Tonight's Poet Corner: Introspection
One thing I've realized around, I don't know, two seconds ago while sitting at my parents' desktop while I take care of their old dog: The best way to keep your creativity going is to maintain some sort of enthusiasm for something, even if some naysayer may call the thing you're enthusiastic about "frivolous."
I mean it. It doesn't even have to be enthusiasm for something deep or abstract or philosophical. It can be anything. It can be enthusiasm for a particular song you heard on the radio, or a drink you mixed for a friend, or a certain video game or book or movie or even a specific type of cheese. It can be enthusiasm for what some people might call a typical hobby, like playing board games or getting really good with crosswords or baking a batch of cupcakes. Enthusiasm is so goddamn important to have in order to be a working artist, because the moment you become apathetic or disinterested in your day-to-day routine is the day you run into some pretty severe creative ennui.
It's no secret that every other month or so, I hit a mental wall in terms of my writing. Some weeks, my poems are absolutely on point and my stories are complex and well executed (at least, in my mind; I might not be entirely impartial). Other weeks, of course, my writing's not so keen. But I would be lying if I said that my best poems weren't inspired by something that happened in some way to drive my enthusiasm levels up the wall. In short, I wrote my best work because I was passionate about something - not even passionate about the craft of writing itself, but passionate about a thing that ultimately forced me to use the written word as a way to convey my feelings about said thing.
Let me give you an example. One of my latest poems, Era, was in fact inspired by the "era" (Nostal Mix) song by TaQ that I first heard while playing Dance Dance Revolution (Kona Mix) on the original Playstation. I'm not kidding. My girlfriend happens to have a PS2 version of DDR, and "era" happened to pop up in conversation. I wound up finding the track on Youtube and wrote the poem Era while listening to the one minute or so musical piece on repeat. Music does that to me - it inspires me to write because it's the only way for me to emotionally vomit without making too much of an actual mess. I have written novels, short stories, and essays with specific songs repeating on my iPod, to keep me in an enthusiastic and energetic mood even when it gets harder and harder to finish a project. And it's not just music. It's movie scenes, book passages, certain food aromas, the kinds of people I see walking around or the friends I observe on Facebook. I cannot rightly say I wrote anything without some external thing - not just a thought, or an abstract feeling, or a mental musing - but a thing, whether it be when I'm awake or when I'm dreaming, that involves one of my five senses.
Okay, let me give you another example. I've gotten really into cooking. I've always written a lot about food because food happens to be a big passion of mine. I'm overweight and I can definitely cater to my love of food while staying healthy, so the opportunity to cook actually allows me to prepare meals for myself that are not only experimental but also better for me to eat. I've actually been crowned the Seasoning Queen by my sister and my girlfriend because I am crazy about messing with seasonings, which was inspired by a good friend whose parents own a local spicery. Cooking, again, allows me to think creatively and work creatively even when writing-wise I'm at a dead end. It's an amazing mental release, and I actually find the process (usually) very relaxing.
...Okay, let me give you one final example, which is really just a whole snaggle of examples wrapped into one big, meaty bundle of example-ness. This is how important it is for a writer to be enthusiastic about anything, because enthusiasm for something is what drives a writer to write every single time. I wrote The Liffey is Half-Asleep because of my enthusiasm for Ireland, where I studied abroad for four months. I wrote The Sequined Door as a response to Todrick Hall's "Cinderfella," which you can find on Youtube, as it inspired me to write a GRSM-oriented novel in a fantastical environment. How did I come to write [Insert Self-Discovery Here]? I watched The Perks of Being A Wallflower and got into a young adult literature mindset. And yes, John Green's An Abundance of Katherines worked its magic on my premise as well, which was unintended and somewhat amusing. And The Stripping of Stars, my first book in my Rosa Diaries science fiction trilogy, was inspired by such works as The Twilight Zone, Firefly, and Elantris, the latter written by Brandon Sanderson.
