Writing inspiration, Ava’s 5th question
Ava also asked, “When do you feel most inspired to write?”
There is that mental gearing up and creative energy that finds expression in writing, where the ideas cascade and find their place. More often, there is that mental lethargy at making words fit together to make some sense. Every writer probably goes through these alternating phases.
It seems, however, that after so many years of writing in the same area, the craft has been honed and the paths of knowledge have been well trodden. The ideas are properly filed and waiting for extraction.
Having said that, there are times when I feel more prompted to write. It is when I’ve read other writings in the biblical field that spur thoughts and suggest lines of research or application. This is not to say that such writing is reactionary ─ to the contrary, in fact. It takes the writing of others as the launching pad for exploring areas that have not yet been reached. Or, in some cases, for revisiting areas that have been touched but not exhausted, something like a fracking operation.
So reading, deep and wide and frequent, are the secret ingredients for this writer.