The Grasshopper #41: Inspiration, Within You Without You?

Does it come from within or from outside sources?

“Rick Rubin: Most people equate work time with progress, and that’s not the case. We’re scientists experimenting, and it’s all an experiment, and sometimes we get the experiment right, right at the beginning, and we don’t know it, and we won’t know it until we may do a hundred other iterations that are not better.”

From Rick Rubin podcast with Tim Ferriss

La Mancha, images and composition by Richard Edic, copyright 2023. Not made with AI!

I certainly hope that the readers of The Grasshopper find it inspirational, at least part of the time. We all like writing war stories and process insights. But when I think about inspiration, I wonder if the real inspiration is not things you read or do to psych

yourself up for writing, or the actual act of writing itself?

And I come down squarely on the latter, that writing itself is the source of inspiration, despite writing a newsletter created in part to inspire (along with fostering a sense of belonging to a community of writers!).

In fact, I think the source of creativity or a personal voice can only come from the act of doing. Ironically, the best way to deal with a lack of inspiration, is to just sit down and write. And that requires us to break away from the entire idea of inspiration.

In her motivational book on the creative act, Big Magic, Liz Gilbert posits the notion that ideas seek out creators, but if the creators don’t act on them, they move on to more receptive audiences. And music producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, and many more), a creativity guru, has the same belief: the idea comes from the doing.

So much for being in the mood. In other words, Nike was right, just do it.

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So, does this mean you should not pursue sources of inspiration and motivation? Of course not, but these motivators come from unexpected places. For writers, the number one might be reading: it is the ultimate source.

But it gets more abstract almost right away. Let’s try a little experiment. You’ll need access to a streaming music source. In my case, I ask Alexa to play Hurt performed by Johnny Cash.

The song, which was written by Nine Inch Nails, was an odd choice for Cash. In fact, it was chosen by Rick Rubin, who sought out Cash at a low point late in Cash’s career, because he wanted to work with him.

Rubin and that song were the idea seeking its conduit, and it found it in Cash. He recorded it in one of the most powerful performances I’ve ever heard come out of a studio, just bare bones and harsh beauty. And it revived his career late in life. Go listen to it, turn it up, and we’ll continue later.

Seriously, do it.

Are you inspired now?

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“Those who do not engage in the traditional arts might be wary of calling themselves artists. They might perceive creativity as something extraordinary or beyond their capabilities. A calling for the special few who were born with these gifts.

Fortunately, this is not the case.”

Opening paragraph of Rick Rubin’s new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. I just got the book, which seems somewhat of an oddity, a bit like Ram Dass’s Be Here Now. I’ll be doing a baby review next week when I have read it.

A book versus a growing online archive

As you may know, the focus of most of my writing is online personal publishing like this Substack newsletter and my work on Medium. Which gets me to a choice I may not have had only a year ago: create a book or course on the writing lifestyle, using the stories here, or continue to build a living archive of pieces on the same subject?

I think my choice is pretty clear. Nonfiction how-to type books are looking like old media these days. Take it from me, I wrote six of these things for national publishers back in the nineties. 

The one that really sold was a book on kitchen design that I co-wrote with my brother Richard, a kitchen designer, called Kitchens That Work (Taunton Press 1999). Because it sold well, we talked about an updated edition. Kitchens are filled with technology, and as we all know, technology becomes obsolete over time and some books do too.

We decided to pass on the sequel.

Today, if it was still my fascination, I’d be doing a Substack on kitchen design. It’s really a perfect topic that I would take on if I was not up to my ears in projects. And the archive of articles from a newsletter like that would make a great resource for people spending thousands of kitchen remodels and new builds. A living resource easily updated.

(I may be nuts not to do this. Damn idea-generating thing! Proof of concept on the inspiration notion I opened with: I write this section and come out with a real idea.)

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Which brings me to another thing about ideas and inspiration. I could easily drop what I’m doing and go start that kitchen design Substack. I bet it would do really well and my brother and I have some cred with the topic.

And that would be a classic mistake. When I was in college I had a rule: if you’re at a great party and your friends are leaving to go to another, stay at the great party. Yes, I know, a pretty adolescent story, but it makes a point.

I have a writer friend who has been struggling to complete her first novel. I get it, it took me several dead ends to finally get one to the end. But she keeps chasing a better idea even when things are going well with the one she is working on.

I’ve tried to tell her that there is always another idea but the one you have is probably the one you should finish. And finishing things is a huge skill, one that separates the pros from the amateurs. 

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So, ideas and inspiration, two things writers often wrestle with. Personally, I don’t find either a challenge, but that may be because I have programmed myself to read, research, and write everyday. It’s pretty ingrained at this point. Info in, info out.

As for finishing things, I understand that finishing a longform piece like a novel can be a challenge, but with the articles and opinions I write, the ending seems to find itself. I think that may be, in part, because the topics are timely and the pieces need to be published while still relevant. 

So, I am able to identify points where I can put in a final point, often a little cynical, and stop. Edit, read, edit, publish, done.

Martin

1141 words

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