Thursday, June 18, 2009

When the Muse Strikes

Benjamin Zephaniah did it stuck in a lift with a drag queen, Phillis Levin in a car on the side of a mountain, Patience Agbabi 20,000 feet above sea level in a spasm of guilt about her carbon footprint, and Kenneth Steven did it in his head during a sermon in church.
Poets at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in the UK reveal the most unlikely places they have ever written, and as Maev Kennedy notes, they :
... don't need a tranquil room of their own to write ... they're far more likely to be inspired by being in a car than at sitting at an orderly desk or wandering among the dancing daffodils.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you have the luxury of waiting for inspiration, and the luxury of acting upon it when it strikes, then well and good. I suspect for most writers, it's a matter of sitting at a desk and cold-bloodedly hacking out a lot of content.

Who was it that said that deadlines do not wait for inspiration?

bibliobibuli said...

true. but even when you do that, then sometimes you have to go out to eat, have to go to the supermarket, go for a jog ... and since you are in the writerly frame of mind, the stories and ideas come without too much bidding.

the oddest place i ever wrote was in a ladies loo half way through a chinese course dinner in the club when i just had to get some notes down about the backhanded speech someone had just given. i missed the butter prawns. now that's inspiration.

Ewan Yeah! said...

hey sharon.
sorry if this comment is not related to the current post, but i just want to say, thank you, thank you very very much for setting up this blog.
to describe your blog, it's like a virtual library. it's like a centre to know everything that's happening in the literature world. it's like, i dont have to go and find from other sources on what to read/what to know about literary field. i am just a click away from my internet explorer's 'favourite' tab. and walla! i feel intelligent already.
i really envy your profession (and) the talent to really pick something out from the haystack that are really really worth reading.

please, continue contributing information!! this is my no.1 blog!!!

stay in malaysia!

Fadzlishah Johanabas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fadzlishah Johanabas said...

"Benjamin Zephaniah did it stuck in a lift with a drag queen, Phillis Levin in a car on the side of a mountain, Patience Agbabi 20,000 feet above sea level in a spasm of guilt about her carbon footprint, and Kenneth Steven did it in his head during a sermon in church."

That whole paragraph gave me a wrong impression, hehehehe!

Well I sometimes do it while opening up patients' heads, and later on transfer those ideas into the computer in between operations. The stories are usually unrelated to hospital life, though.

And I develop some stories while in the toilet, when I'm not reading (while at it, but that'd be too gross to add).

I hope this post will turn out to be everyone's confession of the oddest places where they write or think about their writings.

Y(>.<)Y

Cheers,

Fadz.

PS: I still can't figure out how to type in quotes in comments section. "blockquote" doesn't seem to work.

YTSL said...

I can people being able to be inspired anywhere... but to actually WRITE? Sorry, but I need a table or desk for that - or a bed in a pinch! (And no, floors just don't cut it...) ;b

Fadzlishah Johanabas said...

I write rants and fiction anywhere there's a working computer/laptop. Preferably with internet access so I can send them to my Ideal Reader. Not longhand, though. I'd only end up drawing instead of writing anything. Computer generation, hehehehe. I get enough paperwork at the workplace, anyway.

bibliobibuli said...

Fadz - of course it gave you the wrong impression. it was meant to!

i really hope you don't leave a patient with his head wide open because you got caught up in an idea for a story. (that give me an idea for a story ...)

Fadzlishah Johanabas said...

Well the head was wide open when I thought of a storyline. Meh, I even sing when I operate in the middle of the night. Keeps me awake and safe, if you know what I mean. No problems so far, insya-Allah.

Unknown said...

Ah, so that's how brain surgeons work :)

The guy who won one of Writer's digest's short story comps was a brain surgeon too, and his story was related to the surgery!

I keep a memo pad along with me, so I whip it out and scribble whenever I feel I've noticed something I shouldn't forget. I need to jot down stuff when at the airport, the malls, and while in a taxi or car. But full-fledged writing? Most of it has been done on the sofa, the desk or my bed...

bibliobibuli said...

when you open up heads, Fadz, can you see all the stories in there??? hmmm my thoughts are getting more surreal

Fadzlishah Johanabas said...

Mainly just blood and brain. Nothing like Grey's Anatomy. McDreamy my ass (pardon my Italian). Seeing stories in brains...if your idea is along the line of psychological thriller, i think i see the surrealism. The Cell (the movie with J Lo in it) meets Nightmare on Elm Street.

Unfortunately, I suck at writing thrillers. Not my forte.

Develop that story in your head, Sharon. If you need input from a Medical Officer doing neurosurgery, you know where to look.

:)

( my word verification is evill. That's a sign!)