Do You Need Inspiration to Create?
Are you waiting for that bolt of creative lightning?
“Inspiration isn’t about output. Output is what you get when you work at unloading a ship or digging a ditch. Working in a cement factory or whaling centre gives one output. Constructing bridges gives one output. Being a poet isn’t about output.” (Miss Iceland, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir)
Do you agree with that quote?
The words are spoken by a character in the novel I’m reading at the moment. He’s wracked with daily, handwringing guilt over the words he isn’t writing, because he doesn’t feel inspired enough.
Meanwhile, his girlfriend — the novel’s eponymous heroine — writes daily. She doesn’t wait for inspiration to strike; she just gets on with it.
It’s easy to feel that we need a fizzing bolt of creative lightning in order to write a book, compose a song, or paint on canvas. Those things are difficult… they take time, persistence, and huge helpings of mental energy. That’s why finding the right inspiration is so important.
Isn’t it?
I think the promise of inspiration smothers creative potential with a chloroform-soaked cloth, then lets it gently wither away.
