Eureka! – Open Book Blog Hop #114

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

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Topic #114

Tell us a story about a time when a piece of inspiration hit you.

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Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.

Inspiration strikes writers in the quirkiest of places, when it’s inconvenient, away from the computer or writing pad, and in ways non-writers would not always understand. Other artists would get this. They can bridge the gap between trades with leaps of intertext. That, too, is a point where inspiration may catalyze.

Oh, yes. I do mean catalyze. Inspiration isn’t something that blooms. It explodes into being. Sometimes it suddenly appears and disappears as quickly, like fireworks. Those moments when inspiration bursts on the scene, erecting a fascinating sculpture within the mind, one that must be carved out onto paper for the world to see, are where writers find their best sources of story. For many of us, I dare say, it is unpredictable.

If we could harness the power of inspiration, as in being able to command it at will, the creative process would be a pure joy. Let’s face facts, this is exactly why there is suffering for your art. Skills are improved with practice, but being inspired is an animal not so easily yoked.

Yet, we can learn the things that may induce a chance meeting with the muses. Music, as I have written in the past, has been a great help for enticing them out to play. That reminds me of a time that inspiration visited me, and that moment stands out in my mind whenever anyone asks about the things that inspire me.

I was in college at the time, the later years of my bachelor degree. Exhaustion and frustration had rendered me moody, Often, I found solace in listening to meditative music. This particular time, I was enjoying my copies of several Enya EPs. A five-disc changer I was gifted at an earlier Christmas was a precursor to Apple products. I was able to put in discs that corresponded to my needs in the moment. It was even programmable, as in playlists, though this was quite cumbersome to meddle with.

My stereo was stored in the bottom half of an entertainment armoire I had purchased and finished myself. Placing a pillow at the foot of this cabinet, I lay listening to the music, and let myself disappear for a time. Bliss in these moments is strange creature, both painful and high. The pleasure for a writer is in experiences, and the more deeply felt the better. This may be why some of us get into trouble with substance abuse. Music, in my case, is enough.

Some of Trailokya was thought over that day, but I was not ready to write the series yet. I was only interested in writing film scripts to flesh that line of stories out. I feared the magnitude of such a work, and being incapable of doing it justice. It would not be for well over a decade before I made the trilogy a reality.

Inspiration comes in dribs and drabs throughout one’s life, seemingly enticing us along the path, to dance with our muses. One has to wonder if there is intention from outside forces. Seemingly random instances weave tapestries that have intricate scenes upon them.

Lying there on the floor, music filling my head, I had no idea my brain was starting work on one of my greatest tapestries yet, and that my dim mood was key to unlocking the tale.

Do you have an interesting story about inspiration to share? Leave me a comment about it below. Don’t forget to explore the rest of the authors in the hop to see their answers to the question…

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