“Inspiration is like ice cream. If you don’t eat it now or store it for later, it will melt away in the palm of your hand.”—Dwayne Walker
WHERE INSPIRATION COMES FROM
If you believe that generating ideas is the first phase of the creative process, you’re wrong. Ideas are only as strong as their sources of inspiration.
Inspiration doesn’t spontaneously come from within. After researching the world’s best chefs, artists, writers, and inventors, it’s clear to me that inspiration is all around us. All the time. When you’re reading a blog about a fascinating concept, walking down the street observing other people, or even talking to a fellow creator, a dance of inspiration is happening—one beautiful idea after another. Our minds are consistently soaking in our surroundings and churning out inspiration. But most inspiration gets lost in the limitations of our memory.
Many creative people pull from their memory, experiences, and the people they admire. They wait until they are ready to generate an idea to start searching for inspiration. That’s a flawed process. Creative geniuses do it differently. They don’t wait for inspiration to strike or rely on a foggy memory. Instead, they make gathering inspiration a lifestyle.
When they read a passage in a book that makes them say, “Wow!”, see someone wearing a shirt that they like, or hear something odd in a podcast, they instinctively do one thing: save it for later. They tune their mind to pick up on things they find remotely intriguing and document them in a place they can return to later. That’s because they know how inspiration works. Even though it’s not an inspiration they can act on immediately, it can still inspire them later.
THE RAP GOD
Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known professionally as Eminem, is one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. His contribution to the genre and accomplishments make him worthy of the title, but most importantly, it’s the mastery of his craft. He’s a true lyrical genius.
He bends the meaning and pronunciation of words to follow multiple rhyme schemes happening all at once. Repetition, alliteration, and metaphors are only a few tools he uses to tell captivating stories. His flow, speed, and tempo vary based on the beat. His mastery commands respect from some of the best lyricists in the industry.
The secret behind the depth and complexity of his lyrics hides in his writing process. While most rappers hear a beat and jump straight into songwriting, Eminem approaches it differently. He doesn’t wait until a beat falls into his lap to write a song. Instead, Eminem collects inspiration for lyrics throughout the day. In an interview, he said, “I might find like six to twelve ideas and write them down. Just jot them down, and then at the end of the week or the end of two weeks, or whatever, I stack my ideas up and then I’m ready to write a rhyme.”
That’s the power of saving inspiration for later. Eminem knows that inspiration is fickle and fleeting. It abandons us as quickly as it comes. In a short writing session, most rappers may have three or four mind-blowing lyrics. Eminem, on the other hand, writes down genius lyrics all day. He doesn’t worry about how it fits into a greater vision of a song. Most of his lyrical ideas never see the light of day. He only focuses on saving all his inspiration for later at whatever cost. He once said, “You really gotta live it. My mind 24/7, aside from family stuff obviously, is constantly thinking of ways to bend words. If I don’t have paper, I’ll write it on my hand or whatever. Sometimes when I fill up my hand then I’ll transfer it to paper.”
RESPECT TO THE FLEETING NATURE OF INSPIRATION
Here’s and excerpt from an interview with Bob Dylan talking about the moment of inspiration behind his hit songs saying:
Bob Dylan: “I don’t know how I got to write those songs.”
Interviewer: “What do you mean you don’t know how?”
Bob Dylan: “Those early songs were almost magically written…
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
…Well, try to sit down and write something like that. There’s a magic to that, and it’s not Siegfried and Roy kind of magic. It’s a different kind of penetrating magic. And I did it at one time.”
Interviewer: “You don’t think you can do it today?”
Bob Dylan: *shakes his head no*
Interviewer: “Does that disappoint you?”
Bob Dylan: “Well, you can’t do something forever. I did it once, and I can do other things now. But I can’t do that.”
THE MOMENT
A few months into dating my wife, Ife, we were in a mutually weary phase of deciding if risking our friendship to pursue a relationship was the right choice for us. One night, I was lying in bed listening to music. The moonlight burst through the window as I stared at the ceiling. Randomly, Taiwa by Marc Cary started playing. The piano chords instantly pulled me into a trance. Ife crossed my mind. I started thinking about all the feelings I’ve wanted to express to her but struggled to put into words.