What Inspires You to Write?

Some authors claim certain writing instruments do it. Others insist on a severely quiet room. Then there are those that require the opposite. Equipment and environment, however, does not ensure writing success. Each writer has to find what works for them.

Yet, aren’t we chomping at the bit to know what it is that works for J.K. Rowling, for example? Or what it took for Julia Cameron to consistently pump out book after book?

That’s why we attend author’s talks and listen to webinars because we’re all desperate to discover the secret recipe to writing success.

It’s what drew me into the Professional Women Network’s luncheon. I ate up the thirty bucks it took to attend and chalked it up to an educational experience-one that would help me understand how a first-time novelist went from one book author to author who gets a role in a movie based on her book The Descendants. Did I mention it starred George Clooney?

Anyway, while I enjoyed the lunch, the connections I made and the chance to hear Kaui Hart Hemmings talk, I was even more intrigued with what she had to say about her writing process.

Why?

It sounded so normal.

Hemmings says as a kid she adored books and reading. And although she didn’t know quite what she wanted to be when she grew up, she knew what she didn’t want to do.

Is it just me or does that sound like you too?

And in response to writing itself she said:

“You need to practice. The hardest thing about being a writer is that you don’t have a boss. It’s all about self-discipline.”

Any other writers want to yell out a, “Hallelujah”? 

Yes it’s an arduous process. But one most writers say they can’t imagine not doing. It’s what makes us wake up in the wee hours of the morning or until late at night. Just for the purpose of getting our pages in so we can feel somewhat “normal.”

As for Hemmings, she says she tries to make a three pages a day quota. I love that she added: “And it’s not good pages. But there will be three more pages after that. The art is in the rewriting.”

That it is.

For more information on author Kaui Hart Hemmings, check out this article by writer Jerry Garrett.