Inspiration oozes in at every opportunity with me, and it's not just my novels! Many of my plays have been written based on things I've seen or heard or touched or tasted or smelled that might seem innocuous or minor to some people. My play Be Still, Little Lotus Eater was entirely inspired by "Pyramid Song," a tune by Radiohead that I just so happened to hear because a classmate at my university used it in a powerpoint presentation. My play Can't Hurry Love was written promptly after listening to, you guessed it, "Can't Hurry Love" by the Supremes. Dialogue With A Marionette - Ireland pops up again. And Fairy Godmother was, funnily enough, inspired by pictures I saw on Facebook in which one of my sister's UCI female colleagues played a boy in the play Fuddy Meers, getting me to write a script with a gender-bent character.
Now, keep in mind that there is absolutely nothing wrong with writing being influenced by other people's work. That's how some of the greatest literary, artistic, and film geniuses have come up with their best ideas. I think sometimes, we as writers are so scared about writing based on things that make us excited or enthusiastic about writing that we stifle ourselves in terms of some of our strongest concepts. Inspiration does not equal plagiarism. I repeat: It does not equal PLAGIARISM. And if it turns out that a scene from Citizen Kane prompted you to write a story about the power of mirrors, then more credit to you.
I think a lot of people discredit the power of enthusiasm in terms of passion, and in many ways, enthusiasm and passion go hand in hand or even start looking like the same thing. Why make fun of over-the-top sports fans when they really find a great love with their team (provided they don't go half-mad and hit someone in the head with a baseball bat)? I myself have really gotten more into the San Francisco Giants' games, and it's done wonders for my mood and my creative energy. If someone you know can't stop talking about a particular song or film or artist or method of cooking potatoes, don't shut them down - let them have and blurt out that enthusiasm. Their enthusiasm is not frivolous. Their passion for something small or big is not frivolous. Don't treat it as a frivolity. Treat it as a livelihood.
Because too often, we are told to put a cork on passion for the sake of realism and business and manners and social cues. That, I think, puts a damper on at least my stimulation to write all too often, and while it's okay to have off weeks, I should never downplay my enthusiasm for anything just because someone else may find it to be a little too much or a little bit disconcerting. If someone is put off by my enthusiasm, that's his problem, not mine.
And considering how much of a loud, brazen, enthusiastic personality I can be, I think that's a mantra I'm not going to let go of easily.
Writer's Quotation of the Night:
The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.
- Richard Peck
I mean it. It doesn't even have to be enthusiasm for something deep or abstract or philosophical. It can be anything. It can be enthusiasm for a particular song you heard on the radio, or a drink you mixed for a friend, or a certain video game or book or movie or even a specific type of cheese. It can be enthusiasm for what some people might call a typical hobby, like playing board games or getting really good with crosswords or baking a batch of cupcakes. Enthusiasm is so goddamn important to have in order to be a working artist, because the moment you become apathetic or disinterested in your day-to-day routine is the day you run into some pretty severe creative ennui.
It's no secret that every other month or so, I hit a mental wall in terms of my writing. Some weeks, my poems are absolutely on point and my stories are complex and well executed (at least, in my mind; I might not be entirely impartial). Other weeks, of course, my writing's not so keen. But I would be lying if I said that my best poems weren't inspired by something that happened in some way to drive my enthusiasm levels up the wall. In short, I wrote my best work because I was passionate about something - not even passionate about the craft of writing itself, but passionate about a thing that ultimately forced me to use the written word as a way to convey my feelings about said thing.
Let me give you an example. One of my latest poems, Era, was in fact inspired by the "era" (Nostal Mix) song by TaQ that I first heard while playing Dance Dance Revolution (Kona Mix) on the original Playstation. I'm not kidding. My girlfriend happens to have a PS2 version of DDR, and "era" happened to pop up in conversation. I wound up finding the track on Youtube and wrote the poem Era while listening to the one minute or so musical piece on repeat. Music does that to me - it inspires me to write because it's the only way for me to emotionally vomit without making too much of an actual mess. I have written novels, short stories, and essays with specific songs repeating on my iPod, to keep me in an enthusiastic and energetic mood even when it gets harder and harder to finish a project. And it's not just music. It's movie scenes, book passages, certain food aromas, the kinds of people I see walking around or the friends I observe on Facebook. I cannot rightly say I wrote anything without some external thing - not just a thought, or an abstract feeling, or a mental musing - but a thing, whether it be when I'm awake or when I'm dreaming, that involves one of my five senses.
