Inspiration

Sometimes inspiration strikes at the darndest times. I was in the middle of taking an exam today when ideas came out of nowhere for one of my novel-length wips. Trying to jot down the thoughts was impossible. I had nothing to write on other than my test paper and that was being turned into my professor. Then, of course I had to concentrate on answering the questions on the test, but it was really difficult to focus on the exam when all I wanted to do was write down the character interaction that was dancing in my mind before I lost it.

It's not the first time story ideas have come to me at an inopportune moment. I've taken to always keeping a small notebook in my car in case inspiration hits me as I am barreling down a highway or stuck at a red light. But I can't keep a note book in the shower, or pull one out during lunch with a friend, or in the middle of coaching gymnastics. So what's a writer to do?

I don't generally lose the entire epiphany, but invariably bits and pieces go unrecalled, leaving holes in what had been a complete thought. Just the way it is I guess. That thought doesn't make losing the muse any less frustrating, but it does support my assumption that every writer undoubtedly experiences the same problem at one time or another.

What makes it more frustrating is that there really isn't any way to change it. How do you prepare for an idea that hasn't actually come, but might, and possibly in the shower? I can't think of a way, but I can't spend too much time pondering it either. I guess it is just a matter of timing and hoping that yours is good. With any luck, the perfect idea will hit at the optimal time.

At least it is something to wish for.

Late Night Write

I love to write late at night. I don't know what it is exactly that I find so pleasing about it. Perhaps it is the quiet of the house, my kid is asleep, no neighbors are mowing their lawns next door, no doorbell rings, even my three dogs are settled and don't come up to nudge me for a treat or a pat on the head. Heck, they rarely even bark this late. So, maybe it is the peacefulness that causes late night writing to be so appealing to me. Maybe it's just that I am more creative at night. I always was a bit of a night owl. Even as a young child I could never fall asleep early. Could also have something to do with my current genre. I am working on two fantasy novel-length fiction manuscripts. Might be that I feel night time is more conducive to writing about my created world replete with non-human characters. Possible I suppose.

Honestly, I am not sure why it is that I seem to always do my best writing after midnight. Editing I do better in the daytime, but my creative writing is definitely a late night pursuit. I do notice that I fall asleep quicker after I have written. As if allowing the characters in my stories to spill onto the page somehow quiets them and allows me to sleep rather than lie awake thinking about what they are going to do next or how they are evolving.

Maybe it is just that I have trained myself that if I am gonna be up late - I may as well write. I know other writers train their creative focus to allow them to pursue writing morning pages. I keep telling myself that I am going to mix it up a little and start getting up early to write rather than stay up late, but there is something about getting up at 6am to write fiction that seems insanely barbaric to me.

For now, I will probably stick with the late night write that I have become so accustomed to. You know what they say; if it ain't broke...

I wonder though if fixing it would actually repair a weakness or cause it to break down all together

Crossing the Finish Line

I never thought that this semester would utterly consume my every waking minute. Had I known though, I don't think I would have changed anything. I'm excelling in all of my classes and can finally see the finish line looming ever closer as the end of the semester draws near. After that I will be taking six classes through summer session, as long as my grant holds. Yeah, I did say six. It's going to be mountains of work but I want to get through to my degree and following summer session I will have only two classes that I need to take to graduate in the spring. The prospect of finishing is both exciting and exhausting. I can't wait to complete my degree, though I know that after I do, life will become more exhausting because I plan to plunge right back into the University. My dream is to earn a doctorate in English and an MFA in creative writing.

It has occurred to me that plodding along through school has not been at all unlike plodding my way through writing my two novel-length fiction works-in-progress. They too present their own set of challenges, sometimes on a daily basis. There have been days when I toy with the idea of abandoning the stories and not finishing. If you write at all then you know what I mean. The days when you're all out of fresh ideas, or you've reread over your material and decided it is terrible, and you have no talent and you might as well throw in the towel and go take a job in retail or some other underappreciated service industry.

But then after the whining and feeling a bit sorry for myself I return to my keyboard and pound out some words.

I have a rule that is working quite nicely for moments like that: I force myself to write 50 words in my manuscript - even if they really make no sense whatsoever. This always works for me, because before I know it, the ideas are flowing again and if nothing more is accomplished at least I feel better afterward because I was able to work through the creative crisis. It reminds me of the way I will push on through schoolwork even if it is something difficult, or far out of my comfort zone.

It gives me some peace realizing that I can work through enormous challenges by myself and that understanding of how I work and why the hell I do it in the first place encourages me to push on through school and my creative writing, because I know if I do, I will eventually cross the finish line.