in⋅spi⋅ra⋅tion
/ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃən/ -noun
an inspiring or animating action or influence
When I write about inspiration, I don’t mean, “Where do you get your ideas?”
I wrote an article about that HERE and it is wholly separate.
I may get great ideas from the newspaper or television or witnessing an exchange between two people on the bus or even from the same secret box Neil Gaiman finds his ideas. You will never know! In the end, though, ideas are powerful but lack longevity; they do not possess the passion to see a book through to the end of its creation. Ideas make up books but books are not produced by ideas alone.
In short, it takes more than an idea to sit at a keyboard every day for a year and produce an entire manuscript.
After all, a great many people have wonderful ideas worthy of being written about, but a great many people also fail to see their ideas through to the end of a project.
Why is that?
I make no secret that I know a few writers. It comes with having worked in a large bookstore, owning a signed book business, attending writing retreats and conferences as well as just being a fan going to local store events. Over the years I have picked up my share of great writing advice, using a great deal of it or rejecting it after discovering it didn’t work for me personally.
Every author I have met says the same thing. Inspiration is one of those things that must be discovered by each individual writer. Some people learn listening to the same music for the duration of writing a book sees the work completed. Some people have actionable routines to drive their creativity—taking a walk or organizing their desk or ensuring every dish in the house is clean. Still others are inspired to write because they have important people in their lives and they simply cannot fail. Everyone is different. Everyone is unique.
I have two different aspects in my home that inspire me. They are very important. Without them I doubt I would have finished Song of the Fell Hammer or The Dark Thorn.
The first is a simple.
Sitting on my desk, along the wall, are hardcover books from one of my favorite writers—Terry Brooks. I admire Terry a great deal for what he has professionally accomplished and having written enough I understand what each of those books represent—the hard work, the sweat, the tears, the fighting with words and characters and editors and even fans at times. Each book was a hard fought battle over at least a year; every book was a dream accomplished.
Emulating that kind of dedication is the essence of writing. I look at those books and I am inspired. They motivate me to sit at my keyboard every day and hit sporadic keys until words, sentences and paragraphs are formed. When I sit down I take one look at them and know I can do this. If I am not feeling particularly in the mood to write and I walk by them, I sit down and open up the chapter I am working on. It simply must happen, even if for only an hour.
If enough hours pass, a book comes into being.
It’s like a physics law or something…
The second of the two inspirations is a bit trickier to explain.
I have been a fan of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King for two decades. The story of Roland Deschain is complex, one of utter sacrifice and passion bordering on obsession. Roland will do whatever it takes to gain his Tower and in so doing surrenders his time, energy and even friends to gain his dream.
In the last year, my Tower was finishing The Dark Thorn. Like Roland, I did what I had to do to give myself a chance of attaining my dream.
My inspiration, however, comes in the form of two framed signed lithographs in my writing space. Michael Whelan, the multiple-Hugo Award winning artist, supplied the cover and interior artwork for the first book and seventh book in the Dark Tower series–The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower. In the two pieces I own, Michael painted Roland in two separate settings, both of which have him gazing at his Tower in the far distance—the gunslinger having a long road in front of him before gaining it.
To me, writing a book is a great deal like Roland staring at the Dark Tower.
Every book he grew closer to it just like every writing day I get closer to completing a manuscript. One painting hangs over my desk and the other faces it. Both are a reminder of what I have to do to finish a book.
I have completed two books like this. I will undoubtedly complete a few more before I am done, the books of Terry Brooks and the paintings of Michael Whelan goading me along every pushed key along the way.
And as I said, every writer has different inspiration. Those are mine.
What is your inspiration?
