Feb 18 2009
Can You Feel It?
Inspiration. It’s that elusive little thing that prompts us to create. Whether you’re an artist, a musician, a dancer or a writer, inspiration is where your work originates. Inspiration comes in many forms. It is different for each one of us, but without it, we would stagnate and be unable to produce anything of quality.
In his blog post “31 Ways to Find Inspiration”, author Leo Babauta lists many ideas for where we might look for inspiration, including: blogs, (such as this one), books, overheard dialog, art, music, magazines, nature, children, newspapers, dreams and people watching, to name a few. These can all be good sources of inspiration, and we need to have many in mind. The source of inspiration for one person won’t be the same for the next, likewise the source of inspiration that works once may not always work again, even for the same person.
The one thing that I’ve found to be consistent about inspiration is that the best writing comes when we are inspired by something that we feel passionately about. (This is probably why there are so many love poems and love stories out there. It can’t be denied that people in love, or who have lost a love are very passionate and feel the emotions of love and loss very strongly.) When we are emotionally moved by something, the words can flow out onto the page almost effortlessly and the writing is usually good, sometimes even exceptional. In fact, it is very difficult to write about something that does stir emotion within us, and our readers can tell the difference, because it is obvious.
For instance, if you Google my name on the Internet, the very first thing that comes up is a poem that I sent in to Poetry.com several years ago. This is really unfortunate, because it is not one of my better works. It is just a poem that I threw together on the spur of the moment when they were looking for Halloween poems. I wasn’t really inspired to write it and you can see this as you read it:
Halloween. Halloween.
Ghosts and ghouls.
Goblins and dwarfs.
Witches and black cats.
Bats and broomsticks.
Halloween. Halloween.
It’s the best time of year.
You can be anything you want to
And no one thinks your strange.
Angels and devils.
Monsters and heroes.
Ghosts from the past,
Sometimes distant, sometimes near.
Halloween. Halloween.
There is nothing to fear.
It’s so much fun
To make each other scream.
Kaye Lynne Booth
Sort of blah, huh? This is definitely not one of my best works and quite frankly, I’m sorry that this is the first thing that comes up under my name. I really didn’t think that they would take it, but that is what I get for submitting to a vanity publisher. (Sometimes we writers will do anything to get published.) Using this as an example, you can see that this piece doesn’t pack a whole lot of punch. As a reader, you can not detect a whole lot of emotion in it, because I did not feel passionate about what I was writing. I sent it in and then forgot about it, to be quite honest, because I did not feel very strongly about it.
You can see the obvious difference when you read a piece that the author was emotional about. It is easy to see when something has been written from the heart. Last Christmas my daughter sent me a portrait of my two granddaughters holding hands and looking at each other. They are in two cute little chiffon type dresses, with bare feet and each had a headband of roses around her head. Looking at that picture, the phrase ‘two little fairy princesses’ popped into my head and I knew there was a poem there. I was inspired. I thought about it for a day or two and then I sat down for about fifteen minutes and wrote the following poem. As you read this, you will see not only that it is of much better quality than my previous example, but you will be able to tell that it came from my heart; that it was inspired with feelings and emotion; that the author was passionate about what she was writing. In this example you should be able to see that the feeling is what makes the difference, and that’s what inspiration is all about.
Two Little Faerie Princesses
By Kaye Lynne Booth
Two little faerie princesses
Dancing in the night,
A flitting and a fluttering
Making the forest bright.
They illuminate the evergreens
As they dance from limb to limb.
Happy little faerie princesses,
Their auras never dim.
With them, the forest is never dreary
They dance and sing all night.
The forest creatures never have a fear
Because of faerie light.
When dawn arises in the east,
They rub their little faerie eyes
And one last flitting faerie dance they do
Before saying their goodbyes.
They flutter to their faerie beds
High in the trees and then,
After a day of restful slumber,
Two little faerie princesses dance again.
(This poem is dedicated two my two granddaughters, Sheryle and Patience)
Copyright ©2009 Kaye Lynne Booth
Babauta, Leo. “31 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing”. 3 March 2008. Write to
Done. 12 Feb. 2009.
http://writetodone.com/2008/03/03/31-ways-to-find-inspiration-for-your-writing/
Insperation is so hard to come by at times. I remember your love for reading when I was a kid. You always had a book of sorts in hand. It is so wonderful to watch your progress as you post diffrent pieces. I am glad to know that my children have been such a wonderful insperation to you in your writing. You have a nack for finding the right words. Good job I love that poem.
The author has to be inspired and well as inspire the reader.
The second poem really shows the authors interest and emotions and the reader can feel it too.