Inspiration #1: Old College Try

Over the weekend I started to feel like I was in a little bit of a creative rut.  I think it's easy, as we're focusing on getting to and from work, cleaning the house in the aftermath of holidays and winter vacations, battling flu outbreaks, to forget to just feel inspired on a regular basis.

I used to keep sketchbooks where I'd write down random thoughts and ideas, sketch little abstract figures and designs, and glue in interesting clippings from all over.  Now I tend to keep a writer's notebook that is much more focused if not in subject matter, then certainly in content.  The pages are filled with, well, scribbly writing.  When given license to keep whatever sort of artist's diary I can, I've chosen to be a writer for now.

However, I'd like to use this blog as my sketchbook for the month of February, including one thing every day that inspires me.  It might be a poem, a lyric, a photo from my day, a performance, a joke -- anything.

Today -- as I do many days -- I found myself admiring John Darnielle's lyrics.  He fronts a band called the Mountain Goats, who are somewhat little-known but have a pretty sizable cult following.  My husband hates the Mountain Goats.  A lot.  And I'll grant anyone the truth, that John Darnielle isn't the world's best guitarist or singer, the instrumentations on my favorite songs are pretty sparse, and in general the music may be an acquired taste.  But his lyrics are very honest and literate and descriptive in a way that I feel gets to the very core of his subject matter.  In anything I write, I hope to achieve those passages that can cut through you like a knife -- I think we all do.  Anyway, here are the words to one of my favorite songs by the Mountain Goats: Old College Try from their album Tallahassee.  I particularly love the simile at the end.

Breaks.

Lately I've been wondering about my creative process, wondering if breaks are a necessary gear keeping the process spinning or whether breaks are just that, a break in character.  A skip, a foible.  Between Christmas and New Year's I took an honest and true break.  Though I carried my notebook to Pennsylvania for Christmas, its pages remained largely undisturbed for the length of the trip.

But now I'm typing this with my laptop on the kitchen counter, reheating the last of the Christmas leftovers, and really telling myself -- it's over.  Break's over.

While I was home from work (lucky us, our office closes between Christmas and New Year's) I stayed up late, mostly slept late, drank champagne and played board games, spent whole days in my pajamas watching movies and playing World of Warcraft.  Occasionally I'd feel a twinge and think, "I should be working on my novel," but then I'd realize I'd let writerfriends take it away, force this break.

By Sunday, though, the last Sunday before returning to the office, I was finished.  Even on Saturday I had an inclination to start planning a zine, got out a sketchpad and some old stuff and laid in my writing room, back on the floor and eyes glued to the ceiling fan.  So much of the creative process can be laying on the floor surrounded by papers and books.

But on Sunday I was full-on done with breaks.  I twisted an incense burner out of tin foil and struck out to the basement to sort through some of the boxes down there, thinking I might find inspiration in purging, sorting, making plans for the space after I empty it of clutter.  I watched Angels in America and relished the way it put my soul through a wringer, lost myself in it as an artist and a human.  I started writing again in earnest, returned to my daily practice.  I had a significant personal revelation.

My question is, did my break pave the way for all this?  Did it prepare me to work again on my novel after I receive it back full of red pen?  Did it leave my heart open for new ideas, new inspiration, did it give me new eyes? Or was it just a delay, a hiccup, a missed opportunity to immerse myself in a project?

We have such a need to create, but I'm feeling oddly guiltless about taking some time away from "real" things, "productive" things.  Accomplishments.  I'm feeling like the past week left me open to realize even after taking so much time out for myself, I still voluntarily return to my words.  I miss them, need them.  I can take a break from them, go on vacation, and know full well I'll be more than happy to come back.