On Writing Inspiration
One of the truly deep pleasures in writing a novel, or any book, is the accumulating of inspiring sources, the delving into a subject, being refreshed by it and pulled to it. There is a real joy in seeing how looking at something in a prolonged way from many angles, through time — and this alone is one of the profound rewards of writing.
John O’Donohue wrote in his book on beauty that “the way we look at things has a huge influence on what becomes visible for us.” And really that is one of the main subjects of my forthcoming Everything Affects Everyone.
At the very beginning of the pandemic (long time readers might remember me posting the above image), I spotted an angel in the clouds above our Walterdale Bridge here in Edmonton. Would I have seen it had I not been writing a book in which angels figured?
“The way we look at things has a huge influence on what becomes visible for us.”
Well, one thing I have learned in publishing many books over the last, yes, wow, 20 some years, is that one is rarely asked the questions (if any) one expects to be asked upon the book arriving into the world. There is no big quiz for which to study and reveal the answers to an adoring public. I’m supremely happy to publish with a brilliant small press. This means that one has to use all those underdog tactics to promote one’s book. Luckily, we have the internet :) And I’m also really fortunate in that I have a solid group of supporters who help me get the word out, talk up my book, post photos, etc. There is a trend in book promotion to assemble a kind of superhero “launch team.” And I’m not going to do that in any official sort of way, but I’m thanking you all in advance for doing this for me — being my underdog superhero launch team — because I know how truly blessed I am for your support and friendship. Like, you’ve been there for me! It’s so cool. Thank you!
Okay, so back to inspiration! When you write a book, you allow all those joyful sparks while delving deep. There’s a point though when you realize how vast the material is. Trust me, it’s always vast. You go in thinking, oh I’m sure no one has written much on X, and you come out with a truckload of books already written on the subject. The trick is to let that inspire you rather than to be intimidated or overwhelmed by it. I always knew I wanted to do some kind of riff of the story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, but guess what? Amanda Leduc had already done so, and it’s an amazing book. At first, I was deflated, but in the end, I just did my thing.
I’ve made a list of material that inspired me (though this is really just the tip of the ice berg of inspiration). The list included the aforementioned titles. I wrote a bit about the Leduc book and another huge inspo by Peter Darbyshire, wonderfully titled Has the World Ended Yet? in a post a while back which you might like to peruse.
If you read my book back to back with Peter’s and Amanda’s, you’d see that all three are completely and utterly different. And so it’s a reminder that you just need to bring your own sensibility and interest and curiosity to a subject, your own uniqueness, and then just have some fun.
I don’t know if anyone will ask me questions after they read the book about the formal concerns I was working out, but I’ve been thinking about an older post on this blog titled, “The Beauty of the World Becomes an Anchor” and remembering what the bonsai master John Naka says about the form: “It must have philosophy, botany, artistry, human quality behind it to be a bonsai." Who you are and what you have learned, those things you are steeped in, immersed in, come to bear on the work, the tree itself. He cautions: "Leave room for the birds to fly through."
I think subconsciously, while writing Everything Affects Everyone, that this is what I was trying to do, above all: leave room for the birds to fly through, or in my case, leave room for the angels to fly through.
And so, as a lesson to myself, maybe more than anything else, it’s good to remember to just be curious about everything when you’re writing, because you never know how it will inspire or affect your work.
August 31, 2021
