Christian Moerk and the Trouble with Inspiration

Earlier this week, over at GalleyCat, I had the privilege to post an original Howard Chaykin illustration—a representation of an image described in the final paragraphs of Darling Jim, the debut novel from Christian Moerk. And now, I get to present Moerk’s behind-the-scenes perspective on everything that led up to the words that inspired that drawing. I hope his story will lead you to, well, his story.

I’ve always had a hard time relating to the notion of “inspiration,” in which writers by the very act of going to work are supposedly gifted with something that descends upon them from above and becomes a holy entity of which others should be appropriately respectful. C’mon, you know exactly what I mean: writers looking heavenward while they drone on about where their “inspiration” leads them, or how finishing a book has made them grow as human beings. It’s as if this ethereal propulsion drives their fingers and not the other way around. “Inspiration” is like a handsome dinner guest you can’t start eating without.

That’s bunk, of course. So is the phrase “my process,” unless you develop photos for a living.

The problem for me, I think, lies at the heart of what “inspiration” is supposed to be—for many, the very residence of “creativity” (another close second in the c’mon-shut-up category). So in discussing Darling Jim, I’d like to explain, as honestly as I can, how the work itself sneaks up on you and becomes more important than what the writer has to say about it. To be blunt: it’s the story, not the writer, which is supposed to be interesting.

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9 May 2009 | guest authors |