Inspiration and the Creation Process
It’s always said that inspiration is what prompts artists to create great pieces of art. And that’s almost right. A great painting or a great story is the physical depiction of a great idea that the artist or the writer had in his or her mind, an idea that might have been inspired by many different things.
But then the question that bugs me is, should we wait for inspiration? Should we keep searching until we come across that eureka moment when we see that perfect thing that will inspire us to write that great story or poem or to paint that great picture that has been taking form inside us for weeks, months or even years? Probably not.
If you think about the creative process as something that is triggered by an external event then you will most probably never start creating.
Here’s what I think is true:
Our job is to not search for things that would inspire us, it’s to connect things that we have already seen and experienced, that will be a much more powerful driving force. When we sit down every day to write (or to create art, in general), what we are doing is arranging all the random things that we have gathered in our minds so far and then searching for patterns.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.”
– Steve Jobs
Most of the things that had inspired me to write were not readily recognized at first sight. They have stayed in my mind for a long time and then someday, while I am doing something completely different, it would hit me. Mostly it would be arranged with some other ideas or thoughts. Then I would stop for a moment and note it down. Some ideas would be so interesting that I would not be able to summarize them in a piece of paper. So I take my computer and write through.
So what I am trying to tell you is that inspiration is not external. It’s already within you. You just have to dig it up and arrange the pieces. Some of the pieces would be broken after staying for a long time in your memory, but don’t worry save the other pieces for a later time, they might fit with something else.
But of course, to keep creating you will have to keep refilling your well of ideas.
This process is more like putting together a fossilized skeleton. It’s a step by step journey. So taking a few steps daily is very important. And if you abandon the process after a few days you will lose your progress, that’s natural.
So be persistent in your creative process. Do things regularly. And remember if you abandon it half-way, you will lose your progress and will have to start over (except for the skills you have learned, they will be with you forever).
Don’t wait for inspiration, it will never come to you. Instead, go for it, keep learning and trying new things and start putting together the pieces in your head. Do that daily and you will be surprised by the number of great ideas you can come up with.
This article first appeared on The Transcendence Magazine
