Worldbuilding Wednesday #61: Random Inspiration Rant

Welcome back to another Worldbuilding Wednesday! Today’s a little different because I felt inspired to rant about something that’s been bugging me. Kind of a lot.

What’s that? ‘Inspiration’ and how people think writing works. Rantypants under the cut because well, this does get me annoyed.

Work with me for a little bit, okay? I need to set this up.

When I was young I thought about being a musician. This was before I realized that I had a hearing loss (which wasn’t discovered until I was 14). So my parents got me a lovely wooden recorder, which I still have tucked away, and got me sheet music and lessons on how to play it.

Every day I would pull out my recorder, make sure it was in good condition and I’d plink away at learning to play simple songs. I never did get very good at it. Hearing losses affect you even when you’re not aware of them. But I practiced and tried and eventually realized that nope, I’m not made to be a musician. Oh well, so be it. I can still enjoy music. Mostly.

I love art, too, so I took lots of art classes in high school. It was a great elective and I tried all sorts of art, from sculpting (good with soft media like wax, not good with hard media like soapstone) to watercolor (hard!) to oils (wow, I can make great mud colors! *groan*) to sketching and ink washes. I can make some really beautiful abstract watercolor + ink paintings.

Still, I wasn’t terribly good at it and though I knew that I could improve if I practiced and studied in a focused manner, it wasn’t as interesting to me as writing. So my art remains a hobby that I piddle at when the mood strikes me. That’s generally oh, every month or two for a few days at a time.

My art has not improved in any objective sense in over 25 years.

Remember this.

At about the same time as I was exploring various sorts of art, I started writing. Once again, I was not one of those ‘naturally talented’ writers who have a gift for crafting prose. Truly, I was adequate at some things, dialog, occasional bits of description, but plot, characterization, creating an actual story? Mmm, not so good. There was potential but nothing about me screamed ‘this is a great writer!’

The thing is, I decided I wanted to write.

I decided that it was important to me that I learn writing, that I figure out how to craft good stories, good characters. So I wrote things in high school and then went to college and took Creative Writing. I did the workshop thing and listened to people’s advice and well.

I studied. I read. I learned.

Just as I had with music and art, I realized that if I wanted to be better at writing I needed to work at it. Writing has a bunch of skills that you need to work on to be good at it. It’s not something that comes forth with no effort at all.

I practiced.

Which, according to about 98% of the advice I’ve gotten from non-writers, is exactly the wrong thing to do. *very deep, very annoyed sigh*

In the last couple of weeks I got hit in the forehead again with that dreaded and very irritating phrase “oh, I really don’t think you should force yourself to write that way! The story will be so much better if you want for inspiration.”

You should picture a disbelieving stare followed by rolled eyes and then a grumpy grumble right here.

I don’t know why people say this. I really, truly don’t. It just doesn’t make sense!

If you went up to a concert pianist and praised their skill, they’d be proud and happy, I’m sure. And then if you said something on the order of ‘I’m so in awe at your inspiration to create music’ they’ll probably look at you funny. If you then continue with ‘I never managed to do more than toot on a recorder’ I’m pretty sure they’re going to ask ‘did you practice every day?’

Because that’s how a concert pianist gets to be a concert pianist. They practice. They work long hours training their ears and hands and eyes to create music.

A NFL football player didn’t pick up a football and then get a contract right away. No, they start playing as kids and practice and work and build their skills over time. It’s a skill that that they build along with building their bodies.

Famous artists practice. They paint and they paint and they paint. A master electrician will spend years learning his craft.

Look at any artistic, scientific or craft-based discipline and you’ll find that people spend years developing their skills and those years include practice and study every single day.

Why is writing different? How is writing different?

If a person wants to be a better writer then they have to spend time writing. There is no getting around it. Any writer, every writer, has to practice putting words on the page.

Just like an artist who creates painting after painting after painting, a writer creates story after story after story. Every time a writer sits down at their desk they have the opportunity to pull words out of their hearts and souls to create something that will move other people. Every day is a new chance to create something beautiful.

But damn it all, if you wait for that magical moment of ‘inspiration’ that people talk about, you’re not going to be able to do it when inspiration strikes!

You’ll be like a runner who had a broken leg tying their shoes and trying to run a marathon. It will feel like you’ve suddenly put boxing gloves on your hands and now you have to sew a hem by hand.

Writing is a skill. It’s something that you build over time. If you don’t do it on a regular basis you’re going to lose that skill bit by bit so that when ‘inspiration’ hits you won’t remember what you need to do. The skills will be rusty and you’ll struggle to find the words you need.

This is something I’ve experienced. I’ve stopped writing for a day, a week, a month. There was one two-year period where I wrote absolutely nothing at all. A day is easy to get over. A week makes me feel as though I’m wearing new high heeled shoes and trying to walk on a cobblestone street (not fun, BTW, do not recommend). The time I went a month without writing made me feel as though I had never in my entire life written anything once I went back to it. It took another two or three months of daily writing to get back to where I had been before the stoppage.

And that two year writer’s block?

I had to relearn everything from the ground up.

So I’m quite serious when I say that ‘waiting for inspiration’ is, in my personal opinion, the absolute worst advice anyone could ever give to a writer.

Never wait for inspiration. Never! Sit down at your desk every single day, even if you only have five minutes. Get words on the page. I don’t care if it’s one sentence, one paragraph. You could get five words every day and I’d be proud of you.

Take five minutes in the morning, ten minutes at break. Write at lunch. Scribble on your napkin during dinner (always providing it won’t annoy anyone you’re eating with). Write while commuting. Dictate stories to yourself. Write before bedtime.

Steal every single moment you can to put words on the page because every time you do it you’ll improve your skills and that’s important.

Read! Every sort of story that you can get your hands on, even ones that you hate. You’ll see things not to do as well as things that work well and reading, learning from other writers is so vital.

Don’t worry what anyone else will think of your stories. Try to write for yourself first of all. Just write. Write all the time. You will get better, I promise.

(And if you want to work on plotting, go check out the Lester Dent Plot Formula. It’s written in pulp language but applies to pretty much every story ever. Need help on drawing readers into the story? Spend the first 200-500 words of the story giving zero plot while putting in all five senses through the POV character’s perspective. Be sure to give that character’s opinion of every single sense and detail. Trouble with keeping people reading? Work on your cliffhangers. Good cliffhangers, not all of which should be physical, will draw readers right along. Anything you’re having problems with in your writing can be worked on, can be practiced!)

Enough ranting. I need to get to work.

I hope that you enjoyed reading this. Please do ask questions if you have any. I like sharing my world building but writing these takes time away from writing stories that I could publish. Thus, it would be greatly appreciated if you would consider leaving a donation. All money received goes toward keeping me writing and posting these columns. Thank you very much!