Often, as in these two cases, the inspiration resulted in stories I was able to sell.Įventually, my club and I apprehended inspiration between the pages of my old middle school diaries, and my trophy looks like this. I tracked down inspiration in unlikely places, like the stroller handle where an inch worm journeyed, and an autumn maple that was reminiscent of a gigantic golden feather. (The alligator story escaped me, but at least I didn’t come away from the excursion empty handed.) I stumbled across the idea for this story about gopher tortoises, published in Ladybug, while stalking a story about alligators. I hunted down the idea for this poem, sold to Jack and Jill, on the “UBA” page of a rhyming dictionary. I chased down inspiration between the covers of books, captured ideas, and caged them into poems that were soon published in children’s magazines. Then, I grabbed my club and started spending my lunch break in libraries. I kept the bead stringing supplies because-hey-everyone needs a hobby! (And if you’re serious about this, writing can’t be your hobby.) The banjo went to a friend who’d borrowed it a few times.
I gave my metalworking supplies to a cousin in design school.
I realized that in order to capture my dreams, I needed to focus on my quest for inspiration. When it didn’t, I was wandering off of the trail. The reason I wasn’t moving forward with my writing was that I was waiting for inspiration to lead me. Reading this quote resulted in an important ah-ha moment for me. Here, I’ve made a little poster of it for you, so you can print it out and hang in your workspace. One of the quotes featured in it was just a few words from Jack London. You might say I experienced a lifestyle change because of this book. Then I purchased the book that changed my methods, and ultimately led to publication success. I took courses in metal working, I learned bead stringing techniques, I started a small jewelry-making business, and I even learned to play the banjo.
When I didn’t feel inspired to write, I used my free time to do other things. Whenever I felt inspired, I wrote and wrote and wrote. I purchased books of writerly advice, and books featuring quotes from authors. So I devoured Writer’s Market and Children’s Writers Market. It was a lot of fun.īut I wanted to do more than have fun. So I played around with different genres. When I first started out, more than a decade ago, I wasn’t exactly sure what type of writer I wanted to be. What? You too? It’s pretty common (but not necessary) among we writer types.
I’m one of those people who has always known I wanted to be an author.
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