocked trout pond. … Overtapping the well, like overfishing the pond, leaves us with diminished resources. … As [creatives], we must learn to be self-nourishing. …
Art [any creative endeavor] is an act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the [many types of creativity] live just under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas that we can tap down into. We hear what’s down there and we act on it … We can learn not only to listen but also to hear with increasing accuracy that inspired, intuitive voice that says, “Do this, try this, say this …”**
The Twitter twerp who annoyed me so is not too long out of college and—though he claims to be a writing expert—is mistaking a bold statement that sounds like … something something … for Actual Writing Truth. Me, I’m certain inspiration plays a part in writing. I would say uninspired writing is for amateurs. Real writers know how to reliably access inspiration, day after day. Try it.
* Most of these articles for the blog are written after eight o’clock at night. But I get the inspiration for them at all times of day. Sometimes, you know, when I’m watching my Twitter feed. 🙂
** Transcribed by me from my personal tenth anniversary copy (paperback) of The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1992, 2002), from pages 20–21 and 118.
Tweet: Don’t mistake a bold statement that sounds like … something something … for Actual Writing Truth.
Tweet: Uninspired writing is for amateurs. Real writers know how to find inspiration, day after day.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”