Where does inspiration come from?

Divine inspiration
Image source: Lviv Polytechnic National University

I've read a couple of great posts lately on the subject of writing, one here at Books and Bowel Movements and another at The New Dork Review of Books and Greg from The New Dork Review's reply to my comment got me thinking about something. All my life I have always had this idea that to write a great work of fiction in any format, you need to have a story bursting out of you, something almost alien that consumes you and takes over the function of your hands as you frantically type away, creating a masterpiece. To be honest I have no idea why I think like this because I know, logically, that writing is work. You produce the first draft, then the second and get feedback and rework it and rework it until it's something that you're willing to release into the world. I do this all the time with my non-fiction writing so why have I got myself in such a twist about the fiction writing aspect? Is this idea that all great novels start out as a story begging to be told within the author just a myth? Who started this myth?

I was reviewing my archive of bookish podcasts while I was pondering this when I had a vague recollection of something I heard a few years back from Alice Walker so I went back and listened to it.

"I prepared by changing my life almost completely. I was living in New York City, I was an editor at Ms. Magazine, I was married... and I knew that I could not write this story which started coming to me in the actual voices of the people... I knew I couldn't write it in the city because of the tall buildings, the noise...  I also knew that I could not remain with my husband because the world that we had was charming and good but not large enough for these people and he would not have been able to understand them and he would not have been able to understand who I was to write this, so I got a divorce... we sold our house, eventually got my half of the money from the house, moved here. The people of the story, they were very real to me. They loved the beauty of San Francisco... a lot. They didn't like the earthquakes though so I knew then I had to take them out of the city to the countryside." 

Alice Walker, speaking about writing The Color Purple

BBC World Service "World Book Club: Alice Walker"

Released as a podcast 18 November 2008

Small wonder, listening to this, that I have this embedded idea when I heard such a highly respected author saying she was so inspired that she had to get divorced, quit her job and move cross-country! Then I wondered if I had heard this from other authors and found this from J K Rowling...

Sue Lawley (DID presenter): I've heard writers before, Joanne, say that stories come into their mind and demand to be written. Is that how it was with Harry?

J K Rowling: Absolutely. It was, yes. I was 25 when I had the idea for Harry and I had been writing, if you include all of the embarrassing teenaged rubbish, for years and years and I had never been so excited by an idea in my life. I'd abandoned two novels for adults prior to that, actually the second novel I was still writing when I had the idea for Harry. For six months I tried to write them both simultaneously but then Harry just took over completely.

J K Rowling speaking about writing Harry Potter

BBC Radio  4 "Desert Island Discs"

First released 5 November 2000

If we consider here what Alice Walker and J K Rowling have said, then it really does sound like a story moves in from some other place and takes over. It's the divine inspiration idea that's been around for centuries. It's a perfectly lovely idea, of course for those who want an easy explanation of how and why art of any kind is created and why it is that some art affects some people more deeply than others does. However, for those of us sat in front of a blank computer screen with only a cold cup of coffee to hand and a defiantly blinking cursor tormenting us, it's not much comfort. What are we supposed to do? Sit around and wait for inspiration to strike? Where does this inspiration come? New York city, like Alice Walker? On a delayed British Rail train, like J K Rowling? Personally, I couldn't think of two more diametrically opposed locations in terms of potential for inspiration. What do we do in the meantime? 

I like to take comfort from this quote from Khaled Hosseini. To me, this is a more realistic tale of how a great book came into being. It started off with an idea from the piece of news that the Taliban were going to ban kite-flying in Afghanistan, something which was personally significant to Hosseini since he had loved to do this when he was younger. From there, he said, it grew.

"So then I sat down, and I thought I would just write this whimsical story about kite-flying in Kabul... and of course, stories take a life of their own and gradually what started as this little kite story became a 25-page short story about this kind of complicated friendship between these two boys, this doomed friendship. And it became a story about cowardice and betrayal and honour and guilt and forgiveness and so on. And then the short story sat around for a couple of years until the March of 2001 when my wife discovered it and read it... and then I revisited the story and realised that even though it was really flawed it had a big heart and maybe the nucleus of what could become a really interesting piece of longer fiction. And that was the basis for the novel."

Khaled Hosseini, speaking about The Kite Runner

BBC World Service "World Book Club: Khaled Hosseini"

Released as a podcast  27 May 2008

From an idea to an abandoned short story to a hugely successful novel. It took was his wife's interest and enjoyment of the story for him to realise that this story was one that had massive potential, that 'big heart' despite all of the flaws that he could also see in it. 

I know that all stories have to come from somewhere, but I'm starting to think that they don't have to necessarily be that lightning strike of inspiration. Perhaps not everything we write is going to be that number one bestseller or Booker Prize winning story. Maybe we need to write a bunch of so-so stories before we can write the really good one. In the same way that you would never imagine that you'd go out and run a marathon with no prior training, maybe I should reconfigure my view to think of all writing as training for the 'big event', that hoped for and dreamed of published book. I mean, seriously. Even J K Rowling said that she'd been writing for 'years and years' before Harry came along and do you think that Alice Walker never wrote anything before The Color Purple? Exactly. I don't doubt that they really did experience that extraordinary 'boom' of inspiration but looking at Hosseini's story, it doesn't seem like it is as necessary as I once thought it was. Sure you need an idea, but that idea can just as easily germinate from a small seed as it can be transplanted into your brain. 

