Part 3b: Inspiration, Where are You?
Written by: John Mackley
So here I sit. Blank page before me. Contemplating where I might get an inspiration to write about inspiration.
Where does it come from? How can we make it happen? Can we make it happen?
Three a.m. I awake suddenly from deep sleep to a brilliant flash of an idea. There it is, right before me, fully formed, so clear and vivid I could reach out and touch it. But I know that if I don’t scramble out of bed and fumble for a pen and pad to write it down, it will fade as quickly as it came.
Is that an inspiration? A revelation from the heavens? A bolt from the blue?
I have been working on a short story collection of historic fiction set in a small town in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. I must admit that the few ideas that have emitted the 3 a.m. clarion call have proven neither the worst inspirations nor the very best. And they can never be counted on to come through in a pinch when you’re on deadline.
The regular, every day, even mundane flow-of-consciousness inspiration is the sort that I find to be the most reliable and effective in the long run. All the better, it results from a frame of mind that can be cultivated through practice and consistency.
A study by Neuroscientist Oscar Woolnough from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston showed that reading activates two distinct brain networks to interact with each other in order to fully understand the meanings of complex, higher-level sentences.
It is not necessary to comprehend the science to realize that reading cultivates understanding and in turn plays a direct role in our ability to write. It also offers effective inspiration for what to write.
In my own experience, most of my inspirations for stories or articles come from reading. Interestingly enough, it seems to matter less what I read than that I read. The mind has a fascinating way of making connections between apparently unrelated topics. Anything I’m reading can trigger associations with a story or article I’m working on and set me back on the road to writing.
Inspiration comes not just from reading. Movies, television, radio and the internet are treasure troves of ideas and plots. Inspiration for a story line once came from hearing a weather forecast on the radio.
It all comes down to mind-set for me. Whenever possible I eat, drink, sleep and dream the lives of my story characters. I allow them to become real to me, and in no time they begin telling me their stories and all I have to do is faithfully write the
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