A Lolcat and a Question.

Apologies for the lack of blogging -- you can blame NaNoWriMo.

Not that I've been doing much writing lately! I had an upsurge early last week and then Thursday I just... I don't know. I just crashed. There's writer's block and then there's WRITER'S BLOCK. When the characters stop speaking to each other and your muse decides to stop speaking to YOU. It's pretty bad. And I had it pretty bad these past few days.

Instead of getting frustrated at my lack of productivity, I decided to take some time off and scare up some inspiration. I finished reading The Girl Who Played with Fire on Saturday. I relaxed at Ricky's house on Sunday. And then I came to work today only to find out my co-worker really, really likes my story. I gave her the first few pages last week and she had it all annotated and stuff today (we're such English teachers). She had the nicest things to say about my story! So that inspired me to continue writing.

I won't promise I'll produce anything fantabulous today as far as my story goes, but I will say I'm feeling inspired again. And it feels damn good.

Here's my Lolcat of the Week, which I think you'll agree is very apropos:

via
And here's my question: What do you do for inspiration when you really need it? Whether you're a wanna-be writer like me, a budding chef, or whatever. What do you do to light the proverbial fire under the proverbial hiney? Let me know in the comments! :)

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6 comment(s):

Unknown said...

music music music. if i know what sort of scene i want to write, i set my mood with music. if i'm stuck? iTunes goes on shuffle and i'll just write about whatever emotions and images strike me, a la Fantasia.

Rachelle said...

I can't force inspiration... either I feel it, or I don't. For NaNo when I'm not inspired to write I have two different approaches.

1) If the lack of writing is from actual writer's block (I want to write but can't decide what) I find someone and word war. The competition to see who can write the most in a set amount of time forces me to JUST WRITE.

2) If what's stopping me is a lack of motivation to even write, I don't. I'll read books, play music, take a nap, chat with friends... anything other than actually writing. Before too long the desire to write becomes so strong I can't ignore it :)

g2 (la pianista irlandesa) said...

One of my favorite ways to "force" inspiration is to have someone give me two or three random words, and then write something with those things included.

Examples:
A duck named Alfred, cheese, and poodle haircuts yielded a piece about an aspiring boy sculptor trying to please his sister with a cheese sculpture of a duck.

From "Give a man a fish..." and "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" came a rather nice bit about a boy and a grandfather fishing.

Quantum, Mojave, and verify gave me the closest thing I've written in a while that could be the opening to a longer piece.

.adri. said...

Well... in my case, I'm going to relate my answer to crafting since that's what I do the most lol

There are times where I REALLY want to make something but everything I make is just... gross? So for me what works is just moving on to a different project. I just feel like I can't force it, you know? And then, after a while, I'll return to my original project and voila! It works! (at least most of the time it does) ha ha!

Claire Kiefer said...

So I did an MFA in Creative Writing and after I graduated I didn't write for like a year. Without deadlines and pressure, I don't know how to operate! So two of my good friends from grad school and I started a little mini writers' group, and the three of us get together every other week. We take turns giving assignments and then have a little workshop and dinner (and wine) when we get together. It's the only thing that keeps me going. ;)

I would LOVE to read what you're writing . . . I'm just saying. :)

Courtney said...

I haven't talked to you in SO long! I haven't blogged in ages, so I logged on today, deleted my old one, and started over. I found NaNoWriMo today, through another blog I follow. I actually just posted about it. I'm not sure if I will make 50,000 words in 30 days, but I am definetely going to try! I haven't written in so long I'm almost scared to! LOL