Thomas Edison was to have said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Apparently, he made 1,000 failed attempts to invent the light bulb. After accomplishing it, he was asked about all the previous failures. Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
The exercise of writing can be somewhat similar. If you wait for inspiration before you write, you might be waiting a long time. If things have to be perfect for creativity to commence, the desk arranged in a certain way, the lighting just right, the surroundings quiet or specific music playing, the dog asleep, the children elsewhere, the spouse distracted, the door closed … you might never write another word.
It is often the simple practice of putting words on the page where inspiration is found. It can be a delight when it happens!
The Slog
The career writer knows to approach writing as a job. A task to complete. It is in the middle of a long project where things can bog down. You are tired of this project. Nothing brilliant is coming to mind. No great anecdote. No great story twist. Just blah, blah, blah.
Amazing how this is a universal experience for writers. I hear it again and again.
Embrace this slothlike walk through your book as normal. But walk you must. Otherwise, you’ll never finish.
Finding the Diamond
A few years ago, a 121-carat diamond was found in a South Africa mine. Imagine the tons of dirt and rock that were sifted to find that gem. In the same way, you will comb through your finished manuscript and discover many pieces of inspired writing. The key is to begin eliminating the sections that are not so gemlike.
I recall working with the late Calvin Miller on his great book Into the Depths of God. We were in his home office reading his manuscript out loud to each other. I read one page and Calvin exclaimed, “What does that mean?” I replied, “How would I know? You wrote it!” Calvin laughed and said, “That was terrible, cut it out and throw it away.” In the end, nearly one-third of what this genius writer had created was left on the editing floor. What was left was the best.
So, which is it?
I believe inspiration is the heart of what makes a writer write. It is an idea, an experience, a story: something that sparks a passion to write it down. Otherwise, writing becomes an assignment like school, where it is an obligation or a requirement.
At the same time, without hard work, the book is never completed. But just because it is complete doesn’t necessarily mean it is genius. It only means it is complete. The determination of its commercial value or its literary quality is another conversation for another day.
Thus, it isn’t an either/or but a both/and. Inspiration motivates hard work, and hard work creates inspiration. They are an integral part of the process.
So after you stop reading this post, it is time to apply a bit of perspiration (and a bit of caffeine?) to your day. Wrestle with finding the best words today. Meet that word count goal you set. Surprise yourself with the words that flow. And try to enjoy the process even when plodding through the slog.
I don’t not feel the inspiration
to write another blessed word,
for they go out under protestation
to join the dull lumbering herd
that swill about the Internet
to hold hostage to my name,
and their memory is set
to put me to a galling shame,
but to my readers, they are new
(I have been told this many times).
They say I light up what is true
with word-pictures cast in rhymes,
and so, with writing as my duty
I’m gently brushed by wings of Beauty.
***
I’ve really never come to any of the 7000 or so sonnets I’ve written through inspiration; they’re all responses to implicitly (or, more rarely, explicitly) posed questions in others’ blogs, and it all started here, as a kind of joke (a comment I began started rhyming, and I went with it, and I don’t know if it was a good idea or not). And they all feel so awkward!
For me to turn a phrase would be like motoring along, turning the wheel, and hitting a telephone pole. I never revisit what I write. You can only cringe so much.
It’s a kind of literary judo, me and the words grappling at each other’s judogi, trying for the throw to the mat. I usually win; not always.
The process isn’t fun, but I have found that I sometimes reach people, and that, to me, is the whole point of living, to put some light into dark areas (occasionally with humour), to engender a smile and a nod which eases the moment. And again, and again.
Until He returns.
You reach me, Andrew! Keep grappling.
Thanks, Karen. I will.
Great advice, Steve!
I have friends who can’t write unless they are inspired. But they don’t do anything to GET inspired! When I hit a story wall, I stop and do something else. It’s like looking away from the computer screen every 20 minutes to give your eyes a break. Or like reading through a critique you’ve received and setting it aside overnight and reading again with fresh eyes.
