How Inspiration Works

Welcome Back! Wow. It’s been a while since my last post. Now I’m back, so let’s do this.

Today I want to talk to you about something that we’ve all experienced in our lives. Inspiration. It’s that really strange thing that puts us into action and motivates us to be creative. But inspiration comes and goes and once it comes to you, sometimes it doesn’t stay with you for long.

Throughout this post I’ll be quoting a couple of books that have really helped me understand how inspiration works and how to make the most out of it.

The first book was recommended by my really good friend Nic Tagg back in Vancouver. We were hanging out at his place one night and we started talking about life and what we want to do with our careers. And as with every conversation, there is a point where the focus shifts into something more serious, and so we began to talk about inspiration and our craft as actors. By the time I was about to leave his house, he stopped me and handed me a book called “Big Magic”, written by Elizabeth Gilbert. I got home and left the book untouched for a few weeks until one day, I found myself really bored and decided to pick it up. One of the best decisions of my life.

Elizabeth Gilbert has this unique approach to describing the inner workings of inspiration and how she views it as a force, or more like, a guest, that every now and again knocks on our doors and is up to us to let it in or it will knock on someone else’s door.

There’s a passage where she describes this phenomenon and how it happened to her. She starts to tell the reader about a story she wanted to write that was set in Brazil, around the time where big industries wanted to create roads through the forest and how a love story was set during this difficult but prosperous time. She did her research on it and started to develop the story. She was inspired. But the story fell through and she boxed it, hoping to pick it up again one day.

After a while she met another writer and they became friends. Time passed and one day her friend told her she was writing a love story set in Brazil during the same period. After this she realized that once you let inspiration in, it’s important to fulfil its destiny to the fullest extent, if not, the idea will float into someone else’s head.

This happened to me very recently as well. I started writing a story set in a dystopian future (because we don’t have enough of those, right) that dealt with the topic of human enhancement and the consequences of going down an all-consuming path. I made this story quite elaborate and I got inspiration for it from various books, films and video games. But then I soon got tired of writing and just as Elizabeth, I thought I would put it to sleep with the intent of going back to it someday. And then, I recently watched the “Ghost in the Shell” with Scarlet Johansen. To my surprise many of the concepts and story elements were beautifully portrayed in the film just as I envisioned them in my story. This goes to show how inspiration doesn’t wait for you. It ignites the spark of the idea and then it’s up to you to carry on the torch and light the fire. If you extinguish the flame, its game over man!

The next book was recommended by my mother actually. At a time where I was feeling both depressed and excited. It was around the time where I left Canada and went back home to Mexico to plan my next move to England. My mom has always had an eye for books that tell stories of success and books that give you tips and tools to be successful in your own field. The book she recommended is called “The One Thing” written by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan. To put it quite simply, this is a book that will help you get rid of that horrible fog of confusion that blocks your way into achieving what you really want to do when you lack the focus and termination.

The One Thing talks about, well, the one thing you should be doing every day to come closer to your goals. Think of it as life’s big filter. You have a huge bucket filled with murky water and in it you have a few gold nuggets. In order to get to them you have to empty the bucket into the filter and wait until the nuggets are revealed. These nuggets are the shiny tools that you need to move forward. To give you an example in my life it’s quite simple. I’m an actor, so the one thing I should be doing every day is, you guessed it, ACT. Yes, you have to make contacts within the industry, and yes sometimes you have to juggle many other jobs to gain experience or just to simply to pay the bills but, at the end of the day the one thing that will bring me closer to my goals and will allow me to master my craft is, to ACT. This book helped me create a structure that allows me to look for opportunities where I can do what I love and at the same time, help my career move forward. Like Bryan Cranston once said “It doesn’t matter if it’s a student film, a short film or an indie play, as long as you are acting, you are moving forward”. I’ve taken this advice and this philosophy to heart not only with how I approach my craft, but also in other areas of my life like relationships and making hard decisions. And this has allowed inspiration to flow more easily into my life. I’ve become more open to it and more aware of it.

Throughout my life I’ve received the gift of inspiration from various sources. From music that makes my skin crawl to leafs in the wind making me cry. Most recently, my mother (again). Not too long ago I was having one of those days where all I wanted to do was to curl into a ball and never see the light of day ever again. But after a short conversation with my mother, she gave me this amazing idea to stay creative. I was telling her about how I’m looking to get more involved in the Film and Television industry and leave the service industry behind for good. And when you look for several days or weeks for a good job and still you don’t find what you are looking for, well, you can get quite desperate. So my mother knowing me very well and having been there before as well, recommended this great idea.

She told me to think of my day job as an OPPORTUNITY. She told me to keep an eye out for all the people who cross paths with me at work or in the streets and watch them. Just as a photographer or a painter keeps track of what they want to capture in a portfolio, my mother told me to do the same.

Record all these strange individuals and create characters out of them. And that idea evolved into a journal. Where each day, I’m creating a character out of someone I happen to see on the street. I give them a backstory and then give them a purpose or a goal. I’m sure that at one point or another I’ll use one of these characters.

So now I would like to put this out into the cosmos and tell you. Keep your eyes open, your ear to the ground (even if it looks weird) and keep your wits about you. Inspiration might be hovering just above your head waiting for you to let her in. Say yes and let the creativity flow through you.

Go break some eggs!