How to Nail Inspiration
Written and illustrated by the recently inspired, Shaun McFarlane & Joshua Brown, creative team at Noisy Beast, Melbourne.
Our relationship with inspiration is a complicated one.
When it’s there for you sparks fly, life becomes easier as you fulfil your wildest ideating fantasies together. When it’s not you feel empty inside, long days turn into long nights, date night into take out every night, and laughter to tears.
But you can’t blame yourself, inspo has a wandering eye making it an unfaithful partner. And while most of us get lucky once and a while there’s always an inevitable dry spell. Go too long between a synapse-climax and you’re left in a dark and thirsty place.
We're no experts, but we have had our fair share of ugly breakups and short-term flings. So when asked to talk about inspiration, we decided to open our diary's and hearts to share with you some of the painful lessons we’ve learnt so far.
1: Don’t just look online.
Looking online for inspiration is a gamble, you never really know if it’s the real deal until it’s too late. Every now and then log out of Pinterest and try things the old-fashioned way, watch a movie or visit a coffee shop, just get outdoors.
2: Sometimes a few drinks can help, sometimes you’re just drunk.
No matter how well you think you’ve cracked it, always, ALWAYS check your work with fresh & sober eyes. What felt oh-so-right the night before, can often turn into a one-night stand you’ll want to forget the next morning.
3: Try new things.
Mix things up to keep the spark alive. If you usually look for visual inspiration try reading some poetry, hell, try writing some poetry.
Get kinky with it.
4: Don’t be desperate.
Inspo can smell it from a mile off. If the deadline is approaching do your best
to keep cool and calm, meditation helps.
5: Play the field.
Life is a game of numbers, or a box of chocolates…or something. How do you know you’ve found the one if you stop looking?
Truth is, no one has figured this stuff out completely, not even the greats. All we know is that when you feel like you’re at rock bottom, inspiration is usually lurking right around the corner to pick you back up…we think.
So just keep at it?
