Use Creative Inspiration To Make Yourself A Better Writer
You may have heard this quote before…
I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.
The moral of the quote: write even when you don’t feel like writing. If you wait for inspiration to strike, you will never finish a novel or become a serious writer.
And that’s great advice. You should create a writing habit—keyword habit.
That’s how you build up a writing practice and turn that habit into a job, a career, and a passion. You work at it daily, whether you want to or not. You take it seriously and you show up.
But I think in that messaging, a lot of writers forgot that inspiration helps.
For example, I asked this question recently on Quora, relating to my last article, “How do you stay inspired while writing a novel?”
How To Stay Inspired When Writing A Novel
I was surprised at the answers—but to be honest, everyone’s heard the quote above, and I think writers are misapplying it, and perhaps giving poor advice to new writers.
Can you imagine writing an ENTIRE novel with no sense of inspiration? I can’t believe how boring this must be. Clock in, clock out, no passion.
There’s a reason a common piece of advice is to read novels similar to the ones you’re writing.
I’m not sure why people act like they have no control over excitement or creativity or inspiration. There are absolutely things you can do to spur creativity and get yourself re-excited about writing.
For me, I like to surround myself with other pieces of art. For example, I like to…
Read a book.
Take a writing class.
Read poetry.
Watch a movie.
Go to an art gallery.
How could someone say “there is no inspiration.” Have they ever read a poem that moved them to the core? A piece of fiction that called out to be unraveled, to be replicated, that showed you the true power of storytelling, and you just had to create something to parallel to it? Haven’t they ever read some advice on writing, or had a teacher point something out to them, that blew their writerly mind, that made them look forward to the next time they put paper to pen and they could flex their new-found creative muscles—or meant that they had to start right there, in that moment, and create, create, create?
We write because we read writing that inspires us.
If we don’t find inspiration in writing, then why write at all? Why do we do what we do if not for a love of other writing?
That’s why I write, because one day, long ago, I read something I wanted to emulate, and here we are, 2 novels, 1 poetry collection deep.
And I continue to read, every single day, looking for new words and new fiction that inspires me to keep going. That’s not to say I wouldn’t continue if my inspiration well run dry, because I don’t need inspiration, but it sure as hell helps.
I don’t need inspiration, but it sure as hell helps.
Beautiful works of art beget beautiful works of art. It’s a circle. You shouldn’t wait until you are inspired to write. You should create a writing practice that you complete every single day, on schedule, like it’s your job.
But don’t forget, something at some point inspired you to become a writer and it doesn’t hurt to be on the lookout for that something that will keep that fire burning, whether you need it or not.
Ian Canon is the author of It’s A Long Way Down (2018) and Before Oblivion (2017). His second novel What We Do On Weekends is forthcoming. His stories have been featured in The Creative Cafe, Montreal Writes, The Junction, The Sunlight Press, The Spadina Literary Review, Found Polaroids, and he’s been profiled for Vue Magazine.
