Page 80 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

Focus on Preparing to Write: Finding

Inspiration

When Emilio Estevez was in the process of writing Bobby, a
screenplay about the day Robert F. Kennedy was shot in the

kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, he allowed writer’s block to

stop him from writing the script for a year. Finally, Estevez

checked into a hotel in Pismo Beach, California, to finish the

job. He casually mentioned the project to a check-in clerk, who
told him that she had been in the kitchen of the Ambassador

Hotel on that day. Her story gave him the inspiration he needed

to create a new character and finish the script.

When you write, do you sometimes have difficulty coming up

with ideas, or, like Emilio Estevez, get stuck after you come up

with the idea? Unlike Estevez, you don’t have years to do your

writing projects. You need a reliable way of generating ideas.