Inspiring, Invisible Friends

Tonight I saw an inscription on a t-shirt in one of those catalogs that tempts you to order early Christmas gifts you don’t want or need:

Writer’s Block:

When your invisible friends won’t talk to you.

A writer’s “invisible friends” almost always get more vocal with practice.  And watch out, they wind up into an absolute frenzy when you regularly put them on center stage amidst props (a blaring orchestra, open curtains, and a waiting audience, perhaps). On the other hand, they WON’T talk to you is if they’re sentenced to the stuffy, introverted cave-life where there’s no reason to express themselves.

Truth is, when you write a little essay or short chapter or blog or SOMETHING daily - anything - it keeps the “invisible friends” going.  They build momentum with practice. With everyday stimulation, the “invisible friends” almost never QUIT talking, but chatter on subliminally in some subconscious closet with the moth-ball-infused woolens and old picture frames, plotting ways to put words together when the door swings open and they’re invited back out onto the stage to perform.

Sometimes the topic seems illusive when I start working on an entry for my weekly writing guild.  Either there are a million ways to address it, or else I draw a big fat blank. But how enchanting…almost always the “invisible friends” take over.  Had they been plotting?  How did they know this topic might show up? Or do they just do well under pressure, as spontaneous performers?

Many times when tackling one of these assignments I come up with a vague idea of a fictional main character, and maybe a setting, but little else.   Something about this person’s appearance and/or personality and/or circumstances sets the stage, but that's all.  So I depend on him or her (who IS this person, exactly?) to tell me the rest of the story.  And, miracle of miracles, a developed story emerges.  Where did it come from?  Hmmmmm? 

Some say creativity, others inspiration. A few might call it artistic license born of whim or fancy.  Just for tonight I’ll say maybe credits should go to those “invisible friends.”