Louise Cusack - Ramble...
INSPIRATION:
My children are my greatest inspiration. They're 15 and 17 now, and we talk
'shop' a lot because they write as well. My son creates these great space
operas and he has the best imagination. My daughter is a pony girl, very
dreamy, with a gift for making animals into 'people'.
One
day we were talking about titles and my son said, "I've got a good title for
you, Mum. Three Flat Tyres and a Parrot." I think I blinked, then in the space
of time it took me to repeat the title back to him, the whole story downloaded
itself from Fiction Central into my mind - plot, characters, motivations,
setting - the works. Nothing to think about or change, it was like fast
forwarding a movie. I remember feeling a bit dumbstruck. It was the first time
that had ever happened to me, but it happens regularly now. I'll hear a song
lyric on the radio and it will mean something to one of my characters - I can
see the scene - so I have to pull the car over and jot it down. My family are
used to it.
Another
thing that inspires me is the ocean. I like to watch waves. It's like seeing
the pulse of the planet. They have this great rhythm that puts me into a
meditative mind-state where any writing problems I have seem to be suddenly
clear. When I get tired of watching waves I explore rock pools, or even better,
make sand-castles which I adore for the same reason most people hate them - the
fact that they're so transient. As a writer, I'm always fighting panic that
I've let some mistake slip past, because once a story is published there's no
calling it back. With sand castles, they're beautiful, then they're gone. No
pressure to be perfect.
We don't live near the ocean, so I keep a collection of shells on my desk instead - the big ones you can put to your ear to hear the ocean in. I often pause while I'm working to pick one up and listen for that pulse. It's like a mini-meditation.
I
guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm inspired by beauty. And by beauty, I
don't mean the way something looks. To me, the ocean is beautiful because of
the way it makes me feel. That's why the inside of my children's minds are
beautiful (they're pretty cute outside too) and sunsets are beautiful, but only
because they make me feel part of something bigger than myself.
The same way writing does.
PASSION:
Passion is what's important to me as a writer.
I've always been passionate about something. In my twenties I was a peace activist and an animal rights activist with Animal Liberation. I've always had political opinions and now that I'm a mother I care passionately about the planet my children will grow on.
As a writer, I care about my characters. I worry about their problems the same way I worry about my friend's problems. I get excited for them. I cry when they cry. It's real to me. And it can't be that way unless you feel passionate about what you do.
That doesn't happen automatically. You have to let it happen. And when you do, you become vulnerable. Your emotions are exposed and you cry at Telstra ads - you get furious at petty injustices and you fall madly in love with someone else's characters who you know are not real. It's not an easy life. It's a scary life. But I think the satisfaction I get from writing this way is ultimately worth the angst.
My advice to the beginner writer is to feel passionate. Don't write to make money. You'd have better luck buying lottery tickets and it's a lot less work. Write because you desperately, desperately want to say something and you think people would be moved by what you write, whether it's to laugh, to cry, to oooooh in wonder, or to experience again the unbelievable sensations that come with falling in love.
Write
because you truly believe that stories mean something, that they can heal
people's lives. I've read books that have changed my life, and I'm brave (or
foolish) enough to want to change other people's lives.
That's why I write.
(The fact that it's a cheaper form of therapy than going to a psychiatrist every week has absolutely nothing to do with it!)