Tag Archives: Anaïs Nin

Fires of Inspiration

5 Mar

C.Margery Kempe’s post on Anais Nin last week made me think about inspiration. What is inspiration exactly and why do some of us have plenty of us, while others haven’t a clue?

The Oxford Dictionary defines inspiration as: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. Others have waxed more poetic about inspiration. But I tend to agree with Jack London who said, ” You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

Many people, including new writers, think that in order to write you must be inspired every  day. It doesn’t work like that. It’s fabulous when it happens. But writing daily is often an exercise that prepares you for inspiration. You have to work at finding it and to learn what best works for you.

Here are the top ten things I often turn to for inspiration:

1. Exercise. Okay, I can see some of your rolling your eyes and groaning. Seriously, this is the best way for me to get ideas churning in my brain. For example, I had no idea what I was going to do for this blog post until a bolt of inspiration hit me during Zumba class.

images2. Good books. I’m an avid reader  and I read across the genres. But one of the writers that fuels my fire when it comes to sexy writing is DH Lawrence. My favorite? Lady Chatterley’s Lover.  I read it in college and several more times between then and now. Such beautiful , erotic use of imagery and language. And I love the idea that it was so controversial in its day.  I think it still is in certain parts of the country.

3. Music. I’ve written about this before here. But it’s almost as if each book I write has it’s own soundtrack. And what better way to get out of your brain, your own ego, than to listen to some incredible music.

4. Other writers.  I am blessed to have several good writer friends who never let jealousy or insecurities get in the way of our friendship. In fact they lift me, support me, in countless ways. As I hope I do for them.

5. Crafting, or doing something with my hands, like gardening. I’ve always had an herb garden and my husband and I have always had a veggie or two in the ground. I also enjoy scrapbooking and quilting. Just going to a fabric store can inspire me for days.

6. Research. I am one of those writers who loves research almost as much as writing. Often there will be a tiny little thing that sparks my imagination only found during my research. For example, as I wrote about last week, I really love those bee skeps. Yesterday I watched a movie call “The Vanishing Bee,” which was so good I couldn’t tear myself away. I really now have such a better sense of the bee as a creature, rather than an insect to be swatted away. This will definitely inform and inspire me as I write  the next book in my series.

7. History. I am passionate about history and, in fact, married a historian. (Grin.) Reading history never fails to inspire me. Attending museums often results in long journal entries for me, leading to stories later on.

8. Language. This related back to reading—but it doesn’t have to. It could be the way someone has used a word in conversation. It stays in my mind and rolls around, until I decide how to use it for myself.

9. Art. Of course. Like our own Elizabeth Shore, who loves the Renaissance, I love it too. But my all time favorites are the Pre-Raphaelites. John Waterhouse’s Lady of Shallot is my favorite. I’ve written poetry about it.

The Lady of Shalott 1888 by John William Waterhouse 1849-1917

10. Food. I don’t need to go on, do I? You all know how I feel about food.

What inspires you?

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

My Inspiration: Anaïs Nin

1 Mar

Anais
“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” ~ Anaïs Nin

By way of introduction, I thought I might say a word about the writer who opened up this genre to me. There are lots of great erotic classics that inspire me, from early practitioners like John Cleland and the Marquis de Sade, to more recent classic authors like Pauline Réage and Terry Southern.  But the one writer who inspires me most is Anaïs Nin.

I grew up in the Midwest in a family where touchy issues were avoided at all costs and silence was the rule of the day.  When I wanted to find out about something, I always turned to books—too embarrassed to admit to my friends just how ignorant I was about things like sex. Like most kids I knew, I did a lot of bluffing that I knew more than I did.

Delta of Venus was first. I can’t remember anymore if I read her diaries first—they’re so closely intertwined—but I do recall buying Delta because I was terrified that I would be stopped or carded or worse, that alarms would go off, blaring “she’s buying a book about sex!”  But it was the local mall book chain, so the clerk just rang up the purchase without a second look (it probably helped that I was tall).

I devoured the book.  It was so specific! It was one thing to read feminist handbooks about sexuality and quite another to read Nin’s passionate words about how it really felt.  I have written elsewhere about how she rescued me from relying on the ineptitude of teenage boys for experience and taught me to expect so much more.  She also made me want to write about those feelings and to try to capture them in words, something I kept to myself—or a select audience—for many years until Lori Perkins announced the launch of Ravenous Romance and suddenly the penny dropped.  Hey, somebody might want to read these stories just like I read Nin!

Nin had an interesting and complicated life that included incest and bigamy, which show up in her stories, where she often seems to be examining and healing the eruptions of life. The very first story in Delta features both incest and rape which shocked me, but didn’t stop me. I hungered for the vicarious experiences both of her characters in the erotica and of her own life in the diaries and novels.  I loved how she used writing to transform herself from a banker’s wife into an artist surrounded by like minds: writers, painters, dancers, filmmakers.

Nin not only gave me the power to understand and explore my own sexuality, she also taught me the power of writing to transform.  I had been raised to dream small, but her adventures helped me learn that I could expand my world if I were willing to dare to do so — and found a new love, a new country, a new career. I’m still learning that lesson, still finding roadblocks I create for myself. I have to remember her words:

“Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.”

Thank you, Anaïs.

Tags: ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 6,313 other followers

%d bloggers like this: