The last few months I have been suffering with a huge amount of writer's block. Never really sure what to write, and even less so finding something interesting enough for people to want to read or even long enough that can fill an entire page. Why is it easy for some to find something to inspire them to keep writing and to fill a page with whatever comes to mind.
I’m really not sure how some people do it, how artists figure out what they want to paint, or how a game developer designs terrifying and amazing creatures for us to chop down with carefully designed weapons by equally inspired artists.
I have spent the last while on a journey to find inspiration, to find something to light a spark that really gives me that push towards a brilliant article idea or a fantastic idea for a project to pour myself into. I went walking along the streams here in Seoul, went to unique markets and spent time immersing myself into different subcultures. At the end though I didn’t feel any inspiration.
I do admit though that those experiences did end up leading me to have a greater appreciation of the city I live in, and of the people who inhabit this great place with me. Seoul is truly a great place to live, with exciting things to do in every corner of the city.
Maybe that is what inspires some people, the places they live and the people who they interact with everyday whether intentionally or not. That method may work for some, but after exploring my city more in-depth than i ever had, I just felt tired and still couldn’t figure out what to ever write about my experiences.
Was I looking in the wrong places? Surely that must be it! I’ve been looking for unique things to talk about when I really should find inspiration in the daily grind!
So I spent some time just living my regular old boring life, going to meetings and having boring conversations about the weather and the news. At the end of each day I would sit down and try to find some inspiration in the interactions I had, but I was often too mentally spent to even think about sitting down at my computer to write anything down, which often led to me forgetting everything the next morning.
I’ve kept going back and forth trying to really pin down what makes people inspired, what brings people to create great works, but I’ve come to one simple conclusion. There isn’t anything that inspires people.
I don’t mean that nobody gets inspired and that everyone is faking a state of mind that has become a crucial part of our modern vernacular when it comes to creation. I’m saying that often our ideas and our minds aren’t singular in nature. We aren’t getting inspired by one single thing or one moment. The sum of everything we have seen and done gives our imagination power and our minds the ability to bring ideas into fruition.
Maybe this is a cheesy ending to a cheesy article, because after doing all this thinking, I’m still just as confused as when I started. I really don’t know whether I have figured things out, or that my lack of sleep is causing me to go slightly crazy with some philosophical nonsense.
All I can really say is that the search for inspiration is a search I think many of us continue and strive to find, but often we end up frustrated and defeated. Why don’t we forget about finding inspiration, and instead just write whatever comes to mind. Maybe that’s how all writers do it, whether they think so or not.