Looks like I just need to get myself into training for when that idea comes along. 

How about you? What do you think of the "story that just had to be written" idea?

Fight for the right to write: Supporting Judy Mays.

The school where Judy Mays teaches.
Image source: Here

Earlier today on Twitter thanks to @sleighanne, I caught wind of a ruckus in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. A 10th grade English teacher has been outed as a published romance novelist. A romance novelist, can you believe it?! The woman actually had the nerve to have a life of her own outside of the classroom! Detect the sarcasm yet? 

The poor woman has only been following her dream of being a published author and this is the treatment she gets. Publicly outed and shamed. Personally I found this so ridiculous that I wrote the below email to the WNEP website. I'm reproducing it here because it's a good summation of my feelings on this point.


Dear ----,

I am writing to you in support of Judy Buranich aka Judy Mays. I read and watched the piece about her on the WNEP website this afternoon and was horrified. Public humiliation for being a published author is what constitutes news? I am not from the area from which you are reporting. Heck, I'm not even from America but this is something that goes beyond local news and beyond borders.

Ms. Buranich surely did not cross any legal, ethical or moral boundaries by writing and publishing these books. She hasn't used student's identities or relationships for content, she hasn't written any novels that touched on inappropriate student/teacher relationships and I'm certain that she hasn't, as one neurotic mother suggested, been eyeing up any of her students in a sexual manner. Sex is a normal and regular part of life. Is writing about it really any worse than engaging in sexual acts? Are we really suggesting that Snyder County is a celibate area? Then where are all the children coming from?

Teachers are in a position of responsibility and they have great influence over the minds of our future generations, but they're also people. They are entitled to have lives and so long as they don't do anything illegal then I think it's nobody's business, frankly, what they do in those lives. Ms. Buranich has kept her teaching and her writing separate. The only reason that anyone knows about this is because a few people have assumed the role of moral police and decided that outing her as a, shock and horror, romance novelist is their duty.

Good teachers, those dedicated to educating kids, are becoming harder and harder to come by these days. If Ms. Buranich decides to quit the profession of teaching because of this incident then I think it will be a huge loss to her students. I think this article was a biased and sensationalistic attempt to grab media attention. I would hope that in the future more time could be taken to consider the human impact of your reporting.

Yours sincerely,

Kathmeista

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and you may disagree with me on this point but once in a while, I like to take a stand. Judy Buranich has done nothing wrong. You may not like romance novels or erotic writing but confusing the content of her writing with her ability to be a good teacher is clearly flawed logic.

Tell me what you think.

Poetic breaks

The silvery notes of dreams
Cascade through my consciousness.
Drifting dreamscapes
and flitting fantasies,
Tumble down,
Splish splash
Into the bottomless pool.

Kath Liu, 2008

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

This woman is my new guru. Seriously. I'm only 123 pages into Eat, Pray, Love but I'm hooked and entranced and inspired by what she's saying. And then I saw this video. She make me want to write more and makes me believe I can do it.

Ole to her!

Embers

This is a poem in progress. Comments and feedback most appreciated...

Embers

The embers of the year
Glow warmly in my calendar.
September, November, December,
October - it's over.
Approaching ends,
The final act,
The last regrets...
Another year draws to a close.

Kathryn Lee 06/10/08

The Six Pack Three: Buy this book!

September is NZ Book Month, a celebration of all things literary in this great country of ours. This year I managed to get a copy of The Six Pack Three, the result of a short story competition which closed in late March this year. This year is the third year this competition has been held and the third year this book has been a best-seller. It's hardly surprising. This little book is, in my opinion, an absolute gem.

The six winning writers are:
Marisa Maepu, Sue Wootton, Aroha Harris, Ian McKenzie, David Geary and Kate Duigan, appearing in the book in this order.

Each of the stories adds a little more to the ever-growing collective voice of New Zealand, sharing insights into our society, our lives and our existences. From the childhood experiences of racial tensions in South Auckland in the late Eighties, to a brief biographical tribute to "Gary Manawatu", an "ideas man" to a psychological thriller in 'Mirror Mirror'.

So what kinds of issues are bubbling up through the NZ conscious, if we are to take this as a slice of the NZ conscious, that is. Recurrent themes of race, childhood disability and psychological issues pop up throughout the collection - the darker side of the sunny "clean, green" New Zealand existence, perhaps? Or as the judges write in their foreword, despite the "dark moments" in the collection, there are "beams of bright New Zealand sunlight". It depends which way you look at it I guess.

No matter what, though, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this book should be on the bookshelf of anyone who claims themselves to be a book-lover. It's a slice of New Zealand's literary history, a collection of damn good stories, a great read and only six bucks. There's no good reason not to buy it!

