Author: judy.kohnen

Inspiring an audience

A writer’s calling is driven by a need to create a legacy or testimony. There is hope that the words will inform, comfort or inspire others. At first, even if only one person is responds it feels like validation enough. However, if writers keep at it, they want to reach a broader audience. Then they need a platform, like publications and social media marketing.

But how does marketing feel like being a writer?

Honing an Inspired Voice

Inspiration is an expression of a writer’s discernment. Over time, with practice, (about 3-5 of years of daily writing) writing becomes distinctive and written words carry the writers “voice” to the reader’s ear. The writer might sound like a journalist, asking questions and probing for hidden agendas and clarifications. If there’s a lot of research, the writer’s voice becomes a trusted, learned professor presenting facts and a love of learning. Maybe the writer is trying to fix something with humor, or by sharing vulnerability and dissatisfactions. Perhaps the writer is a true creative, a poet or visual artist, exposing hidden beauty with an eye for things that most people miss.

Prompt: Write about “inspiration”

Is writing inspired, or a calling?

When I use the writing prompt “write about inspiration” it typically elicits a series of stories about a safe or interesting place, or a personal experience. However, what a writer calls inspiration, I believe is better defined as a calling. Writers have an inexplicable impulse to write that is accompanied by a feeling of divine influence. Inspiration is a trigger that unleashes a creative urge to share an observation or a story, an expression of the writer’s personality and personal preferences.

For some writers inspiration, or this calling, feels like a spiritual retreat, like a deep well of feelings, concepts and connections to people and events. For others, inspiration is a tangible location. It is a familiar place like a window with a view, or an old desk that relaxes and generates confident writing. Often, an unusual or unexpected place becomes the setting for a story or a scene, like the underground vegetable fields built under Tokyo, the ghost town of Calico, the forests of Olympic National Park.

Inspired by rituals

Where do you find inspiration to write? What are your rituals and incantations?

Where do you find inspiration to write?

In today’s world, writers no longer pray to goddesses for magical interventions and most prefer a healthy lifestyle to constant hangovers. Instead, they research practical guidelines to generate hours of blissful writing in the zone. A recommended technique to kick-start inspiration is the “manageable” approach. Beginning writers are advised to pen one or two paragraphs every day, or to target a consistent 500 word count every day. Other writers set aside a certain time of day to perform the rituals of writing. Some rise early to greet Inspiration at the crack of dawn, stealing time in the early morning before work, while other scribblers are habitual night owls. Many people never have a good time for anything, so they grab any opportunity, including hiding in cars during their kid’s soccer game.

Writers honor and seek inspiration with a mystical reverence. They experiment with ways to increase their artistic production. Modern writers set out elaborate traps for Inspiration with compulsive attention. They sit in a special chair, or write with purple ink. Some wear a fuzzy housecoat, or become superstitious about the placement of objects on their desk. Others must start the writing day with a hot beverage and an ample supply of celery sticks. Many need a deadline, or prefer the background hum of a café, or hours of uninterrupted silence.

What are your rituals and incantations?

Muses of Inebriation and Inspiration

When do modern writers do their best work?

When do modern writers do their best work? When they are driven by sadness? Drunk?

Writers have always fretted and worried about inspiration. The Greeks, Shakespeare and Keats yearned for nubile muses to imbue the air with a dreamlike mist of inspiration. There is also a belief that a cup of Inebriation pairs well with Inspiration. The Norse, the Greeks, Romans, the Chinese and the masters of Western literature honor a man’s melancholic or hard-bitten disposition, especially when it gives way to drink and despair because the hope is that this will fuel their best work.

My experience is that the “Drunken Poet” is an old myth. I’ve sat through many presentations by writers and they all have figured out a system to write when they’re rested, a time of day and a methodology that suits their lifestyle.

The Nine Muses of Inspiration

The first time I noticed inspiration it was sculpted into the sides of a sarcophagus in the Louvre museum. Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and Zeus, the great womanizer, had nine daughters together; the Muses of Inspiration. These muses were carved for prosperity into the cold stone slabs of a marble coffin. The most famous are Thalia and Melpomene, comedy and tragedy, best known by their theatrical masks. The Greeks had oral tradition of literature, alive with music, including a muse for dance, Terpsichore. A writer was mostly about poetry, and they had several variations: Polymnis who fostered musical poetry (or hymnody); Erato, the muse of love poetry; Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry, and Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. The muse Clio holds a writing tablet while she records history. The odd one out is Urania, the muse of astronomy. She’s the lone scientist and placeholder for future generations of academic publications.

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The muses characterize the ancient ideals of a cultivated man, as represented by the likes of Socrates, or Homer. “According to a belief attested in Greece as early as the fourth century BCE, the practice of literature and philosophy, or daily intercourse with the Muses, ensured immortality and the soul’s salvation.”

Some things never change.

The moral is, since the earliest times, writers prayed or drank wine while yearning for inspiration. And, not content to be a legacy just in their own minds, they’ve all craved the immortal success of a best seller.

* Image courtesy of Sarcophages des Muses, copyright 1993 RMN, Herve Lewandowski

Personality, or Mindset? What drives success?

Ever notice how people can be introverted when they talk about themselves but glowing extroverts when the topic is about something they are passionate about? I have noticed this about writers. They do not define themselves as writers, until someone asks a question about their book, and then they never shut up. This paradox has always made me laugh.

Recently, I listened to a TED talk by Susan Cain, an author who published a bestselling book in 2014 called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I was surprised to discover that to a psychologist an introvert is not a reserved person. Introverts are not shy people who are afraid of public speaking–they do all those things very well. Introversion is not about timid behavior but a cognitive expression of how information is processed. Introverts spend hours pondering the inner world; their focus is on concepts and ideas. An extrovert is more interested in people and the things that make up the outer world. The differences show up in the way these two groups of people approach life. Introverts work in an internally focused manner, they prefer to prepare and practice before revealing their thoughts. Extroverts, on the other hand, get their energy by interacting with others and are willing to talk extemporaneously, even on topics they know little about. They can be charming, and often annoying, all at the same time.

Our culture applauds the extrovert and scolds the introvert by encouraging them to “speak up.”  Childhood  must seem tedious, rushed and pushy, for the young introvert. However, once we claim our identities, through work and daily routines, I don’t think that being an introvert or extrovert matters much. There’s hundreds of successful writers and engineers to fit both categories. I have found people evolve into hybrids, or even jump into the opposite category, as best suits them.

Repeating myself from my last blog, it is not what you are, but how you respond to the world and information. That’s the most intriguing measure of an intelligent nature. I find that performance, endurance, and success is in the mindset, not because of a personality type. Some people respond to new things with a growth mindset, seeking new directions and ideas. Others worry about themselves and their aspirations, until they reach a point when they become defensive and discouraged. They have developed a “fixed mindset” about their ability to learn, persuade and succeed.

I enjoy anyone with enough discernment to integrate their world.  Writers fall in this category, they have an over-developed “growth mindset” and are curious about ideas, people, concepts and the world around them.

Return The Shopping Cart

One of my favorite kind of stories. The everyday “I have been there too” tale. This one is short and ends with a humorous twist. The reader leaves with an “aha” understanding of how to make life sweet and inspirational. It reminds me that what happens to us is unimportant–correction, the experience may become a great story (and I am a believer in sharing stories) but it is how we react to things in life that is golden.