Hello writers,
Inspiration: What the hell is it? Where does it come from? And what do we do with it once we find it?
I've had the pleasure of interviewing a dozen
or so writers in the past few years, and I've been lucky enough to have a few of them address inspiration.
For today's blog post, I'm sharing four such responses from four of my favorite writers:
George Saunders, Heidi Durrow, Steve Almond and Lou Gallo.
For Gallo, inspiration came while facing a health crisis: “So I got a sudden, horrible glimpse into my own mortality — abruptly, formidably," he says. "Given
[that], I decided that if I will publish these books ever, it must be NOW.”
Durrow found inspiration in the face of repeated rejection: “[The finished draft] was terrible, and the agents
told me so," she says. "And then [I] received some four dozen rejections from publishers... [But] I was determined to see this book get into the world."
Almond is often dismissed by critics simply for
"being funny," but he uses that as motivation. And anyway, he's "more interested in attracting a 23-year-old kid who thinks literature has nothing to do with her.”
And Saunders was a self-proclaimed literary
snob, until a random story in a random literary journal changed his life forever: “It was literally like the wall just fell down,” he told me.
Check out these comments in full over at the blog. And as usual, we pose plenty of fun questions for you all to sink your teeth into.
As a special treat only for you subscribers: The first one of you to guess my favorite George Saunders book wins a free copy of it!
One entry per person. Because hey, he hasn't written very many books. Just reply to this email with your answer.
Have a very inspiring week, friends! And happy writing.
