To be inspired. That is the thing. / to be possessed; to be bewitched. / To be obsessed. That is the thing. / To be inspired.
– William Baziotes
Ideas and inspiration can be such a precious resource.
Sometimes, mine can feel as fragile as butterflies. Delicate and flighty, try to grasp them too tightly and I snuff out the light.
Other times they’re like the pilot light on my finicky old Aga. Tiny, faintly flickering; one hot whoosh of fuel away from igniting into something hot and wonderful. One sudden gust of wind away from fading out completely.
It’s a common experience, I think. To have the spark of an idea but then lose it somehow - to self doubt, to overwhelm, to interruptions, to fear.
I’m curious to know, what are the recurring elements that kill inspiration for you?
For me, the list is something like:
The sound of my daughter crying - (even now, at 11, this is still frequent enough to be a thing)
The sound of my husband and daughter bickering.
Those first tendrils of anxiety that start to creep up inside me like ivy - not even fully fledged, yet, but already enough to make me want to shut down
Un-ignorable mess around me in the house
Being asked a completely unrelated question by somebody when I’m in the early stages of flow.
A cruel email or message in my inbox.
The irrepressible urge to sleep.
Thinking too big with an idea right away, and then overwhelming myself.
Feeling observed, perceived or judged in my playful creative process.
Sharing my idea with somebody else too early, and draining the energy out of it
What stops your ideas from all coming to fruition?
Tell us all about it in the comments!
PS - I recently found this notebook series by Iroha Publishing while browsing Amazon Japan (as you do). It says they’re designed for capturing and logging ‘fragments of ideas’, and uses the metaphor of a quarry, with stickers shaped like gemstones and tiny stone seals.
Obviously a notebook range cannot solve all of my idea/inspiration problems, but… maybe I need to get one just in case? What do you think? 🙈
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