It is an unfortunate truth that inspiration usually strikes when you are least able to act upon it. The perfect solution to your living room furniture arrangement comes when you are away on holiday. The critical piece of a work problem comes when you are in the shower.
Today, I got an idea for a new story fifteen minutes before I had to be at work.
I’d just spent the holiday week relaxing, watching movies, streaming a new (to us) series, cooking a big meal of crab cioppino for friends, and puttering in the garage. During that time, my writer’s mind was a blank (aside from pangs of guilt over not working on my novel).
All week, nothing, and then this morning, just as I was preparing to get up and get back to the work-a-day monkey-boy grunt-job, bam.
I hate that.
Excuse me while I scribble down some notes…
k
Unraveling Time
Desert Wind
Ploughman's Son
Ploughman King
The Year the Cloud Fell
The Spirit of Thunder
Shadow of the Storm
The Cry of the Wind
Beneath a Wounded Sky
Cryptogenesis: A Memoir
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 
I usually get that on a Friday evening, just before it’s time to collapse for the night, when I have a full weekend of chores, family visits and un-ignorable meh to attend to. A sudden burst of wondrous enthusiasm which has to sit and fester until I finish work the following Monday. And, of course, by then it’s dwindled into a puddle of negativity, frustration and hopelessness.
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“Unignorable meh.” Love it.
I believe there’s a direct inverse correlation between enthusiasm for an idea and the time between inspiration and action. The longer it takes, the worse the idea looks.
k
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Ah! But the good news is… if I’m not in the mood to wash the dishes (I do them by hand), I know as soon as I plunge my fingers into soapy water I’ll get that breakthrough idea I’ve been searching for. If I’m not in the mood for grocery shopping, I know as soon as I get on the highway or start walking the aisles with a cart full of stuff — bam! Writer unblocked.
Silver lining, you know.
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Brilliant!
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I’ve found that inspiration tends to strike when I’m most desperate to be doing something other than what I’m doing. 😉
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That’s great, if you can break away!
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