Inspiration

This is a topic that is very dear to me. Inspiration. See, it’s something that every artist has to struggle with, and one that many artists, especially writers, seem to think is fleeting and difficult to come by. Some think that it is a rare flower that only blossoms when the conditions are right, once or twice a year. Other’s think it is a precious stone, buried deep in the earth, that one has to work hard at digging out before it’s light can be seen. Personally, I think both of these are wrong.

Inspiration is something that all artists need, I am not going to deny this. It’s difficult, if not downright impossible, for me to write a story when there is no inspiration. However, I do not think that inspiration is something that suddenly comes upon me unbidden, or that it is something I have to work hard at. As a writer, my inspiration surrounds me all the time. I wear it, like a jacket, and reach into its deep and endless pockets to draw forth the ideas I need to write my stories.

How, you may ask, do I do this? Where did I find such a wondrous jacket?

I worked hard at it. I made it myself. I drew the material from the experiences and loves of my life and stitched them together to make this wonderful coat. I stuffed the pockets so full with memories and bits and pieces of things I’ve read or seen on TV, as well as personal experiences, that if I were to draw an idea from it once a day for the rest of my life, they would still be filled to bulging.

And the truth is, you wear such a jacket yourself. You just need to learn where the pockets are.

And I think that’s the end of that metaphor. Sorry for going all poetic there, but I was… inspired, I guess. Heh.

Over the years, reading various books on writing, two have really struck me and stick with me about the craft, and the strangest thing is that neither was really about HOW to write. These books are The Artist’s Way and Zen in the Art of Writing. If you don’t have these books, go get them now. I’ll wait.

Back? Good.

In Zen and the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury talks a lot about loves, passions and memories. Those things that we love as children, those things that we are passionate about as adults, combined with the memories of our own lives and experiences are all the inspiration we as writers ever need. We often hear the old adage “Write what you know.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never ridden on the back of a dragon, and I don’t think that Mr. Bradbury has ever walked the sands of Mars. But the people in his books, his characters, were all based on people he knew, in some way or another. His family made it to Mars, to be the basis of many of the characters there. I have often drawn upon personality traits of people I know for characters. In fact, I am doing it deliberately for the fantasy novel I am currently writing. Family, friends, loved ones, enemies. All of them are up for grabs for use as personalities in my novels. Because, that is what I know.

Combine those with the things you love, those things that you are passionate about, and write stories that mix the two. That love and passion will show through, and people will stand up and notice.

The other side of this, and it’s something I’ve learned from Zen in the Art of Writing and from Artist’s Way, is that the story may take a while, several years in fact, to germinate. For example, I have a deep love of Role Playing Games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. I would love to write a story about that love, but what that story is I don’t yet know. I’m sure that one day I will have an idea for a character that will match this love of RPG’s and the story will appear in my head.

But what I’ve learned from Artist’s Way is that I can’t force it. If I do, it will be crap. And I will be exhausted from the effort, and other stories I try to write, unrelated, will also be crap. I need to let the flow happen. And I also need to be good to myself, and take breaks. My well, the pockets of my jacket, need time to refill, regenerate. So, I try to take time off every now and then. Not long periods, mind, a single after noon is fine. I take an Artist’s Date, as described in the book, where I do something I really enjoy and don’t think about writing at all. My mind is relxed, the well refills, and when I return to the writing, I find that the ideas just come to me. Naturally, without struggle, and in a flow, not a sudden blossoming that lasts a short period of time.

So, I use these principles of storing memories and loves, and the idea of taking breaks to refreash my mind, to keep my inspiration up, to keep the flow coming. I never want for ideas, because if I do, I know I have these tools to help me find them again.

So take my advice. Don’t wait for inspiration to happen, and don’t go digging for it as if it were hard work. Let it happen to you, let it flow, and be sure to take breaks from drinking from it, so that it can replenish itself.

Why I am in love with Ray Bradbury

Yes, I said “in love” up there. I’ll explain that in a minute.

Let me start off with my weekly update. Work progresses on my current WIP. I stumbled a little with the bad guy, but I’ve gone back to basics with him and now he’s working much better. I was trying to make him all nuanced and maybe not a real baddie, but it ended up making him really clumsy and uninteresting, so I ditched all that and just went back to him being a bad guy, pure and simple. It’s a little black and white, but the subtleties of his personality came come out later.

