In Spark - a book
about creativity by Julie Burstein, the painter Chuck Close is quoted:
"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to
work."
Woody Allen puts it this way: “Eighty percent of success is showing
up.”
And Neil Gaiman: “You have to write when you’re not
inspired. And you have to write the scenes that don’t inspire you. And the
weird thing is that six months later, a year later, you’ll look back at them
and you can’t remember which scenes you wrote when you were inspired and which
scenes you just wrote because they had to be written next.”
It’s so true. Some scenes or characters may not be easy to
approach. You hesitate because you’re afraid
that it won’t come out right and you’ll be exposed as a fool. But you just have to do the work and start writing. Allow one thought to lead to
another and for one sentence to lead to another. The next day much of it looks
like crap. But that’s what I like about writing: you get a second chance and a
third chance and a forth chance if you want it. But the writer has to take
advantage of those new chances. Don’t depend on the muse. Study your craft.
