Day 11
1 hr writing-related walk (inc. planning) + 1 hr planned writing
+ 10 mins gratitude journal (last one)
Part II begins with a dive into the question of inspiration.
How does inspiration work?
Does it come to you, or do you cultivate it?
Is it gifted, or is it found?
What does it even mean?
Okay, that last question was my own, and I would like to do a post on that question one day, because I think inspiration is an umbrella term we get unnecessarily confused and worked up about.
But today we are concentrating more on how it operates; do we need to wait to be inspired to write, or do we need to write to find inspiration?
Personally, I cannot begin a project unless I am inspired. There is no project, unless I am inspired. But inspiration is the first flush of love; it must eventually take its place among other more sustainable feelings. In the end, it’s not been inspiration which holds a project, or a writing routine, together.
As Jacqui emphasised in Part I, so much of writing is about committing regularly; not waiting for the “perfect moment”. That’s like “waiting for fitness”. We’ve got to get to our writing place on the regular, and apply ourselves, to expect those inspired moments to come again. And when they do, they can be extremely valuable.
So, inspiration is both the initial drive which gets you writing, and the occasional reward for continuing. In between is work.
Today Jacqui sets us a classic exercise for helping find inspiration: a good old-fashioned walk.
Exercise
- Take a walk to pose and answer a question about a problem you can’t seem to fix (I included my usual 30 mins planning in this)
- 1,000 words: write the scene in question
- Day 7 of gratitude journal (last one)
My response
- I am someone whose thinking is improved by movement, so being asked to go for a walk to consider a scene was very welcome. I found the answer to what I needed within 5 mins – amazing what happens when I concentrate instead of thinking “it’s too hard”(!) The rest of the walk I indulged some other ideas and listened to music matching the aesthetic of the story.
- Because I had already rehearsed a lot of the scene on the walk, the 1,000 words felt like “writing up” rather than “making up” – which is always a more enjoyable and fluent experience for me.
- My random tip for today: light a candle while you write. It’s very cheering. You get a nice warm glow, and the satisfaction of blowing it out afterwards.
all course content copyright Jacqui Lofthouse thewritingcoach.co.uk