No Inspiration? No Excuse.

[interrodactyl]

[Drew]

I do NOT get lazy with my (lack of) writing. How dare you accuse me of using such excuses in order to tell myself that it's okay to be lazy. How. Dare. You.

That being said, I feel that there is and isn't times when we can attribute a lack of creativity to not having the "muse"--which I feel is much more code for 'I didn't have the energy to write somethings that I felt would be worthwhile and thus, to save myself hours of aggravation, I didn't.'

Since the overwhelming majority of us are hobbyists in writing first (and professionals a safe distance down the line, far away from any chance of being paid a livable wage off of the pen), it would be natural for us to prioritize writing as something not absolutely necessary to get done. To use the original author's analogy, we are not surgeons but unlicensed practitioners, that nurse-in-training, or perhaps the college kid in the stock room doing this between classes. Either way, we are not expected to go all-in with the surgeons knife but to play around with antiseptics or anticoagulants or what-have-you. We play with needles, not with knives, but we do try to say that we can play with the knife. Also, we are not usually on-call all of the flippin' week.

Thus, we can work when we're either scheduled to or when we feel like, but it isn't necessary to come in for surgery when-called.

[meristele]

I'd have to say that I don't have a muse. So waiting to write until you feel inspired is kind of like saying you're not going to have sex unless you reach simultaneous orgasms every time.

When I write with depression and fatigue, everything sounds stupid, hopeless, and pathetic. At times like those I write on paper instead of at the keyboard. even if I crumple it and cry to somnolence, I can dig it out of the rubbish the next day. Surprisingly, it's changed into something not half bad.

I think you should write when you feel like it. If you want to achieve a writing goal, you should train to write even if you don't feel like it. I don't know that I will ever write a book.

But after doing the Marrow/Roux combo, I know that if I decide to, I can and will.

[Aarin]

I agree totally with the professionalism required to write full-time, be it for profit or fun. It's not really the mark of greater creativity, and it's not really about 'lowering your standards' for production.

Simply, when I sit down with a problem to solve (narrative), I solve it, be it via not-so-deathless prose or totally-shitty.

The only thing that gets in my way is laziness or real life, never 'writer's block.' I get stuck, but I never attribute that to a lack of inspiration--it's just the simple lack of giving a shit.

My muse responds best to booze and overt threats.

[Hardaker]

Hmm.

I'm not a professional writer, doubt I ever will be. Never actually had a muse to lose, but I have had moments when I realise that the plot, or whatever, that I'm writing has reached incoherence and thus I ditch it. Lately, this has been happening very quickly and the last time (November 2007) was so bad that I actually haven't really written anything worth writing since.

Is this a lack of muse? Writer's block? Or just plain artistic depression?

I'm not even certain this is helping the discussion - that's how artistically depressed I am.

[Random]

[Hardaker]

Ah, no. ^_^

See, the last, what, twelve submissions to a writing forum suffered heavily from being totally unfinished with no clear idea about where the plot was going. Whilst I'm happy to come and ask for help on things like characterisation and how well my writing conveys my idea, I'm not so happy coming on and asking for people to do my work for me regarding making plots make sense. That's my job.

Thus I set myself the target in, oooh, August 2006 of finishing a work before getting critique on it. It would be a 'novel' concept (should that be in the pun off thread?) and would yield, I think, better crit. Besides, like I said, I haven't written anything worth critique since November 2006 (the first NaNoWriMo I took part in and the only one I finished) - and it's not finished. Instead it reachde silly incoherence. I mean, what was I doing trying to shove a complicated spy plot into a sci-fi story about memories, psychic re-evaluation and a coming of age drama about someone who may just be making the whole damn' thing up or living the book she's trying to write. Oh, and struggling with maybe being a lesbian with a friend who may or may not be imaginary. See what I mean? Incoherence! 80,000 bloody words of wank!

[Drew]

Hardaker sounds like a perfectionist~

I acknowledge early that I have neither the patience nor pre-planning to think of and write any longer worded piece. I'm lucky that I can churn out a silly 600 word thing in a year.

I think that if you want to make something, you will. Much of the time you might be able to use real life for inspiration in your work (in fact, people would be crazy not to). Thus, if one idea lingers for too long, your spot in life might have changed to the point that you really can't do much with the idea anymore and it might be time to move on to other ideas.

In other news, HARDAKER! <3 <3 <3 <3

[interrodactyl]

(I claim Drew's 666th post. I don't actually plan to note that anywhere, but it's mine.)

[Hardaker]

I'd settle for being able to think of an ending. Crappy idea or not. That's what holds me up.

As for what inspires etc. Yeah, real life is the best place to go (see my thoughts on fanfiction) but I always find that many of my dreams are good places to start. However, I have learned the hard way that when one reaches the point of altering the dream or altering the plot one should always alter the dream. Dreams don't make sense.

I guess what stops people writing is not so much 'not giving a shit' as Aarin says but something very close to that, more like meristele was saying about working when one feels down. Alas, I find that when I retrieve the crumpled bit of paper, it's still shit.

Meh, the ideas I think are sound, the execution is lacking. Not having an end point doesn't help either.