How to write: the inspiration stage

Writing projects: the inspiration stage

Recently I was speaking to a man whose wife loved reading fantasy and magic books. She’d read widely in that genre for years and had from time to time said to him “I wish I could write a fantasy book, but I don’t have any imagination.”

He was asking me if I thought that anyone could write and if so how did you get around the not having any imagination challenge.

I asked him if they had children, which they did, now grown up. And then I asked if his wife had made up stories with the children when they were small. Which she had.

So the problem really isn’t lack of imagination. If we watch children, I have a 5 year old great niece, they are full of it. Somehow it often gets beaten out of us as we get older because we have to be sensible and not in my mother’s words, “tell fairy stories”.

But the fairy story was real to me. And I’m sure that to the lady who reads fantasy, the stories are real to her.

I love the quote by Jack London, “I don’t wait for inspiration, I go after it with a club.”

Our imaginations/inspirations are there and simply shifting our focus can open up a whole new world for us. For that man I offered a very simple stimulus for his wife.

“Tell your wife to start with the words, As I walked down the street…”

I’ve used this phrase or a variation of it so many times to kick start my writing. And it works just as well if you’re writing non-fiction. It’s the physical act of writing that generates the inspiration that then generates the writing.

If that doesn’t seem to work then try writing your name and keep writing it until some words come into your mind. Doesn’t at this stage matter much what the words are. What’s important is that you allow them to come uncritically.

Once the flow has started – then you’ll be onto the next challenge.

How to stop!