Grabbing for More – Tricks and Tips for Inspiration and Creativity

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
           Alfred Lord Tennyson, from “Ulysses”

In my series on How To Write Everyday, Step 1 is Inspiration. And it really is the first step when writing, because inspiration is the life blood that gives the stamina and endurance to power through all the many challenges in order to finally arrive at a completed piece. But what happens when you just don’t have any inspiration? Maybe you’ve just finished a project and you don’t know what to do next or maybe you’ve been all dried up on ideas for quite some time and you need some serious help in priming the pump again. Whatever the reason, we can all use a little more inspiration in our lives right! So in this post today I’d like to discuss more about inspiration and perhaps offer a helpful tip or two in getting you back into the flow, grooving and writing again.

What is inspiration exactly? And where does it come from? Many of the ancients believed that creativity came from the gods, the muses, or divine inspiration. In Ancient Greece for example the poet, unlike all other artists, was unrestricted by laws of nature, artistic customs, or formal rules. The Nine Muses, ruled by the god Apollo no less, were said to inspire all poets. The poet was to sing freely and fully however he so desired. Poetry then was the one art form which merged heaven and earth and allowed the gods to commune closest with mortals, weaving their divine providence and wisdom deep into the fabric of man’s mind and heart.

So how can we today in modern civilization open ourselves up to greater inspiration just as the poets did of ages hence? What can we do to “prime the pump” as it were and release the valves on our inspiration for new and exciting ideas to splash down onto the page?

I can’t of course verify the complete veracity of what I’m about to tell you (maybe one of you reading this out there can!), but apparently Steven Speilberg has two offices he works out of when he is making a movie. One office is for creativity. In this office all ideas are welcome; nothing is off limits. The other office is for producing. This is where all ideas are rigorously put to practical questions of budgeting, execution, popularity, etc. When I heard this story (true or not), I thought it was brilliant, because it speaks precisely to the nature of the creative process. In the creative space we must keep the mind open. Creativity thrives on all of life. Nothing can be off limits when searching for inspiration. Art is everywhere and in all things, and thank God for that! Because art is everywhere, we as artists can and probably must also explore all aspects of life. We cannot judge. We cannot edit or reject. We must accept, embrace, discover, and love. This is the creative process, and it naturally opens us to inspiration and the possibilities of whatever could be. In short it is awesome and super fun!

Now let’s switch over to the production office. Here in this space, the rules have completely changed. Now we must stay focused on the practical nature of material objects, time, and money. There are limitations here with finite resources, limited abilities, and whatever is commercially viable (if that matters to us as well in some way). Looking at the production office as a novel writer, instead of a screenwriter and director, I would add things like our story outline, the arc and transformation of our characters, the structure and length of the novel, a detailed line-by-line analysis of each word and sentence to make sure it is all just right and totally perfect. These types of considerations are more “left-brain” if you will. They are limiting and focused. Here in this office we say the word “no” more often. We have standards and restrictions in place for our work, and only the best and most appropriate ideas survive.

Now in terms of creating a whole and complete piece of literature or art, both of these offices are necessary and vital. But for the purposes of this post today, I’d like to focus on the creative side. Perhaps in another post some day we can discuss more of the production side. Personally I love doing both, and I find that conceptualizing these two processes as unique and separate helps to more completely embrace and produce works that are both creative and practical. If you’re finding yourself uninspired and unable to write or produce anything new, perhaps take a step back and see if you are approaching your work from the open creative mindset or the more practical, nuts and bolts, attitude. Then, on a separate piece of paper or new word document, just allow yourself to be fully creative, fully open, no holds barred whatsoever and just write. Purge your ideas down onto the page. Just let yourself write and think and explore the dumbest, stupidest, most insane, hairbrained, or downright boring ideas that come to you. Whatever it is just go for it! I guarantee you that no matter what happens you’ll feel relieved, excited, and free after just writing it all down for even fifteen minutes or so. Then as you go about your day, step into that creative space again. Perhaps while you’re driving to work or walking the dog or taking a shower. No need to write anything down, unless of course inspiration hits you as the case may be, but just let your mind wander around and explore the world around you. Letting the mind fly free, wherever it may go, can be really liberating and creative. And while your mind is free flowing and exploring anything and everything, simply add on top of that a loose, little intention to discover something new or interesting that you can write about. Then just let things sizzle away and get cooking! Just see what happens and how that works for you. Truly the sky’s the limit.

