{"id":7452,"date":"2018-08-30T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7452"},"modified":"2018-08-30T07:00:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T11:00:29","slug":"inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7452","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lightning,

pixabay, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

The title alone of Kimberly Bunker\u2019s<\/a> essay for Glimmer Train<\/em>\u2014\u201cThe Fear of Not Saying Interesting Things\u201d\u2014is irresistible. She says this fear never stops her from talking, only writing. I\u2019d guess many authors and most talkers, judging by overheard conversations, feel the same way.<\/p>\n

Bunker favors waiting for interesting subjects and ideas to appear versus trying hard to find them. Which is not the same as waiting for your Muse to ring the doorbell, accompanied by her handmaiden, Serendipity. Said Louis Pasteur, \u201cChance favors the prepared mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

This seems to be Bunker\u2019s message, too. \u201cCultivate a mindset that\u2019s receptive to but not obsessive about ideas, and . . . be methodical about pursuing ideas that seem worth pursuing.\u201d In other words, find the right balance between the idea that inspires and interests you and the necessary work to polish up that idea for the public.<\/p>\n

In some respects this is the same wavelength the young Flannery O\u2019Connor, a devout Catholic, was on when she wrote prayers at the Iowa Writers\u2019 workshop. One of them began, \u201cDear God, tonight it is not disappointing because you have given me a story. Don\u2019t let me ever think, dear God, that I was anything but the instrument for Your story\u2014just like the typewriter was mine.\u201d I suspect most other writers would expect more credit.<\/p>\n

In a letter to \u201cA,\u201d she also wrote, \u201cthe greatest gift of the writer is patience . . .\u201d Here again is needed a balance between the patient, painstaking work of getting a story or book into shape while preserving that initial lightning strike of inspiration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title alone of Kimberly Bunker\u2019s essay for Glimmer Train\u2014\u201cThe Fear of Not Saying Interesting Things\u201d\u2014is irresistible. She says this fear never stops her from talking, only writing. I\u2019d guess many authors and most talkers, judging by overheard conversations, feel … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Inspiration - balancing an inspired literary idea with the hard work of bringing it to life","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[62,40,174,29],"tags":[496,414],"class_list":["post-7452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-flannery-oconnor","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Wc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7454,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7452\/revisions\/7454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}