Do Not Wait for Inspiration

Jeff Cohen

Health update: So treatment has been over for 6 weeks. Had a PET scan after 5 weeks, which appears to show that most if not all my lymph nodes have cooperated nicely. Now I go on "maintenance," which means I go in every two months for one treatment of immunotherapy--NOT chemo. I do that for the next two years. That's 12 treatments for those of you keeping score at home.

This treatment will NOT make my hair (which is growing back... slowly...) fall out. It will NOT make my fingertips and toes tingle and become clumsy. It will NOT make me want to head for the couch for a nap every two hours. This is what I'm told. And so far the scans look nice and I will only be a (very) part-time cancer patient here on out. 

I've also gone from looking like a cancer patient to looking like a grizzled old prospector. That's improvement. (I'd show you the top of my head and the slight downy stubble that's growing there now but I'd have to put a microscopic lens on my phone and that's not happening.)

That's your update.

And now, to this week's business. 

There's a lot of talk in the writing business about inspiration. I'm not talking about influences or other writers who did the kind of thing you do before you did it so you realized you could do it. No, I mean the lightning-flash kind of thing that's supposed to catapult one from sitting around watching the ballgame (which I can't do until Friday now!) to rushing to the keyboard and writing an entire book in one night because it's in there and it's gotta come out.

Here's the thing about inspiration: If you wait for it to happen you will never be a working writer. And I identify as a working writer the way a person who gets supporting roles on a regular basis sees him/herself as a working actor. I mean someone who writes for a living and can do so consistently. That's not a knock on people who have a day job; I have the utmost respect for those who can do both at the same time. It's a distinction between those who write when they feel like it and those who write whether they feel like it or not.

A working writer writes. All the time. Every day, whether there's a deadline or not, but certainly when there is. Whether it's a weekday or a weekend. Whether it's convenient or not. Writing every day. Preferably for money. That's what a working writer does. Waiting for inspiration is like waiting to win the lottery before you can buy groceries; maybe you should have saved the money for food. It's impractical, unrealistic and generally destructive to the writing process. Inspiration kills a working writer.

In a few weeks (five) Minotaur will release (because it's been imprisoned up until now) DOG DISH OF DOOM, the first novel in the Agent to the Paws series about Kay Powell, a theatrical agent whose clients are all animals (not the usual Hollywood kind--actual furry types like dogs, cats and birds, which are technically not furry but you get the idea). Believe me, I'll be telling you more about that as August 15 gets closer. But the key fact today is that DOG DISH OF DOOM will--on August 15th--be my 20th published novel. And there are at least four more that are written and will be published later. Another is being written now. That's 26 novels (not counting the ones that haven't been purchased by a publisher YET) and if you want to get technical, two non-fiction books in print.

If I had waited for inspiration to write them, there might be... two?

Allow me to be specific about this: I'm not talking about the process of getting an idea for a book. Obviously, that has happened for me at least 26 times (although I believe I mentioned there are a few more I've written that I'd like to sell, so...). In the vast majority of those 26 cases, the idea was a conscious process of trying to decide what the characters from an ongoing series might be up to the next time they're trotted out before an unsuspecting public. Other times it's about starting a new series and deciding what character might be interesting to spend some time with while killing off the odd bystander so there will be a plot. That's work. That's something a person decides to do.

Inspiration is an idea that strikes when the writer isn't trying, and it's so, well, inspiring that it's hard to stop writing once the idea arrives. It's about a feeling that invades the mind and won't let go. It's about an impulse. It's about some area of the brain that works on background and occasionally sends out a memo when it can get through the static. (I'm mixing metaphors. This post was not a product of inspiration.) 

It's a wondrous thing to be struck by inspiration. It's just not something you can anticipate on a regular basis. The reason there aren't more working writers isn't the writing part. It's the work. Don't wait for inspiration. If it strikes, great. If it doesn't... write anyway.

 

Comments

[carl brookins]

Glad things are working out, healthwise. And I want to......OH
a flash of inspiration! Sorry, I have to go write a novel!
Later.

[Peg Cochran]

Congrats on the good news! I'll have to sort of disagree with you on the "working writer" part. I'm embarrassed to say I have 15 books published and contracts for 5 more, but I still need the day job alas. One reason: health insurance. Another reason: I'm certainly making money but not enough to support me and my husband in the style to which we've become accustomed (food on the table, roof over head, etc.)I consider writing as much of a job as the day job. Hopefully the royalties/advances will one day catch up with my bills!

[Jeff Cohen]

I wasn’t attempting to denigrate those who need to keep a day job, believe me. I’m very lucky in that I’m covered by my wife’s health insurance and that she’s had a steady job all these years. Writing IS as much your job as the other. Please don’t think I was trying to make that distinction.

[Megan Barton]

That's great news! So glad your are doing better!!

[Ruth Nixon]

Such a make you feel good post. I like the picture of you on the right side of page just saying.

[Cindy Sample]

I'm happy to hear your latest medical update. Things are going the right direction. And the new series sounds terrific. You set a great example for all of us.

Which means instead of watching CNN I will finish that last chapter!

[Jack Getze]

Good news all around. And this new series with lots of animals sounds ...well ...inspired.

[Gloria Feit]

Sounds good, Jeff!!

[Donald A. Coffin]

The health news is great.

And...

If writing is your job, you work at it. If teaching economics is your job (that was mine), you work at it. Part of my job was to do publishable (and, one hoped, published) research. I didn't sit around waiting for inspiration, either. I looked for things that might make interesting research topics. When I read stuff, I looked for ideas. I would browse through published economic data looking for questions I could ask--and answer. And once in a while (maybe 6 times in 40 years), I had a flash of inspiration.

And it was not just in the research part. I was continually asking myself if there were better ways to teach the material, looking at (and reading about) what other people were doing, revising how I approached things...

So I fully understand what you are saying. Inspiration can be nice when it happens, but the reality is that the job is always there, and you always have to be working at it.

[Lynne Patrick]

Did I ever tell you about the writer I knew who, when asked where she got her inspiration, replied, 'I put my electricity bill on the desk beside me. That's inspiration enough.'
I probably did. Sorry.
So glad the nightmare treatment has worked. Hope recovery from the treatment is equally successful, and the maintenance treatment is less of a nightmare.