Years ago when I was taking acting classes in Los Angeles (yes I did do that!), I also took an improv class. In that class I learned something called the “Yes and” technique. Basically it means that whatever your improv partner does or says you have to accept it, that is you have to say “yes” to it, and somehow find a way to incorporate it into your own improvised response in the sketch. As an example of how this might work, let’s say you and a partner are improvising on stage and your partner says “Hey it’s so amazing up here on the moon.” Being true to the “Yes and” technique, you must embrace that whole scenario and accept that you are now on the moon together. That means you must quickly adapt to this new environment and situation your partner has created for the both of you and find a way to make it real, make it true, and make it funny. What you CANNOT do is reject what your partner is saying and doing and take everything in another direction completely. You can’t say something like, “Oh no it’s not the moon here, we’re actually sitting on my grandma’s porch!” This is really considered bad improv skills on your part, because you have now rejected your partner’s contribution to the skit. You have invalidated their creativity, cut off the natural flow between you both, and forced your partner to accept your idea even though you just rejected theirs. And not to mention all of this becomes glaringly obvious to the audience and makes everyone feel uncomfortable. Instead you have to “Yes and” everything in improv. Just go with the flow. It’s a simple discipline, but it forces you to think creatively not to mention very quickly.

Now guess what I’m about to say…the same is true with inspiration! You have to “yes and” your muse. You have to keep the gates open wide so that everything, junk and treasure alike, can come flooding through you and into your frame of mind. This isn’t the time or the place to be the editor of your craft – that’s for the production office not the creative office! So “Yes and” yourself and your own ideas. Let the muses and gods flow through you freely and onto the page! Hold nothing back, just be. Say it all – whatever the hell it is and however the heck it comes out! Yeah! It really is so much fun, I’m just enjoying talking about it here with you!

Now there is one more idea I wanted to share with you about inspiration and how you can get some more of it, if you’re ever in need of any. A friend of mine calls it “I don’t know.” Those are his three magic words, and just recently he was sharing them again with me. I….Don’t….Know. Do you know why those words are so powerful and amazing? It’s because they open us up to so much MORE! And really it’s that MORE that we’re looking for when we are looking for inspiration. The only way we can learn something new is by admitting that we don’t know something. And likewise the only way we can get more inspiration is by admitting that we don’t already have it all. It’s truly quite genius, and dare I say quite the challenge at times too. You see we as humans are so hung up about ourselves (and let’s face it we all have good reason to be!). But when we are stuck in a rut, or keep on making the same mistakes over and over again, or we just can’t figure out where to go or what to do next, well those are the times when we need to get away from ourselves and get out of our own darned head. We need to just not know so much anymore. We need to be humble, and to open up to the possibilities of something different, something new, something never even considered before. Just the thought of such a thing can be truly quite staggering. I mean can you imagine thinking a thought each day that was never thought before! What a concept! What an incredible manifestation of MORE! That’s a truly Eureka moment. That, my friends, is inspiration. Let that go and whip around in your brain and heart and put it all into some words down on the page. Just go for it! The idea that I don’t know really is thrilling. I find myself opening right up to all things new. I am given MORE.

Now honestly isn’t inspiration why we love to write in the first place? We as writers and artists alike love to ride the waves of inspiration and let them sail us away across waters uncharted to lands never before seen. And maybe we have felt those inspired far off lands for some time. Perhaps we have sensed them for quite some time indeed. We intuit that they are out there, waiting for us, beckoning us, taunting us even. Doing anything and everything to get us to chase after them like mad. It is that mad yearning, that deep desire, and passion for truth, for mystery, for inspiration that drives us onward again and again, day by day, delving into the depths of whatever stories or visions or characters we come across. The journey becomes life. Life becomes a journey. All of it is born from the unknown, from looking beyond the horizon line, looking deep within the void, not sure when or how we shall emerge out the other side. Of course we always will emerge somewhere, but where shall our stories take us next? Where shall we end up? These questions lead us onto a quest, perhaps a search for some mysterious holy grail, but no journey is without treasure and no story is without catharsis. Art is always victorious and supreme. Open yourself to something new. Embrace the unknown. You’ll find yourself catapulted into inspiration and creativity the likes of which you literally couldn’t imagine.