“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Jack London
As a professional writer with deadlines and commitments constantly nipping at your heels, you cannot afford to wait around for inspiration. In this instant-access world of the modern day wordsmith, deadlines come and go at a blistering pace, but each of your clients expects an inspired article every time.
With all this pressure to perform, where do you find motivation? Grab your literary clubs, everyone – we’re going hunting for some writing inspirations.
Go After Inspiration Every Day
Set a daily word count goal and stick to it, whether you feel like writing or not. Inspiration often hides in the crevices of your keyboard, and the only way to bring motivation out of hiding is to press the keys at a madcap rate. Banging out a minimum number of words each day also creates a solid foundation on which to lay those fleeting inspired words of shimmering genius.
Stephen King said he likes to write ten pages a day, which is about 2,000 words, because that pace helped him write a good book in around three months. Ernest Hemingway, on the other hand, wrote only 500 words each day. James Joyce considered it a great day when he finished three sentences. On the other hand, Joyce’s Ulysses contains one of the longest sentences in the English language, weighing in at 4,391 words, which must have required a significant amount of inspiration to write.
Find a muse
By definition, a muse is an inspirational spirit or force. Most people envision a muse as a partially clad woman in a reclining pose, but you may find inspiration in the loving eyes of your child or even the cold stare of your ungrateful cat. The point is, find someone or something that inspires you to write and spend time with them.
Turn on the music
Many writers find inspiration in music. In fact, the word “music” comes from the Greek word for “art of the Muses.” Modern research shows that listening to music stimulates task-unrelated thoughts, a fancy scientific term for ‘mind wandering,’ which can spark creativity.
Leave Yourself Hanging
Leave your last sentence unfinished when you quit a project for the night. Finishing the sentence pulls you back into the same creative frame of mind as when you began the sentence.
Go Clubbing with Your Friends
Engage in brainstorming with your colleagues. Conspire with a group of like-minded writers to come up with fresh, innovative topics and treatments.
Creating delightful and engaging content that lifts off a page can be a grueling and gritty process. Inspiration can often be a prima donna who likes to hide from this literary grit and gruel. Don’t wait for inspiration to come fluttering down on your shoulder – take Jack’s advice and go after it with a club.
Bio: Lynn H has been a leading writer in the medical field for more than 15 years. She specializes in creating informative and engaging medical content for readers of all levels, from patients to researchers and everyone in between.
