motivation

[anotheranon]

In between bouts of getting cat meds/cleaning up cat messes over the weekend, I finally felt the impetus to start making stuff again. I'm not sure what's been holding me back; partly the $ situation, but I have to wonder if that isn't just an excuse for laziness, or a lack of inspiration.

I've seen the same thing in my writing over the past month - short, lackluster things that really aren't interesting, at least to me, and I have to wonder how interested readers are when the writer isn't. Interestingly, as my inspiration to sew has come back, so has my inspiration to write.

I hate falling into this rut of just "going through the motions" in my creative endeavors - after all, I do these things for FUN! And it's not as if I want to learn how to better force the words/stitches when I don't feel like it, I'd much rather learn to force the inspiration when it is absent.

I throw to my friends, because many of you are involved in creative pursuits - how do you keep the juices flowing, or kick start them when they've dried up?

Comments

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

I don't trust my writing to inspiration. I don't trust my writing to any mood, because moods come and go. I am a very disciplined writer, and I usually can "channel" in a character with some of their favorite music and making myself focus on their needs. Then, it *comes* like a river.

On the other hand, I don't work from impulse, or infatuation, and that is the reason why most writers dry up. My Memories series was an infatuation, and now that it's passed, I'm not really interested in continuing the character. But I will finish the story because I'm disciplined, and I still have things to say.

IMHO.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I can see your argument about not relying on inspiration alone, but if you still have things to say about a character, how can you be bored with it? Why not try to express the same ideas with a newer character?

Not a critique, just curious.

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's because I've made an investment in the Memories Kai character. I have an outline of what I want to do with it, but I have been putting 100% of my time into my dissertation and into the Nicky/Gigi thing that I haven't done much other writing. I needed to get my PhD and I want to publish an original novel -- and the Memories series, completed or not, will not help me reach either of those goals.

Part of the series was that it was about *me* -- breaking out of my old mold, learning about myself, and trying to get away from a suffocating marriage. If you read it again from that point of view, it's all *me* searching for answers. But now that I'm in a new headspace, I think Kai will be in a new headspace. He was exiled for three years, and if I start working on it again in November 2003, it will be exactly 3 years since I wrote the last part of the story (Nov. 2000).

I think that bodes well, eh? So, its sitting on the back burner for a while while I play god with Nicky, and work on getting my arse published. :))