On Inspiration and Delivery: The Creative Process

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Writers sometimes joke that the worst question to get from readers (and one of the most common) is “where do you get your ideas from?”

I recently read Light the Dark, edited by Joe Fassler, (I received a complimentary copy from Penguin editor Sam Raim). One of the cool things about this book is the fact that it has lots of different writers’ thoughts on where they ‘get their ideas from’…and it doesn’t only cover inspiration, but creativity and the artistic process itself.

Inspiration is a tough subject.  It varies from writer to writer. Sometimes, I think, we don’t even realize exactly what inspires or influences us. In Neil Gaiman’s essay, “Random Joy” for the collection, he talks about this:

“It’s like when you put the scraps onto your compost heap: eggshells, and it’s half-eaten turnips, and it’s apple cores, and the like. A year later, it’s black mulch that you can grow stuff in…Trying to figure out what’s influenced you is as difficult as taking the black mulch, and saying this used to be half an apple.”

How can you be sure to collect scraps for your creative compost heap? Although popular advice is to get out of the house and experience life and people, I think we can also get our creative scraps from other books, films, and art–or reading about or watching other people talk about making art.

And we can gather inspiration by slowing down, in general. I remember, as a child, the two characters who fascinated and disturbed me the most were Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (speedy delivery! Always too much in a rush to really visit) and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. The faster the two characters hurried, the more I longed for them to slow down and really experience life. David Mitchell’s essay in the book, “Neglect Everything Else” covers this concept. He receives inspiration from a poem placed above his desk (James Wright’s “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota”.)  The message Mitchell gets from the poem is:

“Stop! Just stop. Calm down, be quiet, and look around. It’s an homage to, and an exhortation of, the act of seeing.“

Jane Smiley in her essay “Nobody Asked You to Write That Novel” says much the same thing about inspiration:

“Dickens was extremely observant…He was observant not just visually, but aurally–he was a practiced eavesdropper. Many moments that the rest of us might pass over, he would note and they would filter into his work.”

So inspiration can be all around us, influencing us all the time and in ways that maybe we don’t even realize. Frequently, I’m drawing on past inspiration to power through my own writing sessions. I rarely sit down to write, filled with the muse’s voice. Most of the time I sit down and it’s more like muscle memory–this is what I do in this very spot every day at this time.  And that works for me 99% of the time.  That’s how I deliver.  It sounded like Angela Flournay also worked this way (this is from her essay, “A Place to Call My Own”):

“I’ve found that, if I focus on doing the work every day, the imagination part starts to take care of itself. The beautiful thing about imagination is how it keeps opening doors for your characters to walk through.”

But what if your delivery process needs some help? David Mitchell also has some tips for that.  His method of making time to write is:

“Part One: Neglect everything else. Part Two: Get Disciplined. Part Three: Keep the Apple homepage, because it’s rather boring.” (Don’t get distracted by the internet.)

Where do you find inspiration? What’s the hardest part for you…the inspiration or the delivery (completing the project)? Have you read “Light the Dark?”

Photo via Visualhunt