The Purpose of Inspiration

Sometimes I will look at my notes from my most recent brain dump and think "I don't feel inspired enough to make this work". It's at this moment I've trapped myself in thinking inspiration is the primary tool to creativity rather than the pre-workout kick to get the mind warmed up.

For example with a Troika adventure I'm currently writing, I began reading books hoping to find a framework to build the adventure on. I wanted a story to give me the entire formula of what to put my players through. I went so far as to use the same book series that inspired Daniel Sell to write Troika as my guide. When trying to reverse engineer an outcome, I failed to acknowledge the work Daniel put in to have the final result. The misconception of how inspiration should be used is what led me down this spiral.

Eventually I realized I was stuck, and stopped the reading and stepped away for several days to reset. During this reset my life continued as though I wasn't working on the project. Then while attending church, I was reminded how tax collectors in the Bible were seen as some of the worst humans on Earth. That is when the inspiration took hold. When I was free of the burden of finding the perfect inspiration to solve all my problems, the actual spark of inspiration was allowed to thrive.

Now the idea that tax collectors are hated isn't much when designing an adventure. But it was provocative enough to allow my creative muscles to stretch out and form more ideas to latch onto. I used the idea of shady tax collectors to make a faction. Having the first faction made, I was able to make a second faction as opposition to the first. With both factions penned out, I then came up with interesting rumors. The rumors then fed into the locations they were describing and what potential adventure lay within.

The idea of tax collectors gave me an avenue to focus in on since it offered a perspective change. The purpose of inspiration is to be the creative equivalent of smelling salts. When used properly it will give you that burst to create but not actually lift the weight of the project. It is not the primary tool in writing an adventure. Trying to use the inspiration to do all the heavy lifting for me is what traps me. When I have a false expectation of what the role of inspiration is and stop taking accountability for my creative process, I crush my creativity.