Inspiration and Characters

I want to talk about inspiration, and writing when you're not inspired.

I hate writing when I'm not inspired. Sometimes I feel this sudden inspiration, and I "just have to start writing right that very second because my entire future depends on it and if I don't start writing I'm going to forget and I need to write right this very second--" 

But sometimes I feel no inspiration at all. I want to write, but I have no ideas, and I don't know what to say. I know anything I write will be stupid. 

Sometimes, I don't even want to write. My inner editor will get its hands around my throat, and tell me I'm a horrible writer, and I shouldn't even bother. 

But if NaNoWriMo has taught me anything, it's that you have to write, even when you don't feel inspired. Even if you're just putting words on the page, and they're all stupid. Even if you feel like every word is a drag, and you're not getting anywhere. It doesn't matter. You have to keep putting words on that page. It's like Neil Gaiman said: "This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard, and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard." And he's right. It can be that easy, and it can be that hard. More often than not, it's going to be that hard. And the words you type are, more often than not, going to be bad. But if you love writing, you have to do it. You owe it to yourself to write on those days when you feel dry. I have written so many things that I love, but I wouldn't have these things that I love if I didn't write when I'm dry. 

Inspiration can come from anywhere. A picture, a word, a sentence. It can come from a stranger, or from your best friend. I have an entire board on Pinterest devoted to pictures that inspire me. Books inspire me. Movies. TV shows. I love to write, and I love thinking about writing, and talking about writing. I love reading. Words are my bread and butter. They're my oxygen. I can live without a lot of things. I recently diagnosed myself with lactose intolerance, and I'm learning to live without as much dairy as I want to be eating (I love ice cream). But I can't live without my words. I need them. My music, my books, my characters. I love the characters that I have created. They're like my children. And the characters that I didn't create, but that I love, are some of my dearest friends. Lizzie Bennet and Harry Potter. Katniss Everdeen and Liesel Meminger. I have laughed with these characters, and cried with them. I can't live without my friends, created by words.