Staying Inspired

"I only write when I'm inspired, so I see to it that I'm inspired every morning at nine o'clock." Peter De Vries

I love this quote. I carry it around in my heart to keep me writing on the days when I'm tired or discouraged--or just feel more like napping than stringing words together. Writing is definitely work, even if it does give back to the writer!

But today's writer faces another problem as well: finding time. Can you imagine having a schedule that allowed you to sit down at the computer (or notebook or sketchpad or whatever) from 9:00 to 5:00 every day? Most of us, though, have other jobs and squeeze in writing on the side. Even among the writers I know who write full time, most of them split their writing time between the projects of their heart and the more practical work-for-hire writing/technical writing/editing--whatever they do to help pay the bills.

I think Peter De Vries' quote applies to us, as well, but in a different way. We need to write when we're inspired--AND we need to see to it that we're inspired every moment we have to devote to writing. We need to make it a practice to find and seize those borrowed moments, not give them up because they're too short or we're too distracted or we've discovered a sudden, urgent need to rearrange the sock drawer.

Not that rearranging sock drawers isn't important. Just find another moment--after you've written.

:) Cheryl