Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
The awesome co-hosts for the May 3 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Meka James, Diane Burton, Victoria Marie Lees, and M Louise Barbour!
May 3 question - When you are working on a story, what inspires you?
Words inspire me, so I looked up the word inspire, or rather its etymological beginnings. I did know but I wanted confirmation. I knew that to conspire meant at its root 'to breath together with another or others'. I knew that 'spire' was a root word meaning spirit, or what animates the biological form. That a scientist of a literal bent would say 'to inspire is to breath in'. When we are inspired it is thought we have breathed in some feeling or thinking that the gods wish us to have. I am not a believer in gods so what do I think I'm doing trying to tickle the muse into releasing some of her or his ideas into the waiting vessel of my (empty?) mind? I do not know. But what I do know is that inspiration can be invited by discipline (the boys in the basement are waiting for you to show up says Stephen King), by honing my craft so when the spirit enters me I'll know what to do with it, and by holding the space ready for lightening, inspiration, gods, the fairies, to strike me.
Sometimes I'm inspired by great grief, or overwhelming rage, or a sudden burst of empathy and love. All can ignite the bits of dried leaves, twigs and old poems on dry paper I've gathered - but I must tend the flame that ensues. I can't just leave it up to that one strike, that one inward breath. No. I must poke at it, apply more fuel, bits of wood, logs, branches, old cereal boxes, yesterday's manuscript. I must blow gently to get it going and sometimes to keep it going. In this metaphor I must be the tinder, the kindling, the match, the striking surface, the hand that holds and strikes the match, the flame that catches what has been prepared, the roaring fire, the smoldering wet branches, and the glowing coals. All of it.
What inspires you?
