Every time you start a project, or even start a day's writing, you will be faced with a blank page and usually an overwhelming urge to crawl back into bed. It is at times like these you need to pull out your secret weapon. Used for millennia before we become too smart for it, your best friend in getting over that initial fear is your Muse.
Who or what is a Muse? Most simply, it is someone else to blame. And sometimes that is enough.
In the ancient Greek world, there were nine Muses. Although they were often portrayed as scantily clad women, inspiring through the arousal of sexual desire was not their primary purpose. Instead, they were both the embodiment and the sponsors of the arts. You could only produce great art if the Muses chose to grant you the necessary skill and inspiration.
In various forms throughout history, the Muse has been used as an entity that bestows inspiration and passion upon an individual (rather than arousing it within them). This is a very important distinction of roles. It was your responsibility to be open and willing to work when the inspiration was given, but it was her/his/its responsibility to give you that inspiration. If you sit down and work, and yet nothing good comes out, well that's not your fault. Your Muse is simply throwing a sick day. You are, of course, responsible for doing everything you can to win the fair Muse over, but you can't expect any more from yourself than this.
Having to internalise and take responsibility for this purely creative element is one of the reasons for the idea of the tortured artist, so evident in contemporary culture. It is now the writer's fault if they cannot produce inspired work on demand. This is incredibly stressful, enough to make anyone curl up and whimper. It both instils and magnifies the fear of failure that can utterly cripple a writer, that which causes a lot of the writer's block in the world. As Elizabeth Gilbert said in an engaging TED Talk, ("Your elusive creative genius"), "I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel, like the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche... and I think the pressure of that has been killing off our artists for the last 500 years."
Accordingly, one of the most important and effective exercises for the developing writer is to identify your Muse. This must be something external to you that has the ability to grant you inspiration when it wants, and requires only that you sit down and faithfully work (and maybe write it a sonnet or two in thanks). Then, invisible to yourself, it will infuse its inspirations into your work, and together you will create something great. And if the work you produce is not great? Well, your muse was away at the time.
Take a moment and discover your Muse. My personal faith works pretty well for me, and you need to find out whatever works for you. If you are at all imaginative, give it personality, characteristics with which you can interact. Make a deal with it: your part is to turn up and start writing on demand, their part is to bless the process and take responsibility for the outcome.
In general, I have found cats make good Muses. There is something in the way they carry themselves that suggests they have the ability to grant inspiration (it certainly explains why they love sitting on keyboards so much, and perhaps why there are so many photos of them online). They also have egos big enough to take your successes or failures in their stride.
Perhaps you could imagine your Muse is the spirit of your favourite writer, or perhaps Botticelli's Venus, the spirit of new-born art. Whoever she is, her role is to be an external being, there to assure you of some higher meaning to your work, and to remind you to relax and let the words come.
As unusual as it sounds, I urge you to undertake this activity right now. Search for an answer that will work for you and has a strong personal meaning. Either real or imaginary, designate someone else to take the pressure and stress of the creative process, so you can just enjoy having fun.
Who or what is a Muse? Most simply, it is someone else to blame. And sometimes that is enough.
In the ancient Greek world, there were nine Muses. Although they were often portrayed as scantily clad women, inspiring through the arousal of sexual desire was not their primary purpose. Instead, they were both the embodiment and the sponsors of the arts. You could only produce great art if the Muses chose to grant you the necessary skill and inspiration.
In various forms throughout history, the Muse has been used as an entity that bestows inspiration and passion upon an individual (rather than arousing it within them). This is a very important distinction of roles. It was your responsibility to be open and willing to work when the inspiration was given, but it was her/his/its responsibility to give you that inspiration. If you sit down and work, and yet nothing good comes out, well that's not your fault. Your Muse is simply throwing a sick day. You are, of course, responsible for doing everything you can to win the fair Muse over, but you can't expect any more from yourself than this.
Having to internalise and take responsibility for this purely creative element is one of the reasons for the idea of the tortured artist, so evident in contemporary culture. It is now the writer's fault if they cannot produce inspired work on demand. This is incredibly stressful, enough to make anyone curl up and whimper. It both instils and magnifies the fear of failure that can utterly cripple a writer, that which causes a lot of the writer's block in the world. As Elizabeth Gilbert said in an engaging TED Talk, ("Your elusive creative genius"), "I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel, like the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche... and I think the pressure of that has been killing off our artists for the last 500 years."
Accordingly, one of the most important and effective exercises for the developing writer is to identify your Muse. This must be something external to you that has the ability to grant you inspiration when it wants, and requires only that you sit down and faithfully work (and maybe write it a sonnet or two in thanks). Then, invisible to yourself, it will infuse its inspirations into your work, and together you will create something great. And if the work you produce is not great? Well, your muse was away at the time.
Take a moment and discover your Muse. My personal faith works pretty well for me, and you need to find out whatever works for you. If you are at all imaginative, give it personality, characteristics with which you can interact. Make a deal with it: your part is to turn up and start writing on demand, their part is to bless the process and take responsibility for the outcome.
In general, I have found cats make good Muses. There is something in the way they carry themselves that suggests they have the ability to grant inspiration (it certainly explains why they love sitting on keyboards so much, and perhaps why there are so many photos of them online). They also have egos big enough to take your successes or failures in their stride.
Perhaps you could imagine your Muse is the spirit of your favourite writer, or perhaps Botticelli's Venus, the spirit of new-born art. Whoever she is, her role is to be an external being, there to assure you of some higher meaning to your work, and to remind you to relax and let the words come.
As unusual as it sounds, I urge you to undertake this activity right now. Search for an answer that will work for you and has a strong personal meaning. Either real or imaginary, designate someone else to take the pressure and stress of the creative process, so you can just enjoy having fun.
About the Author:
This is an excerpt from Buffy Greentree's book 'The Five Day Writer's Retreat', available now on Amazon Five_day_Writer_Retreat
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