We need fresh eyes. What helps me most is taking a walk. We live out in the country, and it’s a lovely place to walk, pray, think, and get inspiration. It never fails to help me.
If I can’t get out and walk, I’ll look over my plot notes and try adding a twist. Even if I don’t keep it, it gets me writing.
Thank you for writing this!!!
Both comforting and inspiring!!!💖
All the best, Jeannie
Thank you for the advice, Steve. It was practical and inspiring. 🙂
I usually get the kind of urge to write that creates determination. But all my life, I struggled to finish the story. So ended up with a box full of unfinished stories because I didn’t get the urge to finish. Nanowrimo helped with that. It wasn’t so much the deadline as my determination to finally finish a story. I was in my late fifties.
That desire to finish boiled down to a lesson from the Holy Spirit. I estimate that seventy-five percent of the time I spent writing in that November became a lesson in steps of faith. The determination to finish even though I didn’t “Feel” like it. Came down to the simple act of putting my fingers on the keyboard and typing.
Somewhere in the next half hour the flow would start. It seemed as if the Holy Spirit was teaching me how to overcome that desire not to write unless I felt that old joy of inspiration.
Today when someone says they want to write a story but can’t get started. I tell them to pray, then put their fingers on the keyboard and just start typing. It’s a step of faith for me. The writing process is a hiding place for me. Once I start typing, that’s when the inspiration begins.
I read a funny saying about this process by Jim Denny in his book “Writing in Overdrive” talking about the need to edit every paragraph. He said, “Just vomit on the keyboard and clean up the mess later.
I like the Al Davis of the Las Vegas Raiders, “Just Win, Baby!!” I would modify that to, “Just type, Baby!!”
Thank you. Great timing. I’ve been working on a project for the past three years. It wasn’t right. The night before last I had a dream. It described the problem and showed me the kernel of meaning in a couple hundred pages of content. Can’t wait to put my word sifter back to work. Many blessings.
Thank you Steve! I’m working on a proposal for Tamela and I’m smack dab in the middle of it!
UGH! Enjoy your day 🙂
Steve, I ask the Lord every day to give me the words and the scene He wants written. If He is silent, I realize that I need to polish what I have already written. I pray that my writing will touch the hearts of the people that need to read what I have written. I set a goal of 2,000-3,000 words a day, but I recently retired from teaching full time and have more time to write. My fourth novel came out two weeks ago. Thank you so much for your blog postings. I read them every weekday but do not always respond.
This email came at a timely moment, as I’ve just been in the middle of doing another edit pass on what I had thought was a mostly structurally sound book—only to find entire sections where I’ve managed to cut down conversations that went back and forth for 8 pages to 3 pages of actually important, succinct and tense dialogue fitting for the actual crisis the characters were in. I’m definitely asking myself ‘does this really need to be here?’ a lot as I’m doing this edit pass—and sometimes the answer is yes, in which case I just tighten it and polish it as best I can, and then other times the answer is definitely no. XD
Anyways, enjoyed the read! The story about Calvin Miller was especially encouraging!
Once again, Steve, this post hit the nail on the head on a day I’m searching for that hammer of inspiration. The book idea was inspired, the start was some work, some inspiration. The ongoing work is slowing down and becoming that perspiration you mentioned. But, nothing on the page means nothing to edit, as has been stated many times.
I’m walking through it one page at a time.
Great advice. I’m now on the final draft because every morning at 6:30 I decided to ‘show at the page’ for one hour before work, even when I had no idea what to write.
Blessings!
Thank you so much for this post.
It has encouraged my inspiration and I am now in perspiration!
God bless you. Amen.
If we could live on inspiration we would always feel that high. If perspiration doesn’t follow the inspiration, the light would hide in our hearts and minds until it faded away.
Yes, many days it’s me forcing myself to put my behind in the chair and not allow my “squirrel” desires to win. But in the quiet and the writing, inspiration comes. If I allowed distraction to rule, it would be drowned out, but the quiet gives it space to grow and mature.
A great thought, Steve. And happy writing to you today, too!
Warmly,
Linda