{"id":24,"date":"2015-01-09T15:19:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T15:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2015-01-09T15:19:30","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T15:19:30","slug":"the-author-ly-myth-of-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/09\/the-author-ly-myth-of-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"The Author-ly Myth of ‘Inspiration’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s easy to romanticize a writer’s\u00a0task, to picture a thoughtful master stroking his whiskers whilst penning transcendent, world-altering prose. \u00a0Sure, that may have happened to\u00a0me for twelve-and-a-half minutes Monday morning, but what about the bulk of novel\u00a0writing? \u00a0Everyone knows that you can’t write a book\u00a0in twelve-and-a-half minutes (unless you’re Bradley Cooper from LIMITLESS).<\/p>\n

It boils down to this: writing is hard work.<\/p>\n

Some days are like Monday morning, where the words almost write themselves and nothing can go wrong and farts smell like flowers. \u00a0Then there are days like later that Monday morning (twelve\u00a0minutes and thirty-one seconds\u00a0later, if you were wondering), where even the task of putting 150 words onto a page is\u00a0more dauntingly difficult than swallowing a watermelon whole. \u00a0Twice.<\/p>\n

Writing is certainly enjoyable, but I’m also trying to make it my job. \u00a0And that means work, every day, despite the presence of inspiration, or lack thereof. \u00a0So when you picture a writer as that\u00a0<\/em>guy who sits at Starbucks\u00ae<\/b> sipping his Flat White\u00ae<\/b>, waiting for divine inspiration to fill his blank word document, please know that I’m going to try to slap you through the internet. \u00a0And I’m not gonna feel bad about it.<\/p>\n

All this does is make inspiration more worthy of celebration, because it’s the exception, not the rule. \u00a0Inspired writing\u00a0is like scoring\u00a0a strike even though you bowled the ball backward and between your legs. \u00a0Or, with a more mundane example, hitting a perfect swing in golf. \u00a0That feeling is amazing, and it’s what keeps me coming back even though the next ten thousand swings are going to be painfully lacking. \u00a0Writers don’t wait for inspiration; They work until they find it.<\/p>\n

\"Mountains!!\"<\/a>
Mountains!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Understanding all of\u00a0this, try to imagine walking into a bookstore. \u00a0Those thousands of books didn’t just\u00a0appear<\/em> overnight. \u00a0In some cases, that single tome\u00a0sequestered on an obscure back shelf represents a real person’s\u00a0entire lifetime of work<\/em>. \u00a0The hours of invested work represented in those books is a testament to the awesome things humans can accomplish.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, after I’ve spent an hour or two working on a single paragraph of text, I wonder–in utter futility–whether or not this particular section of text will stand out. \u00a0Will it be as important to the reader as it was to me when I finessed it? \u00a0Of course not! \u00a0And it shouldn’t<\/strong> be. \u00a0If everything goes well, my readers might\u00a0enjoy the apt metaphor and continue\u00a0on, rightfully oblivious of the hours of time that went into weighing and discarding each word. \u00a0Because in good writing, fluidity is the norm, which is only achieved after many hours of hard work.<\/p>\n

So, whatever you read next, put yourself in the shoes of the writer for just a moment. \u00a0Don’t slow down, but be thankful of the work–both hard and inspired–that had to be put into the product before you. \u00a0And remember, without hard work, every book might\u00a0read\u00a0like this: \u00a0“The weather beaten trail wound ahead into the dust racked climes of the baren land which dominates large portions of the Norgolian empire. Age worn hoof prints smothered by the sifting sands of time shone dully against the dust splattered crust of earth. The tireless sun cast its parching rays of incandescense from overhead, half way through its daily revolution. Small rodents scampered about, occupying themselves in the daily accomplishments of their dismal lives. Dust sprayed over three heaving mounts in blinding clouds, while they bore the burdonsome cargoes of their struggling overseers.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Prepare to embrace your creators in the stygian haunts of hell, barbarian”, gasped the first soldier.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Only after you have kissed the fleeting stead of death, wretch!” returned Grignr.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The above paragraphs are\u00a0taken from\u00a0THE EYE OF ARGUS by Jim Theis, enthusiastically considered one of the worst fantasy tales of all time.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. \u00a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So when you picture a writer as that guy who sits at Starbucks\u00ae sipping his Flat White\u00ae, waiting for divine inspiration to fill his blank word document, please know that I’m going to try to slap you through the internet. And I’m not gonna feel bad about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[21,50,52],"tags":[65,94,113,135,148,200,204],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":934,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/04\/18\/workout-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":0},"title":"Workout Time","date":"April 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like to borrow a tired chich\u00e9 from my music education experience, which is that the \"practice makes perfect\" mantra is misleading. Practice makes permanent is more often true. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Which raises the question: how does one practice writing?","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":607,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/03\/07\/processing-processes\/","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":1},"title":"Processing Processes","date":"March 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"According to me, there are at least 100,000 known writing strategies. \u00a0Maybe even more (and that's why we shouldn't destroy the rain forest). \u00a0Working at a college writing center has really opened up my eyes to all sorts of writing processes that professors recommend, and even though most of them\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Inner Critic\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/04\/22\/writing-and-exercise-similar\/","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":2},"title":"Writing and Exercise: Similar?","date":"April 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In order to avoid betraying my utter ignorance, I'll speak in vague generalities: if you're walking or running efficiently, your body works a bit like a pendulum, swinging (not forcing) itself forward. I feel that I could run or walk for hours and never get tired when I'm running or\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Daily Word Count\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}