Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits,
and their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter....
My mum keeps a collection of Beatrix Potter books on the
shelf at home. When writers block takes hold with two hands, or a character
falls to the floor in dust I turn back to the moth eaten pages of those book
and read the simple stories, and it is here I remember the beauty of language.
The stem of my inspiration.
It is not the words you write down on the page but the
meaning they are given, the sound of peter rabbit losing his jacket under the
fence brings in my mums voices and the soft duvet wrapped around me. So I guess
I look to what I know for inspiration and in the reverse the things I know
nothing about.
Taking a walk through the park or into town fills me with as
much, if not more inspiration as any lecture at university. Beatrix Potter said
"thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed of some
of the originality" and so I think it is true, you do not look to the
classroom for inspiration. Instead you look to the mystery’s that you imagine
you understand.
Emily Dickinson knew little of the outside world due to her
personal confinement so she looked for the things she could image to make sense
of, often the newspapers. Many critics say Dickinson was inept at writing war
poetry and she knew nothing of it, I offer that she read from the newspapers
and understood enough that her imagination filled in the blanks. It is called
fiction because it is not designed to be real, whether it has some truth to it
or not becomes irrelevant. You call it fiction so you allow for surreal
improvisations.
Influence is a tricky word as almost anything can influence
you and frankly, almost everything does. Consciously or unconsciously inspiration
is a clear portrayal of your path as a writer, the stages and writers you go
through build up your very own big shoes, which you must learn to shape and mould
to become a perfect fit for your very own feet.
Arrange and compose, Your audience is waiting ....
I love your Beatrix Potter quote, if only we could've been so lucky! I think you're right about not always realising that we are being influenced when writing, and about inspiration being a process . We take something from each stage and learn a little bit more each time :)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of going back to Beatrix Potter when you're stuck, that's a beautiful image and I can really relate to that - I think most of us can.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of going back to Beatrix Potter when stuck is a good one. Camus believed that "a man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened." Clearly, the memory of Peter Rabbit is one of those images for you.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog post! Started off with a very real personal response and smoothly went through a transition into a look at Dickinson's influences and inspiration in a way that is truly great to read - top notch
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