Inspire Me

  
   It doesn't take a lot to inspire me. 

   In my first week of second year I was sitting on the front step of my new house. The tiny patch of garden we have was completely overgrown, tangled with weeds and no doubt home to a few disgusting creatures. But I ventured closer and put my head as close to the ground as I could, before looking up. What I saw was a spooky forest, a daring path the dwarves from J R R Tolkein's imagination would fear. Enclosed in my mind, I took inspiration from those weaving weeds and plants and placed them in my own writing.

   Inspiration is everywhere and it is everything. I took it from something as simple as a dishevelled garden. Others take it from far grander events. Emily Dickinson's work was inspired, or perhaps contaminated, with the American Civil War. Her fascination with her sister in law also had a huge impact on her intimate writing.

   There is a question behind these wonderings. Do we seek inspiration in the world or does it sneak into our work without asking permission?

   And even though I ask the question with the intention of answering it myself, I'm still left confused. I don’t think I hunt for inspiration, but when I bend down next to some tangled weeds, can it really be an accident?

   Stepping away from plants though, and looking towards my own work, I can’t help but notice the lack of a father with every main character I write. Is that inspiration from my own broken family, or is it an unconscious decision to just write what I am familiar with?

   If no one is there to analyse and pick apart our work, is there a fundamental meaning behind it? If in fifty years, by some miraculous sequence of events, my writing is studied and read, will students like us be giving every word justification? ‘She wrote this because of this and she wrote that because of that’.

   I hope not. Inspiration is not a safari hunt. Influence doesn’t seep into every single sentence. Sometimes I write a word just to write a word.

   

   To conclude my final blog post, I give you Kemosabe, a song inspired by Tonto from The Lone Ranger.