Sometimes when I'm stuck and can't think of anything to write, I take a few steps from my comfy, red couch over to my bookshelf. I close my eyes and run my fingers along the spines of all my books and pick one (without peeking, of course!). Then I open the book to the first chapter and read the first line.
That, I decide, is going to be my inspiration.
So I copy it down on a blank piece of paper (if I'm in the not-so-lazy mood to write long-hand) or type it quickly into a fresh Microsoft Word document (if I'm in the mood to work fast). I give myself a few seconds to stare out the window. One, two, three, four, five.... Time's up. Ready, set, write!
And, that's my secret way of breaking writer's block. I invite one of my favorite writers to inspire me and use his or her words to write an original piece of my own. It works!
I wonder whether this is what Zadie Smith did when she first started writing her new novel, On Beauty.
Her first line is:
One may as well begin with Jerome's e-mails to his father.
This sentence, as it turns out, inspired by the first line of another (older) British author, E. M. Forster who began his 1919 classic Howard's End with this first line:
One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister.
Do you see what Zadie Smith so cleverly did?
She substituted Helen with Jerome, letters with e-mails, and sister with father--and voila! she had the beginnings of another great work (which also happens to have been inspired by the novel from which it was taken.)
I think that's pretty cool. Don't you?
Next time you have writer's block, take a walk to your bookshelf and pick a random line for inspiration. Then, write .. and don't forget to let me know if it works.
