Inspiration and Other Matters Such as Why I Feel Very Guilty Right this Moment

While all of the other members of this blog who live in the Philippines have been working their rubbish butts off studying and have been writing blog posts, where has the one American author been? On vacation in Italy and Greece.

Anywho, what I really came to talk about is those moments when you're high on inspiration; how they tend to come at the worst times; and tips for managing them more efficiently, for lack of better expression.

The #1 worst way to attempt to look for inspiration? THE INTERNET. All of the sites devoted to inspiration, pinterest; blogs. They seem like a great easy way out. And that they are. But when we're talking about writing, inspiration or any of that related good stuff, easy way out is NOT the way to go. GET OFF OF THE COMPUTER (alright, finish this post and THEN GET OFF OF THE COMPUTER!) All they do is suck you in and they never actually inspire you to go do something. For this reason, GET OFF OF THE COMPUTER!(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 Inspiration. Ack. I can't even begin to describe it. It's different for each person; like our perception of color. Like color, it can make something bland beautiful. Unlike color, it does not last long. Inspiration is kind of like wind; it's really strong at all of the wrong times (Midnight, anyone?) and sometimes it can be very desperately needed, but still won't come. Ah, inspiration and its rubbish sick sense of humour.  So, how do you gain inspiration?  
There's no magic formula. It's something much more complex than many physical objects. However, when inspiration comes streaming in, be ready. Whenever I fly on a plane, I carry a notebook. Much of my best writing happens in planes. Many people will give you the advice of journaling, writing down your thoughts; it's not that simple. Writing is something that comes only at a certain time, and with the previously mentioned (and still rather rubbish) sense of humour that inspiration tends to have, this usually comes at the worst time possible. Late at night, for example. For this reason, I journal whenever I wake up during the middle of the night. I usually don't remember it in the morning, so seeing the magically appeared journal entries is kind of like seeing tally marks appear all over yourself, except it's actually a positive thing; encounters with inspiration, unlike with The Silence, have never killed me. Then again, nothing's ever killed me, so I wouldn't know.

Moving on.

A journal can be like a pensieve; not for memories, but for inspiration. It isn't a magical way to get inspiration. It's a way to invest and grow a small spark of it, a seed; into a tree in the form of a story, letter, poem, artwork. So do yourself a favour, and, next time that you are having a burst of inspiration at midnight,  no matter how tired, write the ideas down. You might not feel very good tomorrow in class, but you'll have preserved some inspiration for a rainy day.

Speaking of which, the ideas might sound like TOTAL RUBBISH to you later. But, 99.9999999999999 and on to infinity% of the time, there's something to those ideas. And everybody knows that infinity - 1 is equivalent to infinity.

Besides, sometimes craze is the key to sanity.

On that happy note,
                     Bye.
Nina.