“Patricia: You mean, you were diagnosed
with something
called a ‘Brain Cloud’ and didn’t ask for
a second opinion?”
~ Joe
Versus the Volcano
Inspiration
is a myth.
So
is Writer’s Block.
Actually, they both kind of remind me of that
all-time favorite relationship cop out: “I love [Insert Name Here], I’m just
not in love with them.” It’s
deceptive and confusing. It’s also astonishingly convenient. Why can’t lovers
admit when they’ve reached the point that they just can’t stand each other anymore?
In my opinion, it has nothing to do with love. It has everything to do with obligation.
So, why can’t writers admit when they don’t
feel like writing? Say it out loud: “I need a break! I love to write, I just
don’t feel like being around it right now. I need to take a mental health
day/month/year.” Don’t go blaming it on some imaginary condition. If you’re
gonna go blame it on something, at least be creative about it, no?
“Inspiration,” as well as “Writer’s Block,” are
convenient to those who believe that writers somehow spend their entire careers
de-atomizing things—selectively plucking out of the ether molecules of thought,
ideas, images, scenes, etc., that haven’t been discovered yet, then gifting
them to the world as if they’ve discovered some new technology or vaccine.
Writers don’t do that.
If anything, we simply remind
ourselves.
The creative mind doesn’t just shut
off, automatically defaulting to its own cute little lock screen with a picture
of a panda or a funny hamster or the Liam Neeson quote from Taken: “I don’t know who you are. But I
will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you,” forcing you to have
to scramble for days/weeks/months/years trying to figure out the
doubleplussecret security code your brain somehow got past you. We don’t hack
into our own brains in order to access the creativity inside—we’re creative all
the time, not just when we (or our brains) want to be. The question is: are you
disciplined enough to transcribe it?
“Creativity,” “Inspiration,”
“Talent” (or whatever the hell else you choose to name it) is bred out of
circumstance, pressure and opportunity. One of the most insightful things I’ve
heard an artist say came from Tom Cruise while visiting The Actor’s Studio - he said something like: “If I walk on set and
I’m tired, I just accept that I’m tired and tell myself, ‘My character is
tired. Let’s explore that. Let’s see where that takes me.”
If you feel you can’t write, don’t
write. See where that takes you.
You put in enough time into writing and you realize
quickly that all that other theoretical nonsense is pregame. It ends when you put finger to keyboard. All that other
mess resides in the idea/theory department, not in the practical. After that,
it’s habit and muscle memory. That’s really
how you get your money’s worth out of an M.F.A. program—developing habits.
Everyone says you should write every day even
though in reality you probably can’t—
unless,
of course, you’ve got enough ducats to not do nothing except write and still
have a means to pay your bills—so forget that nonsense. Instead, collect. Like I said before, you’re
creative all the time, that’s how our brains are wired. So, pick up your pen
and paper and start hoarding scraps of images, dialogue, scenes, shapes,
whatever, until you remind, or re-remind,
yourself of what it was you wanted to write about. It doesn’t have to
function chronologically. It doesn’t have to fit into that piece you’re
currently working on. It could be that missing bit for a poem or short story
you stashed aside because it felt incomplete, or the bud for a new piece you
haven’t bothered to concentrate on just yet. The point is: we all carry an idea
of what we’d like to write about, we just don’t quite know how to put it into
words until we actually rediscover
the words. After that, it’s just about putting them in their proper order.
And do yourself a favor: don’t fool
yourself into thinking that words are elements that, if mixed irresponsibly, can
produce explosive chemicals. If it doesn’t seem to work, hit the Backspace key
and do it again until it does work.
Born and
raised in Miami, FL, Michael J Pagán spent four years (1999-2003) in the United
States Navy before (hastily) running back to college during the spring of 2004.
He currently resides in Deerfield Beach, FL with his wife and daughter where he
continues to work on his poetry, short fiction, and a collaborative novel. His
work has appeared in or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, BlazeVOX, Pacifica Literary
Review, Spittoon, Verse, Spork Press and others. Links to all of his published
work can be found on his blog: thelevatoroomcompany.blogspot.com.
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