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

[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. :))