Query
Sky of mind, courtesy Wassily Kandinsky, "Sky Blue"
Is there really a boundary between skill and inspiration? Or do these components of writing intersect?
What’s your experience?
Writing Craft & Practice
Exploring the boundary between skill and inspiration
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Writing Craft & Practice is hosted by Stephanie Golden, a writer of literary and practical nonfiction.
It plans to explore the lines where inspiration, meditation practice, and the craft of writing intersect. Think of three circles forming a Venn diagram.
Writing Craft & Practice will also investigate the parts of the circles that don't intersect with the others.
Catch me on the radio
Click here to listen to an interview about my book Slaying the Mermaid: Women and the Culture of Sacrifice on WBAI New York.
BOOK COLLABORATION BASICS
I frequently answer queries from writer colleagues trying to figure out the tricky details of collaborating on a book with an expert.
So I decided to post a few articles on my website distilling my own experience as a collaborator and ghostwriter.
If you have questions, contact me and I'll try to answer!
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September 18th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Sometimes I wonder about the validity of unexpressed thoughts. What I mean is that when a seminal idea is not shared with other people, the opportunity to influence for good could be lost forever. So what good is it really if it just sits in the mind?
I do think that inspiration and skill intersect. Both are essential parts of my writing process. Skill is necessary to be able to work with words in such a way that meaning is conveyed and understood by the reader. That is the only way to impart or communicate inspirational, original, and creative insights to others.
Personally, I have plenty of inspiration, but not as much skill! I am working on it.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I believe there is. I’ve made my living as a journalist who covers the design/architecture beat. I can make deadlines like crazy through years of developing discipline in research and scheduling. When it comes to my deepest work, though, I find that it is a little trickier to operate by rote. It’s not that I’m shortchanging anyone who reads my design/architecture journalism, it’s just that I’ve developed a muscle for writing such work that my truest writing sometimes slips beneath. My newest blog http://bit.ly/czIbbt is challenging me in many new ways.
February 7th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Interesting. When I wrote that question I was thinking of “inspiration” as growing at least partly out of skill. That is, developing the “muscle” you refer to creates a foundation on which to do the deeper work more effectively (as Judaye says in the comment above). But you’ve approached this question from the opposite side.