where’s my $%*@ muse?!
Posted by Rebecca | Filed under writing
I don’ t know about any of y’all, but my muse seems to have up and deserted me. Since October, actually. She must have gotten tweaked at the mere suggestion that she wasn’t pulling her weight with this whole writing thing.
So my first assignment apparently is to prove her existence.
Followed shortly thereafter by embarking upon a Search & Rescue mission.
If I can figure out how to get my Muse to start throwing ideas left and right and backwards and forwards like those assigned to, say, Ms. Layna Pimentel or Ms. Trish McCallan, I will be a very happy woman. Enough with feeling uninspired and like a hack.
Quiet the Mind
Okay. The consensus seems to be immersion in non-reading, non-lyrical music, non-television watching, non-thinking about writing thoughts… and see what my Muse starts throwing at me.
And that’s the kicker. See, I’m a pretty quiet person. I don’t hear voices in my head… I don’t think. Maybe I’ve heard ‘em all my life, but ignored them? So, I’ve come up with a list of things to do that may help quiet my nagging left-brain for a short while. (And if they don’t, at least life will be a little bit cleaner!)
- washing dishes
- doing the laundry
- going for a walk
- garden (I need to weed and clean up anyway!)
- wash my car (woohoo – that really needs to be done!)
- get a massage? (this gets my vote!)
- do a sudoku puzzle
- go for a drive (without the 4yo!)
- take the 4yo to the park
- go through the 4yo’s how-to-draw books borrowed from the library
- oh! color with the 4yo! She’s got a stack of over-sized Dora poster pictures… she can jabber on, and I can color and let my mind wander — bonus points for being a good mom, too!
- … ?
What do you do to draw your creativity out from the shadows? Don’t be shy! I need help here… lots and lots and lots of help…
January 24, 2011 at 12:15 am
I went through a period where my creativity just disappeared. I had no interest in writing. None at all. I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to produce sometimes, we simply burn our creativity out. For short periods of time anyway.
Creativity isn’t a deep, endless well. It’s more like a stream, that flows when it’s been raining for a while, or there’s a good snow pack somewhere high above. But dries up once the rain disappears or the snow pack melts.
To keep that flow going, you have to feed it. I feed mine with books, and reading, with music, with long drives with the car radio blaring. But mostly I feed mine by day dreaming. I’ve come to realize day dreams are essential. Not so much about the current project, but other stories yammering around in my brain.
I can write when the creativity isn’t there. It’s not fun. It a chore. But I can do it. And the flow won’t always be there when you sit down to write. Sometimes it will simply be absent.
But when it comes right down to it, the biggest danger to my creativity and the flow of the words is putting too much emphasis on perfection. Analyzing my work too deeply, too soon will stop the words in their tracks. It will brick up my mind until nothing will dribble out. Our work is never perfect, nobodies is. Analyzing too deeply and focusing on minute details will completely constipate my creativity. It’s like I seize up. I’m so afraid of doing it wrong; I won’t put anything down on the page at all.
So I’ve learned to just open up my mind and type those words as fast as I can. To let the story come, warts and all. To not analyze, to not judge. To just get the story and characters down, without worrying about being perfect.
January 29, 2011 at 8:23 am
Trish, I love your analogy of the creative flow as akin to a snow cap melt. It’s a cycle that naturally ebbs and wanes, and once I embrace that I will relax.
I think it’s that very relaxation that I need right now. I’ve given myself permission to step back, and in the process, think about how our mind works and what makes our world tick. I firmly believe that once I make it to the other side, all that snow falling now will melt into a raging river of ideas. Because you’re right, we need to feed that flow for something to be there down the way.
Thank you for your support and words of advice!
January 26, 2011 at 1:29 am
I think your ideas are great. I’m inspired by everyday things, NOT sitting at my laptop staring at the cursor. Sometimes a photo, a song, a movie, a book or a walk does the trick. And unloading the dishwasher. Go figure.
January 26, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I’m usually socked by inspiration (when it happens) when I’m in the shower or actively driving. Sometimes while throwing darts with my husband. Pretty much anytime I can’t even scribble a note and instead say “pfft, I’ll remember that”, and then… um… *dang* it!