That Elusive One Percent

So, they say that it's one percent inspiration, ninty-nine percent perspiration. I agree with that, but I also think it can be misleading.

The thing is that writing is not difficult. You can sit at your desk or whatever and crack out a thousand words without too much bother. Sometimes however I don't make it that far and it has nothing to do with lack of perspiration, so to speak. It's because I'm not feeling inspired. Perspiration is this resource that is just there, waiting to be tapped. Inspiration is this elusive one percent, floating in my skyline like a firely. I'm grasping at it one moment, the next I'm trying to lure it down with caffeine or by staring in the blue sky while lying on the balcony. Sometimes it just ignores me. I know it's there, I just can't touch it.

Things appear to me, these ideas that I can build stories around. It was like that for my first novel, not every word was sourced from a vision or insight but I never wrote without feeling that it had a purpose. That it tied into one of the foundations of my vision. Today I got it into my head that I could try writing a short story so I spent this morning under the sun just trying to think up a concept. Nothing came.

I was just waiting to get to work. Waiting for that tiny one percent to turn up, but it never did. I bounced between a number of ideas, but none of them lit me on fire. None of them made me want to actualy write that story.

Well, I'm not complaining, I spent the rest of the day listening to Pink Floyd, playing Demi God and reading Philip K. Dick. Best day of my life. And when of those fireflies gets careless, when that one percent is in reach again I'll know to clamp down that extra hard on it. Treasure your inspiration; it's rarely around when you need it.