"I don't feel inspired today." How many times have you said that as an excuse for not sitting down to create? Inspiration is probably the most damaging myth about the creative life, because it turns creativity into something that happens to you — rather than something you do.
"I don't feel inspired today." How many times have you said that as an excuse for not sitting down to create? Inspiration is probably the most damaging myth in the creative life. Because it turns creativity into something that happens to you — rather than something you do.
Inspiration as a consequence, not as a requirement
Cameron is clear: inspiration comes when you are already working, not before. It's like waiting until you're hungry to go into the kitchen but refusing to open the refrigerator until hunger strikes. You have to open the refrigerator. You have to sit down. You have to start.
Professionals — writers, musicians, painters who make a living from their art — don't wait for inspiration. They work on a schedule. And inspiration, curiously, learns to appear at the right time.
"I don't write when I'm inspired. I'm inspired when I write."
Five ways to create without inspiration
Start with the worst
Write the worst first sentence you can think of. Draw the ugliest line. Hit the most obvious note. When you give yourself permission to be bad, the censor relaxes and creativity has room to enter.
set a timer
Fifteen minutes. Only fifteen. You are not committing to a masterpiece, but to a quarter of an hour. Almost always, when the alarm goes off, you continue working because you are already in flow.
Change tools
If you write on a computer, try by hand. If you paint with a brush, try with your fingers. The change of medium disorients the censor and opens new avenues.
Copy something you admire
Classical painters copied the masters as training. Copy a paragraph that you like, a chord that moves you. Not to publish, but to warm up the muscle.
Do the morning pages
If you haven't written the pages today, start there. Three pages of brain dump usually uncover ideas that have been waiting all day.
"The muse exists, but it has to find you working."
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