Waiting for Inspiration

Well, it's been a while, huh. I'm trying not to feel too bad about neglecting my blog--after all, I've kept busy.

Since my last post, I've finished my last semester of college and graduated with a BA in English, secured a job in the real world, and my boyfriend of eight years proposed. So while I couldn't be happier, there's still no guarantee I'll be consistently writing yet.

But! Amidst the initial gush of newly-engaged emotions, snagging a venue, finding a dress, finishing five classes, and juggling three jobs, my writing didn't come to a complete standstill. True, other than term papers and creative writing assignments, my thoughts rarely made it to print. But I am a firm believer that a writer is always writing--always gathering ideas, remembering phrases, thinking of the exact right words to describe the events of life as they unfold. Part of me has been waiting for a strong wind of inspiration to send me careening back to my desk and hammer out an idea for a novel that's been brewing for the past two years. The rest of me remembers that I don't have to be churning out pages every day in order to be working on that story.

It sure would help, though.

Still, I've come to notice that if I always have a story on the backburner, inspiration will slowly bring the idea to a boil.

That happened toward the end of the semester--sitting in one of my religion classes, of all places. I was listening to a classmate's presentation when something he said sparked an idea. My notes shifted from copying his PowerPoint bullets to jotting down the skeleton of a scene, one of those in-between-big-plot-points scenes that always elude me. The scene was interesting, and implied there was more to the story than I'd realized.

After class, I thanked my classmate for his presentation. He seemed a little confused as to why--after all, it wasn't the most interesting one in the class and had clearly been slapped together last minute. But I didn't have to admit that I'd stopped listening half way through. I didn't have to explain that I was thanking him for giving me the opportunity to write for myself again, for once, in the middle of one of the most hectic seasons of my life. His presentation had turned up the heat under my story, and I was so grateful for that.

Always be waiting for inspiration, and when it arrives, act immediately. Always be prepared to write, even when you're away from your computer or notebook and you're forced to jot ideas down in the margins of your class notes instead. And most importantly, always be writing, even if it's only in your mind.