TheBanyanTree: On Writing

[Monique Colver]

Last night a friend said to my husband about writing: "You have to wait for
inspiration, you can't make it happen, it has to come organically." He was
on speaker phone so I heard it all, and when my husband got off the phone I
said, "Yeah, you can wait for inspiration to strike, if you're a hobbyist
and don't care if you never write."

Inspiration.

Waiting for it to strike is a bit like waiting for a chocolate cake to
arrive at your doorstep, complete with a fork so you don't have to embarrass
yourself by digging in with your hands. It may happen, but it's not likely,
and meanwhile you've spent a lot of time waiting.

Everyone's a writer. At least everyone who is literate. And even some of
those who aren't. Everyone has a story. Just ask anyone, and they'll be
happy to tell you. I recently had a client who apparently finds it
impossible to send me an email. I've asked her to send me emails with
changes she needs made, and instead she has to call me. Calling me is okay,
but I really prefer a written record, which is why I ask for emails. Once
she actually did send me an email, and it was one short sentence, all in
caps, and it was obvious that mental stress was involved. She has a story.
She wants to write about her story. And last week she said to me, "There's a
novel writing class starting soon. I want to take it."

To which I said nothing. I mean, what could I say? "Dear, you can barely
write an email. And besides that, your story is not a novel. It's
nonfiction." I doubt she knows the difference. But everyone has a story, and
everyone knows that if they just took the time to sit down and write it out
(which shouldn't take much time at all), it would be a great story.

The problem is, everyone's waiting for inspiration to strike, for that one
stray bolt of lightning to come down from heaven and lodge itself firmly in
their brains, where it will guide them to feverishly putting down the words.

After all, everyone knows words.

And everyone knows numbers, so everyone can also do what I do.

It's true. Just ask people. They'll tell you they don't need a bookkeeper
because they know numbers. One plus one equals two, and so on and so forth.

Maybe I should have been an electrical engineer. Don't get many people
saying, "Yeah, I could do that, if I wanted to," as if there were nothing to
it.

I don't mind. If they want to make a mess of their books, so be it, they're
not the sort of clients I want anyway. And if they want to wait for
inspiration to strike, they can wait for as long as it takes, no skin off my
nose.

Which is altogether a stupid saying, isn't it?

I've been a hobbyist for years, most of my life anyway. I had a brief spell
as a working writer, by which I mean I forced myself to write about subjects
I didn't necessarily care about, but for which people paid me. Okay, I cared
about the subjects a bit. I care about a lot of things, after all.

But to be a writer and not be a hobbyist, I have to make myself sit down
every day and write. I may not feel like it. Inspiration may elude me. Words
may trickle through my brain haphazardly, waiting in vain for something to
alight on, and I may feel that a rousing good game of Plants vs. Zombies
would be more fun.

Which it would, which is why no one pays me to play Plants vs. Zombies.
(Which is really a shame, because I'm quite good at it.)

Writing as a hobby is fun. I can write when I want, write what I want, and
wait for inspiration to strike. But if I want to be something other than a
hobbyist I have to make myself do it when I feel there's nothing there. And
the thing is, the more I do it, the better I get. See how that works? It's
sort of magical, if by magic you mean effort and time can equal a lovely
finished product.

Inspiration isn't worth the paper it's printed on. But I do find that I can
generate inspiration. If I go through life trying new things, I generate
inspiration. If I keep my options open and my mouth shut, I can summon up
enough inspiration to get me started. Or not, and if not, I can still sit
down and put something down on paper. I can revise, edit, outline, and, if
nothing else, I can make myself write a list of what I want in the next
project. The list takes on a life of its own, and I find myself wanting to
expand on something on the list, and before you know it, I'm writing.

It's different for everyone. I'm inclined toward laziness anyway, so I have
to make sure I put myself to work. I don't always like the work, that's why
it's called work and not play, but at the end of it I can say, "Look at
that, I made that!"

And that makes it all worthwhile, but that's probably just because I'm a
writer.





-- 
Monique Colver