Related Links:
New Zealand Book Month
Author Information
Six Pack Success

Lunching with Michele

[Photo taken by Gregory Wood]

"I hear you've done an assignment on one of my poems?"
Here I am. I am face to face with my favourite poet and one of my literary idols, Michele Leggott. And she's talking to me. Me! So, of course, my mind goes blank at the all crucial moment, robbing me of anything even mildly intelligent to say. Of all the times my mind chooses to stop working (and it does it with alarming regularity), why now!!

Bumbling idiot act aside, this experience of meeting Michele was one of the most outstanding and inspirational experiences of my entire life. For those of you who are not familiar with contemporary NZ poetry, Michele Leggott is our current Poet Laureate, a massively accomplished and brilliant poet. Her poetry publications include:

Like This? Poems. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1988.
Swimmers, Dancers. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1991.
DIA. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1994.
As Far As I Can See. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1999.
Milk & Honey. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2005; Cambridge: Salt, 2006.
Journey to Portugal. Collages by Gretchen Albrecht. Auckland: Holloway Press, 2007.

She came to Massey's Albany campus to give a lecture in the Chancellor's Series and what a treat it was. She read us five of her poems which are all the more beautiful when read out by their author; showed us her tokotoko (the ceremonial stick each Poet Laureate is given, each personally designed for them by Jacob Scott) and then spoke about her writing and its current connection to journeys.

If this was the closest I got to Michele Leggott ever again, I would die a very happy woman. However, our wonderful lecturers Mary and Jack arranged for us to have lunch with her afterwards. Which was where I found myself, directly opposite one of the women I admire most, barely able to remember my own name, let alone the poem of hers I had written about. It was of course, a woman, a rose and what has it have to do with her or they with one another, a poem I have read many times and love dearly. My most sincere apologies to Michele for my appalling memory.

Over lunch, our group had the opportunity to discuss her work, her teaching, her Laureateship and inspiration with her. I think the two things that stood out for me the most of all of the things she said were that she takes her inspiration from her journey through life (including trips to the shops as well as Portugal) and that, when I answered her question "Are any of you here writers?" with "I try to be" she said, "No, you say, YES, I am a writer."

So, YES. I am a writer. And I have Michele Leggott to thank for a boost of creative confidence. It doesn't get much better than that!

LINKS:
Poet Laureate Blog
Michele Leggott Author Page at NZEPC
Michele Leggott NZ Book Council Page

Work in progress...

The novel that I have been promising myself that I will write "one day" has finally kicked off. It started life as a short story but quickly grew legs and has definitely become a longer piece of fiction. I'm using a significant event in my life (the how I came to leave home story that some of you will know) as a jump off point but then going down a fictional pathway.

I'm quite excited - I'm about 5000 words into it and have had some good feedback so far plus I am enjoying writing it, which is always a good sign for the progression of something beyond the point of being an idea. So watch this space!

Book Launched!!

Home and Away: Life Writing Three has now been launched!

This book is a collection of pieces from both the Life Writing and Travel Writing papers at Massey University, submitted by the students and edited by Jack Ross (the coordinator for the papers) and myself. It's a fantastic voyage through the lives and experiences of a wide variety of people, from an ex-cop's traumatic experiences of attending cot deaths to the search for an extinct NZ bird, the huia; from tales of trips to Waiheke and Tirau, to places as far-flung as South America and Asia.

This book is truly an achievement for all those involved in it - for many of the contributors it is the first time they have been published, and given the quality of contributions, I really hope it won't be the last.

Copies are only NZ$10 and can be ordered through the School Administrator for the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Massey University, or through my co-editor, Jack Ross. I am also told they are available from Bennetts - Massey's campus bookstore. If you are interested, please let me know.

Links:
New books reveal bold approach to writing life.

Vicious Cycle

Yet again you retreat
Into your black hole:
Poor me
Retributions
Lies.
Standing before your wall of contempt,
I stare
Blank, bemused.
What am I to do?
Your desert is my ocean,
My black is your white.
My inner scream shatters the glass clouds
And tears a hole in the black sky.
I am lost to you,
Cut adrift on my ocean
While you blind yourself
Kicking sand in your eyes.

Kathryn Lee
27/04/08

I'm writing again!

It's happening! Once again the juices are flowing and the pen is back in contact with it's long lost love, the page. Once the rough drafts of what has emerged have gone through a few evolutions, I will test them out here. I don't know if anyone actually reads this blog, if you do and you care to comment, please do.

The inspirational drought is broken!

I haven't written anything here for ages!


Why? I wondered. I think it was because I ran out of things to say. I had a serious creative drought in the last half of last year, brought about mainly by emotional stress I think. When you're constantly dodging verbal land mines and looking over your shoulder, waiting for the next relational bomb to drop in the landscape of your personal life, it becomes hard to look into the imaginary world and create something. Focusing on survival does that to you. Only the most immediate and most urgent tasks have any priority and everything else seems superfluous.

Anyways, now I have figured out how to add photos, I think this should help jazz things up around here. Here's a couple of photos in which I find inspiration. Both are photos taken in Taiwan during August 2007.


Quiet contemplation in the park.


The Taipei skyline from the 101 observatory deck.

So where to from here? Hopefully I'll be able to find my voice again and move forward with my writing and/or photography!