2:20pm September 14, 2014

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.”

—

Octavia E. Butler (via mangaluva)

I wouldn’t say forget inspiration, but I really like this quote. I remember trying to play a poetry game to get into the habit of writing poetry whether I was inspired or not. And this guy I knew got really upset with me and told me that poetry was a sacred thing that should only be written when the inspiration strikes, that his poetry was all written on the spur of the moment, and so was another autistic woman he knew, and therefore that I was Doing It Wrong. Up until then, my poetry was written on the spur of the moment when inspired, too. But even though he pretty much ruined the poetry game by belittling me and making it sound like I was showing off for a crowd or playing like a clown to an audience (what the actual FUCK)… I started writing poetry more as a habit, and my poetry got better. It got a lot better. Because even though I didn’t write great poetry every time, I wrote so often that I might write ten poems for every good poem, but I’d get to that good poem eventually, because of habit. And there’s nothing wrong with that and I’m still pissed at that guy for trying to shame me out of it.

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