Life as Inspiration: On Writer’s Block
-Alex T. Macmillan

My chosen professional and field of study is Theology, so I have a tendency to think of everything in terms of the ancient world.

So, in considering writer’s block, I can’t help but think about the world 2,000 years ago. A very small percentage of people could read or write, and all work that was written was read aloud. In a world without a printing press – let alone without film, computers, and all the wonderful technological curses we have today – reading aloud from a given text was quite an art form. Written work was rare, and therefore, all written work had to be of the highest quality.

Writing is now common and often times vulgar. Inspiration is no longer essential to the process, and the muses aren’t even acknowledged, let alone relied upon.

In a highly secularized world, even amongst the most religious of all people, writer’s block is reduced to a chemical problem. Indeed, one of our solutions for this kind of block is to take a hallucinogenic drug through which our mental state will be altered and we shall somehow become artists rather than simple mortals. As much as some might like to say otherwise, this technique has not been ineffective. It would be ignorant to say that popular music has been devoid, if not reliant, on this kind of inspiration. However, it seems to me that the goal should not be to have to rely on some kind of chemical substance for one’s source of inspiration.

After all, we turn to art not to escape from life, but to understand it on a deeper level. We watch a great film because it teaches us about life, about ourselves, about our deepest passions. We listen to a song because it says something that we experience that we can’t put into words. Our experience of romance is highlighted by song; our experience of loss is explained by movies; our understanding of politics is educated through literature.

Art, particularly writing, should come from the experience of living. The image of the author who spends all his time locked up in his study until he somehow creates the perfect composition seems somewhat inauthentic, even if it is successful. Life is what needs to be communicated in art, therefore, life needs to be lived.

If our popular music is so dominated by some kind of romantic theme, it must be because our best experience of life is that of romance. Our culture seems to be under the impression that romance leading to sex is somehow the highest achievement. I cannot deny the greatness of romance, but I think there must be something even greater that romance is pointing to.

That direction, that experience, that thing must be our muse. Drugs will eventually destroy us, but this higher good will only enliven us. Part of the problem with much of popular religious music today is that it tries to write according to the secular method, except without the drugs. The result is depressing. In fact, I find much of popularized Christianity totally unconvincing and inauthentic based strictly on the poor quality of the art produced. Is God really the inspiration of this garbage? A weak, pathetic god inspires music that is no more than a few chords put to words that are ripped from a context and culture that existed thousands of years ago.

The real inspiration must be deeper. Handel wrote the Messiah in something like 21 days. I’m not sure it’s possible to doubt his source of inspiration was something that transcended more ordinary human experiences. The experience must transcend our circumstances, our lives, even humanity in some ways.

The ancients teach us that writing will cease to be common and vulgar only when we go after the muses. Homer had to somehow leave for his Odyssey in his life before he could leave for it in his writing. Whether or not there are actual muses within the heavens or if it is somehow a different sort of spiritual experience, the authentic experience of life is our teacher in writing.