Okay, let me give you another example. I've gotten really into cooking. I've always written a lot about food because food happens to be a big passion of mine. I'm overweight and I can definitely cater to my love of food while staying healthy, so the opportunity to cook actually allows me to prepare meals for myself that are not only experimental but also better for me to eat. I've actually been crowned the Seasoning Queen by my sister and my girlfriend because I am crazy about messing with seasonings, which was inspired by a good friend whose parents own a local spicery. Cooking, again, allows me to think creatively and work creatively even when writing-wise I'm at a dead end. It's an amazing mental release, and I actually find the process (usually) very relaxing.
...Okay, let me give you one final example, which is really just a whole snaggle of examples wrapped into one big, meaty bundle of example-ness. This is how important it is for a writer to be enthusiastic about anything, because enthusiasm for something is what drives a writer to write every single time. I wrote The Liffey is Half-Asleep because of my enthusiasm for Ireland, where I studied abroad for four months. I wrote The Sequined Door as a response to Todrick Hall's "Cinderfella," which you can find on Youtube, as it inspired me to write a GRSM-oriented novel in a fantastical environment. How did I come to write [Insert Self-Discovery Here]? I watched The Perks of Being A Wallflower and got into a young adult literature mindset. And yes, John Green's An Abundance of Katherines worked its magic on my premise as well, which was unintended and somewhat amusing. And The Stripping of Stars, my first book in my Rosa Diaries science fiction trilogy, was inspired by such works as The Twilight Zone, Firefly, and Elantris, the latter written by Brandon Sanderson.
Inspiration oozes in at every opportunity with me, and it's not just my novels! Many of my plays have been written based on things I've seen or heard or touched or tasted or smelled that might seem innocuous or minor to some people. My play Be Still, Little Lotus Eater was entirely inspired by "Pyramid Song," a tune by Radiohead that I just so happened to hear because a classmate at my university used it in a powerpoint presentation. My play Can't Hurry Love was written promptly after listening to, you guessed it, "Can't Hurry Love" by the Supremes. Dialogue With A Marionette - Ireland pops up again. And Fairy Godmother was, funnily enough, inspired by pictures I saw on Facebook in which one of my sister's UCI female colleagues played a boy in the play Fuddy Meers, getting me to write a script with a gender-bent character.
Now, keep in mind that there is absolutely nothing wrong with writing being influenced by other people's work. That's how some of the greatest literary, artistic, and film geniuses have come up with their best ideas. I think sometimes, we as writers are so scared about writing based on things that make us excited or enthusiastic about writing that we stifle ourselves in terms of some of our strongest concepts. Inspiration does not equal plagiarism. I repeat: It does not equal PLAGIARISM. And if it turns out that a scene from Citizen Kane prompted you to write a story about the power of mirrors, then more credit to you.
I think a lot of people discredit the power of enthusiasm in terms of passion, and in many ways, enthusiasm and passion go hand in hand or even start looking like the same thing. Why make fun of over-the-top sports fans when they really find a great love with their team (provided they don't go half-mad and hit someone in the head with a baseball bat)? I myself have really gotten more into the San Francisco Giants' games, and it's done wonders for my mood and my creative energy. If someone you know can't stop talking about a particular song or film or artist or method of cooking potatoes, don't shut them down - let them have and blurt out that enthusiasm. Their enthusiasm is not frivolous. Their passion for something small or big is not frivolous. Don't treat it as a frivolity. Treat it as a livelihood.
Because too often, we are told to put a cork on passion for the sake of realism and business and manners and social cues. That, I think, puts a damper on at least my stimulation to write all too often, and while it's okay to have off weeks, I should never downplay my enthusiasm for anything just because someone else may find it to be a little too much or a little bit disconcerting. If someone is put off by my enthusiasm, that's his problem, not mine.
And considering how much of a loud, brazen, enthusiastic personality I can be, I think that's a mantra I'm not going to let go of easily.
Writer's Quotation of the Night:
The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.
- Richard Peck
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
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