If I knew exactly what it is, what causes it, and how to do it, I promise you that I would do it more often. What I do know is that I can see a word, a phrase, a sentence and it triggers an idea that expands like compressed foam. Sometimes it is a mental picture. It is a nanosecond flash of time . From that tiny beginning the rest grows like a mustard plant from a tiny seed. At the present time I am working on just such an idea. Why, I did this, I don’t know, but I pictured a fog settling into a mountain clearing. At first it was a light haze, which grew in thickness to a dense fog. Where this thought picture came from, I will never know. It simply leaped upon me from some dark crevasse of my twisted mind. It has now grown to include three human characters and to a length of 3,500 words. I don’t know where it’s going. I’m beginning to “see” that there are several alternative possibilities for pathways. I suspect that I may end up writing several of these alternatives, and then later be forced to choose only one. This has happened to me before. I have one such story that for the moment is at a standstill. One of these days I am confident I will revisit that story and find a new inspiration, new angle, new insight that will allow me to return to work on that story and take it into a new “place”, or even complete it. I have another resting in most of a thick spiral notebook. I was well along with the novella when the news came that my mother had died. That was more than ten years ago, and I find that I still cannot resubmerge myself in that story. Perhaps someday. I am beginning to understand how my brain tackles the creative process. I know it works one step at a time. It sits and generates, resolving issues, taking a rest, looking ahead and then bringing in a recognizable plot. My difficulty is that I’m interested in so many subjects and in addition to the 3,500 word story, I’ve also created two additional shorter unrelated pieces in different subject areas. How did I find myself in this situation? Not easily. I have some very painful memories indeed of sitting at a keyboard, staring at a blank screen and waiting for the words to come. They didn’t despite all the classes I’d taken and all the hours of instruction I had given others on how to write. Again, how did I find myself in this situation? I assure you that it was not something that I ever really expected. Eventually I fell to the bottom of the barrel, and did stream of consciousness writing. Doing anything to get strings of words together in something that resembled sentences. Once the pattern of assisting the words to flow was established, the work of wordsmithing has since become somewhat easier. Stream of consciousness writing is still something that I do deliberately. I want to keep that pipe open and running freely. I think of it as if I were dousing my word flow pipe with a clog clearer on a regular basis. Perhaps you need to try this exercise. As fond as I am of my computer keyboard, I actually enjoying writing more with a pen and paper. That is what I’m doing now. I’m sitting on my bed trying to ready myself for sleep. I’ve dutifully swallowed my prescription medications, and moments ago I had this, for lack of better expression, “idea” about writing an article about writing an article and I know I will be unable to sleep if I don’t let this thing run out of my head and onto the paper. Otherwise my active brain will keep worrying at the concept, stringing phrases together, composing in the fashion of a cat worrying at a mouse, or a dog worrying at a fresh bone. My wife just interrupted me. The train of thought jumped the tracks and lies as a broken wreckage below a trestle. I’m going to look back on what I’ve written in an attempt to pick up the pieces, find the trail, discover the end of the yarn, and keep ambling down the path I was formally racing along. Interruptions hurt. Learn to deal with them. Otherwise other people determine what you will do with your writing. I almost had it, but it was slippery, and it oozed from between my fingers. Ah. Yes. Flow. I am in this position because of a series of steps over time that boil down to the fact that I am writing because I enjoy writing. I enjoy it enough to be persistent, and to write for a variety of purposes. I enjoy the process of putting words on paper. I enjoy creating highlights of thoughts that cascade in a branching flow of words. Words are like polished white stones in a river. They are better smooth and rounded by the action of water and grinding sand. Some of that positioning is the result of placing myself in positions which require frequent use of writing skills. I volunteered to be the secretary of two community organizations. This is something that many people are reluctant to do. They think of writing as “hard” work, not the fun that it really is. It is from this basis that I come back to my original premise. Knowing myself as I do, I know that when I must write for a deadline, I go looking for that spark that generates the juices that builds the creativity that ends in writing. If I am looking for a spark, it is much easier to find it when actively looking for it, as opposed to just waiting for it to jump out at me from a dark closet. That spark of fire might be something on television, or on the internet, or in a magazine. Writers cannot cut themselves off from the world they want to write about. Will Rogers set the standard for us when he directed us to the newspapers for daily inspiration. If this does not work for you, then go back to your private well. Go back to some of your former material. Choose to extend and expand something. All you need is a snippet. Frank Herbert is supposed to have created of a book from a single sentence he had written years before. Read your material again. If it is awful, improve it. If it is muddy, clear it up. Don’t just sit on your featherduster, get off it, and go do something. All you are looking for is fresh inspiration. The new idea, the spark that can grow. It is now 12:17 AM. My eyelids are heavier. My brain is again approaching its normal congealed oatmeal status. The pressure release from the escape of these words will probably allow me to sleep. I think that I’ll be able to sleep, but just in case I’ll keep this pen and pad by my bedside. This is exactly the kind of night when I find myself wide awake and scribbling at 2:30 AM.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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