Is De-Inspiration A Word?

Inspiration; it's a weird concept. The idea that something you see, read, hear, taste, smell, and/or experience can trigger a whole set of thoughts and ideas that you then can use to make something concrete. However, where does one find inspiration? Or rather inspiration strong enough that you can follow through on that?

I've always said I'm a writer at heart, and it's true. I love writing in any way possible; poetry, prose, short story, persuasive essays. The hardest part is finding that inspiration. When I write on my own, it's a little easier since there's no stress for deadlines, word counts, MLA Formatting. However now that I've started this blog, now that I'm being ASKED to write... That's a little different.

I'm looking for inspiration. I'm looking for interesting pieces of writing. I'm looking for prompts. I'm looking for a quote. I keep looking. Sometimes that looking will lead me to something interesting. Something that will pique my interest.

The other day in my Heredity and Society lecture I spent a good chunk of that time using StumbleUpon to read poetry. (Not recommended b-t-dubz) I kept stumbling upon haikus. That inspired me. So I wrote one.

My hand is trembling,

My heart races as I sit,

Coffee or lost love? 

Simple. Cute. Nice. Short. Pithy. It's about 140 characters, which is a tweet. I can (and do) tweet all day long. But to write something with more substance. More character. More oomph. That takes real inspiration.

Fact: I am a diehard Gleek. This week's episode of Glee focused on experiencing all you can. There was interesting quote from Blaine (played by the amazingly talented Darren Criss):

"Don't you want to experience everything in life that you can?"

And when I heard that quote (and reheard over and over again so I could quote it correctly), I was inspired. I wanted to write about taking advantage of the opportunities given to you. To really live life. However, I just went along with my day and thought "I'll do it later."

So when I sat down at my desk with a writing pad and a quill sprawled out across the bed with my laptop I decided I was going to write something and thought back to that quote. I searched the deepest parts of my heart and soul but much to my dismay, there was no inspiration. I had lost it.

So I was bummed out. I decided to go back to the drawing board. I stumbled a bit. Found some cute quotes. Decided to tweet them. Thought maybe that would get my creative juices flowing. I was wrong. But while I was on Twitter, I saw something. A tweet from my fellow eAmbassador Drew (@DPinkertonGL)

"Case of the sighs. Can't seem to organize thoughts for blog, concentrate for readings, or find relaxation. I need motivation/inspiration. :|"

And all of a sudden. I had this urge to write. I wasn't going to make the same mistake though. I opened a new  document and started writing. I just kept writing. No real plan, or concrete idea of what I was writing. I just knew I wanted to write about inspiration. Thus, this blog post was written.

My fellow eAmbassadors and I have been chatting and exchanging idea on writing lately—how to be a better writer, how to find inspiration, how to focus your writing—and it had been floating around the back of my mind. However I wasn't inspired by it. It wasn't until I found a friend's tweet about that it just sparked my creative juices.

So what's the point of this post? Really, I would like to impart to you three things.

• Poe, Plato, Pinkerton: Don't worry if you can't think of anything. It'll come. Sometimes in the least expected places. So while you may want to be inspired by a poem or a philosopher of ancient times, sometimes you don't have to look farther than a friend. 
• Write When You Are Inspired: As soon as you find inspiration, write. Don't wait until later. Even if it turns out to be a really bad piece of writing, at least you wrote! (For more on that read Esther Phua's latest blog post on creativity) 
• Tell Your Stories: All writers want to write some great piece of metaphorical literature. Something essays can be written on based on the numerous symbols that you have in it. However, sometimes the best way to get a good piece of writing across is by telling your own stories. Hence, this blogpost.
• Titles: I'll be honest. I suck at thinking of titles. You might too. But they'll come to you, and when you think of the right one, you'll know. 

I'll leave you with a quote basically because I can't figure out how to end this post.

"I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is."
-Bernardo Bertolucci

P.S. Go read Drew's blog! He's an awesome writer and every time that he has written something, it seems to either inspire me or just coincide with my life at the point in time. 

P.P.S. Read all the eAmbassador's blogs! They're all amazing!

P.P.P.S. Thanks again, Drew!