What inspires you?
Inspiration is depicted in the media as something that only those artsy people get when they’re rationing their Ramen noodles, but as an artist I can tell you – it is so much more than that.
I can only speak for myself, and I hope that some morsel of this is universal, (and if not well then we all knew I was strange), when I say that inspiration, for me anyway, is like God whispering. Like when you are standing beside a child just as the child sees a rainbow for the first time, and you lean down and whisper in his ear, “Do you see that? Isn’t it pretty?”
Okay. You can think I’m hokey and romantic. I fully embrace that.
Doesn’t mean I’m going to change my way of thinking.
When I first started writing, it was out of discontent and boredom. I had an active imagination, and a dream that I thought was never going to happen. As a sixteen year-old that can be a lethal combination. People ask me if I always knew I was going to be a writer – heck no. I thought I was going to be a rock star – a musician. Okay, I was more of an aspiring singer/songwriter with dreams of signing with Sparrow Records. I wasn’t going after fortune, fame, or Rolling Stone covers. (Just to be clear). When I saw the movie, “Raise Your Voice” (2004, New Line Cinema), I related to Hilary Duff’s character, and found myself creating a new character – Angelina Viviola. In an odd combination of my life, and the story in the film, Angelina “Angel” enters a contest with a Christian Record Label and wins a recording contract. Her only obstacle? Angel’s meddling foster mom, Maggie. The book has never been edited, never been published, and I’m not sure I can still look at it objectively because my sixteen year-old heart is so fresh in it. Nevertheless, that idea sparked a more mature young adult genre rewrite that may one day make it onto book shelves – if I can ever decide on an ending that is….
So, the next time you hit a brick wall, or think you have that odd phenomenon the rest of you call “writer’s block” (what is that?), engulf your senses in some art and see what happens. You just may find that you actually hit that brick wall on purpose.
Listen for the whispers.
– A. R. Conti Fulwell ><>