This is a question that every writer gets asked, I think. It always surprises me how difficult some people find inspiration to be. Where does it come from? Well for me, I have to say it comes from everywhere, and often (and most delightfully) from the most unexpected places. Case in point:

I am now in the midst of writing the first draft of my third novel. This is an exciting and terrifying place to be. My head is constantly full of ideas. I’m constantly plotting and thinking about my characters, where they’re going and how they’re getting there. That’s the exciting part. The terrifying part comes from wondering if I can remember all these fevered thoughts when writing (despite all the notebooks and midnight jottings), and if I do, will my writing do them all justice? But that’s for another blog. The reason why it is pertinent now is that I find that when I ‘m in this state, all my senses are on high alert. It’s not that I’m constantly looking for inspiration. It’s more that I allow it to come up and land a big sloppy one on my face whenever it feels like.

  And so this morning I was doing the daily purge of my junk file when, for some reason, I stopped to read an email sent by BlogCatalog, a site I joined God-knows-when and God-knows-why.  I get these every so often and I usually ignore them. Generally, I don’t like to be told what to write about and more and more I am getting suspicious of all these sites. But this email was a call to support International Day of Compassion and talked about “The Real Dr. Patch Adams” — remember the old Robin Williams movie? Again, if I was in a different state of mind, I would have rolled my eyes and pressed the big dele button. But novel 3 is likely to be the most difficult book I’ve written to date — thematically speaking. It will deal with difficult issues and seemingly good people doing bad things. But I know the book won’t work unless I can make these characters people the reader will want to engage with. I need to find some compassion for these characters, whether I like what they are doing or not. And that’s not easy. But this BlogCatalog campaign reminded me that it is possible, and actually, crucial. The fact that my new novel will be set in a newly built health clinic and has something to do with the politics of healthcare delivery makes Patch Adams and his ongoing campaign for a new kind of medicine all the more interesting to me.

I say that my writing, whether it is fiction, poetry or plays, is ultimately about hope. But there can be no hope without compassion and that idea in itself is inspirational. So where did my inspiration come from today? My email junk pile. You never know…..