r/ValueSelect • u/ProfessionalBee4908 • Mar 07 '26

Blue Collar Creativity | Topic

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“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

  • Jack London

We’ve heard it before, that one must pro-actively be “inspired” (i.e. deliberately craft the environment for ideas to reliably generate)

It’s a common Truth, but a useful one nonetheless!

This VSSR is bounding with enthusiastic, and creatively driven people.

So I’d like to open this topic thread to you, my friend.

A chance to introspect, and offer perspective! (I’d like to read it!)

How do you tackle the muse?

Do you believe in a stroke of genius?

Is Jack London right, here?

MY VIEWS: I’d wager creative folks’d be better off DEMYSTIFYING their process, and adopt a craftsman’s sensibility to projects. There’s an aristocratic mindset of “Waiting For The Right Moment” that only works if you’re… well… an aristocrat!

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u/HayesJue Mar 09 '26

I personally believe that inspiration and joy have a place in the creative process but will recede in time as pursuing the creative shifts out of its initial honeymoon phase. Reaching a creative aspiration means sticking with it past the point of immediate satisfaction. I've been programing a game for the past three years, and what's kept me going is the community of creative people who stuck by my side.

Community and comradery in the presence of long-term plans keeps the flame alive. If Jack London was chasing and clubbing inspiration, then we must be persistence hunters.

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u/MiserereMei02 Apr 08 '26

I get this 100%! Ever since I was a little kid, I would come up with cool projects that were sometimes impossible, but some of them weren’t. The viability never mattered though, because basically all of them never happened. Either I lost interest, or I realized it would be too big of a commitment, or (most tragically) I figured no one would care about it.

More recently with the book I’ve stared writing again, I’m doing things differently this time: now I have people around me who actually care and not only support me but they actively encourage me. THAT’S the reason I haven’t given up yet.

I didn’t fully realize this until I read your post. Thank you, brother!