Michael Botur, author and inspiration. Photo / Supplied
Author Michael Botur has some advice for the writer who really should get around to it.
Picture this: you're on the beach with a bevvy, a book and some Bluetooth. You're impressed by the words or the lyrics on the speaker. You're thinking over the film you saw last night or that poem someone posted.
All these pieces of writing that give you so much inspiration and envy? They undoubtedly began with words that went through many drafts. Some of those drafts would have been done during a hot, sunburned summer. Behind what you imagine to be a cushy, privileged author life is a weary writer suffering on a sticky chair in a dark room while it's sunny outside. For example, last night my sweaty armpits stank up the studio as I recorded Hell of a Thing for Audible. But that's what it takes. Several drafts of your novel, story or song have to be written and read aloud when it seems like the rest of the world is having a good time without you.
On the other side of that suffering, though, is the esteem you get from creating an original work of literary art. So let me lay down the wero (challenge) and tell you how summer stressors result in satisfying writing.
Frustrated your shirtless body doesn't look as good as that babe or boy? Put it on paper.
Remember the thrill in your formative years when you read a book in which the author put down secret thoughts you assumed no one else ever had? If you write down your neurotic summertime inner monologue, your typical reader will appreciate it. Stop me if I'm wrong, but a lot of readers are introverted, pale people who prefer indoors. That's your tribe. They are ready to listen as you put unspeakable, secret thoughts on paper for them to relish.
What's more impressive than an Instagram of you drunk at Rhythm & Vines? Publishing a story.
While everyone else is sharing unoriginal selfies, post a link to your story published on Flash Frontier. The satisfaction that comes from creating an original work of art and entertaining an audience all by yourself is deeper than any satisfaction you'll get from spending money in a crowd.
Jealous of someone's jetski? Sweet: turn envy into inspiration.
Read "Soon" by Charlotte Grimshaw as you stew in the sand at Snell's Beach. The author casts a withering eye on Hibiscus Coast high society in her literature. Let yourself be inspired by what you suspect about the cost of chasing the Kiwi dream. Turn your opinion into a narrative. Send your fiction to the next Sunday Star-Times short story competition. Enjoy the feeling of having created an original, powerful statement.
Impressed by some author you're reading over summer? Put yourself in their boots.
Have you been easily enjoying "Killers of the Flower Moon" as you relax in the sand at Goat Island after a snorkel? It wouldn't have been easy for the author. David Grann would have had to sit in a dark, dusty, shadowy room for hours to get the source material for that book. If he had it tough, so can you. Ask yourself, "What fascinates me that could potentially fascinate a reader?" Go write it.
There has always been fishing, but there has never been the story you could create if you stay home today.
Inspiration fades every minute that you ignore it, so write that literary draft now, today. It will seem like only a few blinks of an eye before you pick your draft up again - and it will be soooo much easier to add words because you laid a foundation. Today's hard work is tomorrow's head start. And there will be many other opportunities in life to go fishing.
Christmas whānau feud? Put the passion on a page.
Writing will only have emotional resonance if it is based on real feelings, so while upsetting family arguments are going on over summer, get some idiosyncrasies written as quickly as you can. If your dad gave you grief because you ate noodles 30 minutes before a dinner party (like my old man), write it down. If your brother is mad because you bought the same shoes as his wife, that's good material. It could be the next "Running With Scissors" or "The Corrections".
Work out what word count your writing requires and get a draft completed ASAP, because after 1-4 weeks, you will need to do a second draft.
By the way, if you think you can't derive inspiration because you don't have an annoying person in your family, it's probably you.
• Michael Botur is the author of 10 books and has won numerous awards for short story writing, mostly drafted while glued to his chair during hot, sticky sunburned January summers.
