Don't wait for inspiration...Just write!

I know there's nothing more fulfilling than those days when your well of ideas is filled to the brim and you can't seem to write them down fast enough. Like other writers, I love those days. But as we all know, that doesn't happen all the time.

When no inspiration strikes, a writer has two choices--to sit and wait for the muse to finally find them or to go ahead and write anyway.

I used to be one of those people that waited and waited for inspiration. When it finally arrived, there was nothing better. When it didn't, there was nothing more frustrating. I soon found out it might be better to stop waiting and start writing.

What I found is that it might be hard to start writing at first, but often (for me at least) inspiration caught up eventually and it was even more rewarding in the end. I call it creating my own inspiration and it really does work most of the time. If I continued waiting for inspiration, I would never have finished writing most of my manuscripts.

Two weeks ago, I finished my YA novel, Tangi's Teardrops.
If you remember, a few weeks before that, I mentioned that even though the novel was initially meant for middle grade readers, some of my friends from critique circle said it would be better suited for young adults. But the novel was complete and I had no idea where I was going to pull all the ideas from in order to increase the word count. Of course there was a lot more than just increasing the word count. A complete rewrite was required.

To cut the long story short, I did eventually find the ideas and to tell you the truth I'm still amazed at how much I came up with in such a short amount of time. Some days had been easier than others.

During the two week period, I refused to stop writing even when I felt I wasn't inspired enough. I sat my butt down and wrote anyway. After a while, ideas started flowing and before I knew it, I had written, The End.
Last week I submitted the manuscript to my editor. I plan to self publish the novel before the end of the year and I'm so excited.

In December I also plan to send out query letters for my contemporary romance novel, Chocolate Aftertaste, which is ready (I just dread the process of writing query letters and synopses).

All in all, by finally testing the waters of both traditional publishing as well as self-publishing, I believe I will be ending the year right.

Here are 3 great articles on the topic of inspiration or lack thereof:
Why you should stop waiting for inspiration
 Mistake no. 39: waiting for inspiration
Waiting for inspiration-is a bunch of hooey

Before I go, here are two refreshing photo inspiration for you. They were taken during my honeymoon in Rhodes, Greece over a year ago.