On Inspiration

To all my fellow artists out there.

As an artist, you will know what "writer's Block" means. It doesn't just mean we're not working, it also means frustration, stress and some times, even a loss of self confidence.
And it isn't just for writers, I know that it is the same for actors, painters, photographers... we all have those moments when it seem like there's just nothing out there to inspire us.
I have been thinking about this and wanted to share a few thoughts and also quote Mackendrick in how to fight this.

The first step is to acknowledge that it's ok to have a "dry patch". All artists have them and it doesn't make you a less talented person. But don't leave it at just that or the intellectual drought will carry on forever.

-Invest in a note book, small enough to carry everywhere with you and a pen. Ideas will always pop into your head randomly. You should write them down quickly. It could be the behavior of someone in the street, what they are wearing, a sentence you hear, an image, a picture, a tag... you just don't know how many ideas could actually lead you somewhere great.

-Get out. You're clearly not working so just grab your shoes and note book and let inspiration find you: museums, cinema, play, city, country side, talk to your friends, travel around. It doesn't matter what you do but you need to keep your mind set on stimulation mode.

These are the notes I have made from reading Mackendrick:

*collecting data: researching and reading, assembling a mass of raw materials. At this stage you don't think of the value of what you are collecting. Grab ANY raw material without judgement.

*Organise the data: this will re-create a life like experience on what ever subject you have chosen. The younger artist might not have much life experience, but Via this method would be able to re-create their own.

*Incubating the material:
sleep on it. the most amazing ideas arrive un-announced, and if you have done your research, it will all fall into place. That's called the spark.

*Preserving the spark:
This takes discipline, hard work and dedication to insure that the spark leads to a productive work.

2 mistakes to look out for: being impatient and jumping into the project too early and being too confident and thinking that anything written at anytime will be great.

I don't have the pretension to know everything about creativity and art, but this is what works for me and thought I should share.
If you had anything to add, please do.

XoXo

Fio