No Luck

My wife reminded me yesterday of the strange path by which the actress Carol Burnett found her way onto Broadway and eventually television. It involved one acting class in college, a gift from a mysterious benefactor, and a single, helpful friend in New York. There wasn’t much of what you would call planning. Things seemed to just fall into place for her. You might say she was lucky, if you believe in such things. I don’t. I have no use for the concept of luck. It takes me out of the equation that is my own life, as if somewhere a magical die is cast and either my number comes up or it doesn’t.

However, writing relies on something that resembles luck. Someone asked me the other day how one write song lyrics. At first, I thought she meant rhyming or matching the words to the rhythm and melody, but I soon understood she wanted to know how you thought of something to write about. A little harder to teach, that. Songs come from waiting, wondering, listening, drifting. The ideas come to you, after all. You can’t go get them. You can’t demand them or manufacture them.

You also can’t believe some people get good ideas and some people don’t. Maybe you’re one of the “unlucky” ones to whom inspiration is doled out in meager doses. What’s to be done then but complain and envy others? It’s a wholly uncreative point of view. I understand how frustrating it is when you can’t find the way forward in your novel, or you’d like to write something but all your ideas seem stale and uninteresting. I understand how tempting it can be to feel your Muse is capricious or has abandoned you altogether.

But I’ve also come to understand that ideas and inspiration are always flowing to me whether I’m aware of them or not. There are dozens of things I do that prevent me from receiving what I need. I doubt, I worry, I become impatient, and I argue with people I’ll never meet. Meanwhile, the good stuff is out there waiting for me to settle down, to stop trying so hard, stop fretting and get quiet so I can hear what I actually want to hear – and when I do, I might be tempted to call it good fortune, though it would be like calling a river lucky for finding the ocean.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com