I’ve also settled on a short story plot for my submission I plan on making to the Splintered Lands site. I’m rather happy with it. Next step will be to read some of the Splintered Lands stories already written, so I can work mine into it a little better.

On the submission front, I did a single submission this week, which was to send of my novella from NaNoWriMo, The Life and Times of Aries Webb, to a contest. The grand prize is a professional edit from a Del Ray Books editor, and a shot at getting said book published. That would be awesome. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Now, to the title of this little rant of mine. I’ve been reading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury recently, and with what he is saying in there, and the lecture he gave at a Learning Annex I went to a few years back, I’ve realized the secret of his profile writing, and why his stories are always so engaging. Love.

For those of you that know anything about him, this is probably not a shock. He says it all the time. Find out what it is you truly love, he says, and write about it. Find ways to combine things you love. When you were growing up, did you love army movies and dinosaurs? Write a story about WWII soldiers that find a secret Nazi island where they are breeding dinosaurs to fight the allies with. On second though… don’t, that’s an awesome idea, and I may have to use it later.

For him, it was circuses and trains and dinosaurs and Buck Rodgers. These all lead to Something Wicked This Way Comes and the Martian Chronicles and a hundred other stories he’s done over the years.

So, I’ve been thinking about what I love recently. And amid the other things I’ve listed (D&D, video games like Mario Brothers and Zelda, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Hobbit and others) I’ve come to realize that I’ve been in love with fantasy and sci-fi since I was a little boy, when my dad first introduced me to it.

He gave me books like E.E. Doc Smith’s Lensemen, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and a little book called Fahrenheit 451, by a Mr. Ray Bradbury. I realized that along with my love of space ships, laser guns, sword fights and dragons, I was in love with Ray. I’ve been in love with him and his passion since I was a little boy, and I’ve rekindled that love recently with this book. I’m itching to go back through my collection and find the books of his I still have. In addition to Fahrenheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles, I have a few short story collections of his. His passion and his love shows through in his work, and even today, those words of his and that passion of his influences me in my writing.

And what I’ve come to understand is that I want that passion and that love to show through in my writing as well.

Because this is what people are talking about when they say “write what you love, not what will sell.” Because if you love it, and I mean REALLY love it, to the point that you would be willing to break up with your girl friend because she wanted you to stop playing D&D (true story on my part), then that love will show through when you write about it.

So, while I fall in love with Ray all over again, I’m going to keep writing, and hope that my love shows through.

I hope you will too.

Birthday’s and Inspiration

So, yesterday was my birthday. I had a fantastic day, spent with my family. We slept in, went to breakfast at a little café down the street, and then went to the aquarium. I got my gift, a hand made card from my son, and a set of books from my wife, Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury and Steven King’s On Writing. I’m excited about these things.

While we were out at the Aquarium, though, I was reminded of another book on writing I love, the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you have never read it before, I cannot recommend it strongly enough. There is a lot of great advice in there, and the process she describes is great for getting through writers black. Anyway, one of the things she recommends in the book is what she calls an Artist’s Date.

Here’s the basic concept. Once a week, go somewhere, do something, whatever, that’s not related to writing. It’s not housework, or homework, or work work. It’s something fun. Take a walk in the park. Go to the Zoo. Hit the casino. Whatever. What happens is that you let your mind relax, and during this date, something will happen, inspiration will hit, and that thing that problem your having while writing will suddenly have an answer. All while you weren’t even thinking of it.

Sometimes, however, what happens is what happened to me. I discovered a creature at the aquarium that I had never heard of before, never mind see. The sea dragon. I fell in love with this beautiful fish. And the sea horse, too. I learned lots of interesting things about both creatures while there. And you know what? I’m inspired.

I didn’t go there looking for inspiration. I just went to have a good time with my family. And that goal was achieved. But, I also got inspiration as a bonus. Now, I just gotta figure out what the story is that this inspiration is trying to get me to write. I’ll figure it out, I’m sure.

Probably on some other excursion with my family, when I’m not even thinking of it.