Mike Rotch
I would imagine for a part-time writer (as in someone who has a job other then writing full time), the inspiration comes in bursts and you have to make the most of it when it happens?
Well, I'm kind of a "part-time" writer, though I could write pretty much anytime my materials are available which is almost all the time. I'm 17 and still in high school so when I'm not busy, I write there. When I'm at home not practicing my guitar (with only five strings. lol), I play GT3 or when the inspiration or feeling comes, I'm working on my novel. Unfortunately, I think my greatest writing occurs when I'm about to fall asleep when I'm thinking the most and I can focus on it (as much as a sleepy person can). Problem here is I don't have the energy to get up, get my folder and pencil and start writing it out. To fix that, I went and bought me a thick but small spiral notebook that I keep as close as I can at all times, almost more so than the folder with my story in it . I keep a pencil next to my bed, too. When I get a good scene in my head (which is how I write, one badass scene or emotional scene, whatever, to the next scene; whatever is in between takes time) I write it down.
Writing is something you can't do all the time. You have to
feel like writing or it just comes out forced and, generally, very shoddy. Sometimes just feeling like writing is a challenge in itself, nevermind coming up with the story, the scenes, the characters.... I mean, yes, you CAN physically write any time you want, but actually wanting to is something else. When you're happy with the story, though--and I mean REALLY happy with it--writing it is easy. But there are those parts that are difficult to write and it's hard to get around them sometimes. The best way then is to push on through, get it done and edit it later.
As far as inspiration goes, I find it EVERYWHERE. It's very much the way an artist might find a brick beautiful and then go home to paint it. It sounds very silly but you'll some of the stupidest sounding ideas into a really cool story or scene or, if you write poetry, it makes for good poetry, too. Being discouraged is, basically, a sin in writing. Everything will work for your purposes but you have to make it work. If you give up once, you'll keep doing it. I suppose, in spite of that, trying something new is always good and fun if nothing else. The trick to fining inspiration is to get out of your four walls, go someplace that isn't familiar so much. I'll go for a walk to the Dollar Store not a quarter of a mile from my house and find inspiration for something in a cloud or someone who happens to be walking down the sidewalk in the distance. I literally found ispiration looking down the sidewalk thinking, "What if I kept walking? How far would I go before I decided to go home? What if I decided not to go home and just to keep walking?" It was a bit like the movie Forest Gump I guess (he just suddenly decides to run across the country in the middle of the movie, then does it like 3 more times).
To answer your question: yes.
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