Jmo gets Inspired

The word Inspiration is bantered about quite a bit by us creative types. We speak of it in hallowed tones. We attribute it to obscure things like muses, and very rarely do we say the truth. Inspiration is a tool that very few people can use their advantage. Artists, musicians, authors and crazy people are numbered among those people. Notice how close I put authors to crazy people. There's a reason for that. Namely, we're crazy.

As both an artist and a writer, I can say this with all honesty. Writers are the craziest of the bunch. Why, you may be asking yourself? Because out of all those creative types, writers are the only ones able to get away with living inside their own minds and allowing the delusions in their heads leak out to infect those around them. Sure musicians can make you whip your head around and artists can invoke emotions at a single glance, but authors make their dreams become your dreams—the worlds you actively want to stay within. If that ain't crazy, I don't know what is.

But, this isn't a blog about crazy people or writers. This is a Tion blog. The Tion of the week is Inspiration. Though crazy has a lot to do with it, as I know I'll get across as this thing gets wired up. Before I go off on more tangents than you can shake a mouse at, let me put up a professional definition of inspiration thanks to the Encarta Dictionary that came with this Microsoft Word program…

Inspiration: 1. Stimulation for the human mind to creative thought or to the making of art.
3. The quality of being stimulated to creative thought or activity.

That's only a couple of the many meanings of the word, but the two that apply the most to what I'm trying to get across.

Now that we've heard from the professionals, here's my take on it.

Inspiration is the fuel that drives the creative mind. Inspiration is the ability of the creative mind to take the natural world and reform it into entertainment. Inspiration is the ability to form sanity from the craziness that is the human condition. Finally, inspiration is a gift that we all too often take for granted.

Let me start with the first one and explain what I mean. Inspiration is fuel? Hell yeah it is. To an author it is an important as a balanced diet. Writing a book is hard work. Just because you get inspired to write a book doesn't mean that book is going to get finished. No, inspiration is an ongoing thing throughout the writing of a book. A good idea will only get you so far. Constant inspiration acts as the fuel that drives the book. An author's imagination needs continuous stimuli. Heroes need obstacles to overcome as do heroines. Those obstacles come in the form of you guessed it. Inspiration. It doesn't matter where it comes from but it has to come. When it doesn't you've got another unfinished manuscript to add to the growing pile lingering around like a trash heap on your hard drive. Believe me I have a stack of them and it is growing as we speak.

On to the number two in my list. Inspiration is the ability to reform the natural world into entertainment. At its heart, that is the true definition of writing. We, meaning authors, take everything that surrounds us, from our pasts to the ride home from work and use those experiences to create our worlds. Humans are the sum of their experiences pure and simple. Perhaps more so for an author, because we have the ability to take all that and represent it to readers in such a way they can relate to both us as author and the world they sometimes can't see around themselves. That is the true art of being a writer. We see more than even we realize. Amid all that deep thinking, we also entertain through laughter or by forcing you to drift away from your harried life for the span of a hundred pages or more.

Sanity from craziness? Yes, Inspiration is that too. Everyday each of us is bombarded with more sensory input than even a computer could make sense out of. Yet, Inspiration allows a writer to manage those sounds, images, or emotional whatevers into a neat package. Sure sometimes it gets sloppy getting there but if we do our job right, you’ve got a book, or ebook file as the case may be, that makes a little more sense than your hectic life. We can even promise a happily ever after ninety percent of the time. You tell me how often real life can promise you that?

And finally. Yes authors take Inspiration for granted. We think it's always going to be there and truthfully it is. The problem is us. At times we can't process that data coming at us, because we let our heads get in the way. Whether through dealing with life or too much data, we simply block it out and blame our mythical other halves for doing it to us. Funny, how us humans can always find someone else to blame for our shortcomings.

Now you have my take on the whole Inspiration thing. I know you're used to me being a bit off the wall with these things. I hope this tamed down Jmo hasn't disillusioned you. I promised to be back to my abnormally normal self, next time. Til then go dig up some Inspiration on your own and stop trying to steal mine.

The nerve of some people. Where're my Oreos? I need them to go hide in the closet from the muses trying to tell me to do naughty, naughty things.

Jmo.