Pictures....

Over the course of my writing career, every once in a while, I would come across something about C.S. Lewis. Of course everyone knows who C.S. Lewis is, but I've grown to really appriciate his opinions on writing this past year.
     C.S. Lewis, to me, understands true writing. He understands the craft and has some very insightful things that he has written or said that has comforted me during my writing obstacles.
     I read his essay, It All Began With A Picture, which is his story on how he came to write the Narnia books. He tells of how Narnia started with pictures, not stories, and the pictures were like writing prompts, but when people ask how he got the picture, he says he cannot say. It just appeared in his head without warning.
     I started thinking about how he said these pictures just come to him, but he doesn't know where they came from. I have that too, where I'll have dreams of characters, and I'll write the dream down and the characters' story will come to me, but where did the dreams come from? Or how did the idea of a character's past come to me--while emptying the dishwasher, no less!? (Agatha Christie strongly suggests writing mysteries while doing the dishes.) Where do these pictures and stories come from that seem to have had no inspriration whatsoever from the outside world?
     I think that if God has called you to writing, He sends you those pictures, and those characters. Writing is a complicated process; it's art. You cannot, under any circumstances, rush your art. You mustn't try to force those ideas to come to your head, for risk of the idea being your own and not the story's. God is there to give you the inspiration you need and you have to trust Him and not freak out when you haven't written in weeks. And if you listen to your characters, and ask them themselves what they want to do, more often than not, they'll whisper in your ear what needs to happen to them.
     I believe that a writer's job is simply to listen, and write the story based on what they're told. Like a reporter, and God and your characters are the ones you're interviewing.