Uninspired? Don't Worry. Just Keep Digging.
“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.”
What if we didn't fret so much about inspiration? After all, it's pretty elusive and can give one the sensation of trying to catch wind in a net -- a futile endeavor if ever there was one.
What if, instead, we created some space around the apparent lack of inspiration and took a look at it, as if it were an object in an experiential museum? What if we grew curious about its contours and began to trace them with our own hands? What if we turned to watching our thoughts the way we watch the light play through the branches? What if we bid goodbye to the pressure for the writing to be anything special?
The protests kick up pretty quickly right about now -- why bother writing at all if it's not going to be any good? Maybe you're wondering whether you should stop reading. After all, you probably came here for inspiration, right?
The thing is, writing and life are not endlessly inspiring. And that has as much to do with everything as any list of tips and tricks to get yourself in a writing mood as anything I've ever known. This doesn't mean doom and gloom and it doesn't mean despair. Au contraire! It means when we make inspiration into this magical, distant gift from a coy muse, when we cling to astronomical expectations every time we sit down to write, we're creating really difficult conditions for ourselves.
But when we observe feeling uninspired like any other temporary state, what happens? It changes. Maybe not as quickly as we'd like, maybe not with glitter and confetti, but it does change. Something eases up in the body, something unclenches in the mind, something moves -- a thought, a spark, a moment -- and that is where we begin. One word at a time, and sentences accumulate, then paragraphs. We now have something.
It may be that you needed to prime the pump by writing the dregs before you could see the water run clear. It may be that after much digging, your hand trowel hits upon something intriguing, and you can now set about the work of further uncovering what that something is. It might a simple object -- a cup or bowl, say -- that opens the doors of memory. Or something ancient, some family story long-buried that you're ready to excavate.
Like archaeology, the creative process has its fair share of tedium.
Next time you find yourself bemoaning your uninspired state, remember that this, in fact, connects you to writers and seekers throughout space and time. It's one of the things we probably all have in common, along with our bodily functions and protection of our young and will to survive and love of tasty snacks and cute animal babies.
If you're feeling uninspired, don't worry. It doesn't mean anything dire. Just keep digging. Make yourself some tea and take lots of breaks and don't forget to stare into space.