The Write Place

Dear Maria,
So, ironically enough, I'm procrastinating a horrid English essay as I type this. I can't help but think this essay looks like I just ranted all over the place because I'm having the end of semester blues, and just want to go back to writing YA Vampire novels, like a normal person. That's most likely my main problem for filling five pages with clichés, simplified claims, and quotes that could easily fill up a page. Yet I've also been feeling dull and un-inspired due to constantly sitting at my desk, seeing the same five pictures, the same pillow pet that makes it almost impossible to not want to nap, and the same lamp with dangly things that would make any "attention defecit ooh shiny!" disordered sort want to procrastinate up the wazzoo.

Would this not keep you from writing all day long?

So I'm thinking it's time for a change of pace. I normally choose to right on the same desk, or, more likely, on the same bed. But as Charlie McDonnel points out, inspiration often comes from outside encounters, people you meet, places you see. I guess this is similar to our introvert/extrovert chats. As an intro-extrovert, I can see how inspiration can come from within, especially if an emotional dilemma is so present in my own life, I just have to write it out, but not in a whiny, "my life is over!" sort of way. But my extroverted side needs some sort of place, even if it's not filled with people, to get me in the writing mood. For me, natural atmospheres seem to work best for inspiration. It could be because most of my "growing experiences" have happened in more secluded areas, or I'm just more aware of such internal growth in natural environments. Whatever it is, get me near some mountains, and I'm writing up a storm. At Shoshoni, I never felt a lack of inspiration. Even when I wasn't actively writing, I was thinking about how I could incorporate the Rocky Mountains into a story, or how the dynamics between characters in an ashram may work. But seeing as I can't book a flight to Colorado every time I need to put a few words on a page, I guess I should re-think my writing inspiration place.

It's never going away, but I won't always be there when I need it

Do you get inspiration from a place, or is it solely internally that you gain your inspiration? Maybe it's the lack of distraction mountains bring, and I didn't have to worry about everything beeping and tumbling and tweeting at me, but nature seems to bring out the inquisitive side of me. Below is a poem I wrote at Shoshoni about a mountain called The Sleeping Giant:

The quietest to demand attention,
the Sleeping Giant stretches his nose
into soft cotton ball clouds.
He settles into the Ponderosa’s sigh,
lets her branches tickle him into deep
slumber.
A patient rest, no shifting positions,
he sniffs the clouds’ hopeful scent of rain,
for the browning grass to soak,
for  the crickets to drink,
as they happily chirp with the sun’s rays.
The pink rays glide across the giant’s forehead,
sinks into the crevices of sister mountains,
until only suggestion of color mists onto the moon.
Giant bids goodnight--
to Long’s Peak, to the weary hikers,
stomping to the base for rest and awe
at the thousand year dance led by the
mighty push of glaciers.
Blanketed by the sheath of black sky,
Giant sleeps.
Awakened by no force of movement,
his sighs sent into the tranquil forest.
He sleeps. 

 For now, I'll have to ponder this inner versus outer inspiration in the walls of my dorm room. But I hope to eventually trek back through the mountains to add some more natural writing into my repertoire.

Peace and ponies,
Kira