Sunday, August 20, 2006

Motivation

Once again, summer has been keeping me busy. I find myself swamped with things to do, and usually those things don't involve writing. When I'm unmotivated (and would prefer to sit on the couch and watch TV), then writing doesn't get done. I know that if I sit down and start writing, the motivation and creativity will come.

Part of me even wonders if my lack of motivation is fear based, mainly the fear of success. The novel I'm writing now seems to be flowing smoothly, but, once I get into the groove of it, I feel scared of what it might become, or what it might not become. I don't want it to sound lame or have the basic run-of-the-mill style.

I certainly don't want my work to be the hokey style of one New York Times Best Selling author. For some reason, I've read 4 of her books. Each book is pretty much the same, except the character's names have been changed. I can't understand how she became a best selling author. In the same breath, I can't figure out why I've read four of her books. Maybe it's my reminder to not write like she does.

In some small way, this author has inspired me to do better. I suppose we all need a good author and a bad author to keep us pursuing our writing dreams.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Inspire

My life has been quite busy lately and I haven't been able to write anything in over a week.

I drove to Edmonton on the weekend for my sister's wedding and thought of many things during the three hour trip there and back:

1) It's amazing where inspiration can come from. It's everywhere. All we have to do is see it for what it is rather than look past it.
2) People intrigue me. At my sister's wedding and at the shopping excursion to Costco, I was able to people-watch. There are people out there that can really drive me nuts; but they are still an inspiration to developing characters in my writing.
3) Everyone has a story to tell. Pick a person and watch his/her behaviour. A story can come from anyone or anything. Even the guy on the highway that blew by me at 160 km/h has a story.
4) The day after the wedding, a bunch of us were sitting on my parents deck playing guitar and singing songs. What were the neighbours thinking?

Inspiration happens every minute of the day. All we need to do is pay attention to it.