What is inspiration? Loosely it means stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity. Literally, the word inspiration means breathed upon. Sounds a little strange at first, but think about it. If someone breathes in your ear, the hair goes up on the back of your neck and your skin tingles. For someone, like me, who writes romances, that sounds right up my alley.
But where do you get inspiration? Perhaps from the oft credited, yet never seen muses? More grownups seem to believe in these wearers of long gauzy gowns than ever believed in the fat bearded one as children. I'd hire PR person the spot, because for women who don’t get out much, everybody knows who they are. Well, sort of, because, basically, there’s only nine muses (ten if you count Sappho) and how many writers in the world? I don’t know much about math, but well, that just doesn’t add up to me.
Back to inspiration, how do you make sure it’s the good kind of breath? Let’s face it, those muses are busy creatures, they’d find it amusing (pun intended) to give your work a little halitosis. While you're scrambling around freshening it up, they'd be free to finally finish their own novels.
Now that I've uncovered the muses' plots to dominate the writing world, blogging may be the only writing I’ll ever do again, somehow, I don’t think so. Inspiration comes from within, from without, from all around. Music, movies, the people I meet on the street are fodder for what I write. What doesn’t inspire me is an easier to question to ask. The answer is, nothing yet. Even silence does, because I find that it makes my thoughts start to whirl just to fill it. So, whether you’re an artist, an author, a singer, songwriter, poet, or the person who cleans the toilets at the local McDonald’s, everybody needs something to inspire you to do your best. Find out what it is, and go with it.
But where do you get inspiration? Perhaps from the oft credited, yet never seen muses? More grownups seem to believe in these wearers of long gauzy gowns than ever believed in the fat bearded one as children. I'd hire PR person the spot, because for women who don’t get out much, everybody knows who they are. Well, sort of, because, basically, there’s only nine muses (ten if you count Sappho) and how many writers in the world? I don’t know much about math, but well, that just doesn’t add up to me.
Back to inspiration, how do you make sure it’s the good kind of breath? Let’s face it, those muses are busy creatures, they’d find it amusing (pun intended) to give your work a little halitosis. While you're scrambling around freshening it up, they'd be free to finally finish their own novels.
Now that I've uncovered the muses' plots to dominate the writing world, blogging may be the only writing I’ll ever do again, somehow, I don’t think so. Inspiration comes from within, from without, from all around. Music, movies, the people I meet on the street are fodder for what I write. What doesn’t inspire me is an easier to question to ask. The answer is, nothing yet. Even silence does, because I find that it makes my thoughts start to whirl just to fill it. So, whether you’re an artist, an author, a singer, songwriter, poet, or the person who cleans the toilets at the local McDonald’s, everybody needs something to inspire you to do your best. Find out what it is, and go with it.
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