Writing is not a complex process. People who say that do not understand what can be called writing. Writing can be scribbles of words in a notebook, it can be snippets and strings of words you find beautiful. It can be a conversation scribed between you and your mom. Writing does not have to be a grand, and formal experience. I do not have to sit by a window overlooking the forest, my leather-bound notebook resting upon a regal mahogany desk, the smell of the Cuban I’m smoking filling the room-- metaphorically of course. Everybody experiences writing in their own way. It is organic and there is no “real way” of writing. I encourage people to write in the way that comes easiest to them. For me, that comes in random tsunami-sized waves. They hit hard and suffocate me in the best way possible. The only thing I can think about is getting the words out of me and onto the page in order to get a breath of fresh air. Dramatic, I know, but nonetheless true. But then other times there are droughts in my consciousness, some would refer to that as “writer’s block”.
I read somewhere that there is no such thing as writer’s block, it is only that your muse is asleep. I find that way of approaching a lack of inspiration true to my style of writing. They are much like people, coming in and out of our lives with ease. Inspiration and the lack thereof, writer’s block, goes hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin and seeking inspiration is the best way of “curing” writer’s block (I write it with the quotations because, as I stated already, I do not believe it exists). There is only a lack of inspiration at hand. The best way to get that inspiration back is to grab life by the balls and do something out of the ordinary.
I personally enjoy getting out of the house and spending time with nature. There is a river and park with an abandoned textile mill on the property near my home. I’d go on hikes and have picnics down on the river with my boyfriend. Spending time with the person I love in a beautiful place almost always gives me a rush of inspiration. I also love to go on adventures into cities and explore the local shops, this can be a rather expensive way of gaining inspiration, but who doesn’t love shopping? I enjoy wandering into local coffee shops, thrift stores, or places that sell crystals. Relaxed, positive energies do wonders for recharging your soul and reinvigorating your inspiration. I also look at art; I watch speedpaint videos on YouTube. There is always something beautiful about watching other people create art. There is so many ways to find inspiration, you just have to break out of your day-to-day schedule.
When that happens, when I do something to reinvigorate your imagination, there’s no longer a desert between my ears. My creative juices fuel my brain into a flowering tropical garden. I once again have the ability to sustain the stories you are creating.
I never really have an issue with starting a work of fiction, it’s always finding the strength to power through the boring sections. When I’m in a situation like that, I like to reread everything I’ve written so far for that piece, sometimes it will remind me of an area of the plot that I wanted to add more, or other scenarios to incorporate. If that fails, I also enjoy researching the topic I’m writing about. I’m very much into the occult-- witches in particular. If my brain is feeling dry with ideas, reading grimoires online, or about different pagan mythologies (anything from Norse to Egyptian) can create a new character, open up a different dimension of the plot or something along those lines.
Overall, writing isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be, a challenge. As a writer, things like research the and constant strive for inspiration should be wired into every one of us. Writing should not be a laborious task. It shouldn’t be painful or exhausting, it should come as naturally as breathing. Granted, sometimes breathing can be difficult-- like when we’ve worked out or something-- writing can also have it’s moments of difficulty. But at the end, we return to our natural state of breathing, or writing, like nothing ever happened. We just got to pop an aspirin-- or go on an adventure.
