Arild Nygard

Finding Inspiration is Important for me and I have to look for it all the time.

You hear people taking about how they wrote a report or an article in a couple of hours. I can’t do that. I have to sit down in quiet surroundings and think. I have to look deeply for inspiration and find a subject that I can write about. Than I do my research and write down keywords or phrases at the same time. As research is progressing an “idea” or outline is forming and I start to write. At first it is just a ruff draft that I write. I will get back to it later and do editing and corrections as needed.  The part of research is what takes time. I don’t like to write just junk that has no deep purpose or end result. It has to have a meaning and for that to happen I have to do the research. Get facts. Hey, maybe Ii should call it a fact-finding research and not just research. I was once told that one of the better ways to write was to start asking questions. Use the questions as a beginning and than write the answers to them. After editing and writing for a while you might see a nice report forming.

So here we go; what should I write about for my Site “ArildNygard.com”. It’s a site about writing. I sometimes get a bit frustrated and don’t know what to write about. Travel was one of the subjects that I was going to write about. I like to have a bit of everything related to living and working in Montreal, Canada. Looking at travel I think, why travel? What’s so special about that and what can I write that has not been written before by somebody else? Many before me have don this and I don’t know if it can be any new way or a different way that I can do this. Maybe I Should just get into the specific of one subject only and stay with that till I have built a base for anything else that might evolve from it. I guess you have heard the expression one idea leads to another being borne.

Keeping on writing just might do that also. You kind of get into the groove and than the trick become how to stay there, in the Groove I mean. Many times I have been in the groove and just lost it as external distractions kept on interfering and I finally gave up completely. I sometimes wonder how a professional writer can stay with it for so long time. I guess this is part of their training that they go through when they start out. I heard one female writer once say that even though you know how to tune your car, you are not going to do it as well and fast as a professional mechanic. The same goes for writing she said. I think it’s true to the nt’ degree. I used to find great comfort and inspiration by listening and working with likeminded people online. This has since kind of diminished as we all drifted apart it seem. I don’t know what happened but the inspiration has gone and I now think it a lot of time lost just listening to or socializing online.
Another think about writing that I kind of have problems with is the fact that I can’t stay completely on topic but seem to drift off a bit every now and than. I kind of get side tracked and wonder off into the blue somewhere.

Staying focused and on track is one of my priorities when I write and after my ruff draft is done I sometimes have just half of my original left. The other half has been edited away as it’s not on topic. I have been told not to worry about it but keep on writing anyway and just edit it in the end.

The ruff draft is just that, a ruff draft. It might take a complete re-write for it to be any good but it has to start with a ruff draft. How would I ever finish if I don’t do it this way? No way I can get it done and completed any other way. At least I don’t know any other ways that works for me. So finding inspiration kind of get’s done this way. I just start writing and as I write things kind of pop into my head and I write them down, sometimes I just write them down in the middle of whatever I’m writing at the moment. I mark the “Idea” with a star or something that makes it easy for me to find later on. It is a way that is less intrusive and don’t throw me off the original writing as much as if I had to stop and take a note pad or book and write it down by hand. The inspiration I find is usually good for a bit and I have to act as fast as I can on it as usually doesn’t hang around for long. Inspirations come and go!