Ever wonder about that amazing phenomenon called inspiration? We all know what it is and how it feels, but where does it come from and why is it always so random? It’s great when it happens, but how can we anticipate that out-of-the-blue flash of light, that spontaneous insight that fires up the imagination and propels us to do great things? You know; the kind that rolls out an entire concept or event in your mind as if it already happened. Except it hasn’t … not yet.
Sadly, my last great moment of inspiration showed up seven years ago at a writer’s critique group. It came after months of cogitating themes for my first novel, and the inspiration was sparked by a Greek flight attendant named Mary.
Inspiration or Creativity?
Five of us sat around a kitchen table slicing and dicing each other’s writing styles when Mary offhandedly mentioned that her grandfather was the Athens chief of police during the Nazi occupation of Greece. As soon as the words graced my ears, I knew I had my topic. I couldn’t wait to jump on Google to know more.
Two years and 220 pages later, my award-winning novel, A Lion in Spring made its debut on the market. Talk about inspiration! The entire concept was dropped in my lap in less than twenty seconds. It compelled me to research, write, re-write, and query dozens of agents for two years of my life. I always knew I would write a novel, but without a powerful concept, there would be no book. That boost of inspiration got me going, and from that day forward I used creativity to give the book its color, context, and its soul. I’ve written many books since then, but none of them started with a proverbial apple falling on my head. I kept wondering why it doesn’t happen more often.
Convergent Theories
In her 2009 TED talk, Elizabeth Gilbert described how she overcame the fear of publishing a follow-up book to her wildly successful memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. The premise of her talk is that inspiration doesn’t come from within; rather, it is external … from somewhere out there. After wrestling with, “… the dangerously, frighteningly over-anticipated follow up book to my freakish success ..." she finally realized such inspiration cannot be willed. Instead, it simply happens, as if some kind of ‘other being’ pays a random visit. Realizing that, the pressure to manufacture inspiration disappeared.
She ended the talk with something like this: “When we know inspiration is random, all we have to do is continue to show up for our job, whether it is dancing, writing, acting, or anything else. And if that divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case shows up, then so be it.”
She didn’t say it, but it sounds like God was that somewhere out there.
As I mulled this over, I came across a more cerebral approach in the Harvard Business Review. Although draped in academic jargon, Scott Barry Kaufman seemed to corroborate Gilbert’s external source theory in his article, Why Inspiration Matters. Kaufman points out that “Inspiration is evoked spontaneously without intention. Inspiration is also transcendent of our more animalistic and self-serving concerns and limitations. Such transcendence often involves a moment of clarity and awareness of new possibilities.”
If you view the right-brained TED Talk and read Kaufman’s left-brained article, you’ll find both of them agree on one thing: that the source of inspiration arrives from without, absent any prompting from us.
The Bottom Line
If you’ve experienced times of inspiration, you may agree that it takes you to places you’ve never been before. That brief “ah-ha!” moment seems to transcend your abilities, experiences, and education, to another place almost outside of yourself. It’s a sublime experience, when you see greater possibilities than what you ever believed you could do. It’s as if the event or project is all done from start to finish … from one end to the other, and it’s all so possible. If there was apathy, you were energized. If you felt limited, you suddenly knew the possibilities were endless. Unfortunately however, we cannot control inspiration.
Like grasping translucent fairies in an Avatar forest, seizing inspiration is impossible. You must let it come on its own terms, and in its own time. Since inspiration cannot be conjured up, how can we at least invite this wonderful phenomenon to pay us a visit? The answer is to simply recognize inspiration exists and then wait for it.
And you could also do what I do … ask God. I can’t wait for the next one!
Ken
