How To Awaken Your Muse
“Following my muse has worked out pretty well so far. I can’t see any reason to change the formula now.” - Chris Van Allsburg
Are you stuck for good ideas? Feeling a little bummed out about it?
Some creators (usually the pros) say that waiting for inspiration is for amateurs.
Instead, they suggest you show up at your desk everyday, preferably at the same time, and begin creating. Even if you don’t know what to make, just start typing, painting, or doing whatever you do. Even if it’s awful, that’s okay, just start.
This is frightening, because many of us are scared to death of the blank page. We want to create something perfect. We think, How can I create something perfect unless I figure it all out in my head first?
We can’t think this way - we’ll never begin.
Songwriters almost never have an entire song completed in their head from start to finish. They get wisps of ideas; a hook, a melody, title, or lyric - and then they lock themselves in their rooms for days, weeks, or months, hunched over their instrument, crafting the tune until it’s polished.
If we’re going to be Amazing Creators, we need to try and follow the advice of the pros and show up to work on a regular basis, even without ideas.
Because when we do this, a funny thing happens - our Muse wakes up.
Imagine your Muse sleeping in the other room. She’s been back there for a while (usually for the same amount of time you’ve been procrastinating.)
Finally, you decide to face the blank page. From her dreamy slumber, your Muse suddenly hears the tap-tap-tapping of your keyboard, or your pen moving across your notebook. Her eyes blink open. She stretches, yawns, and saunters into your workspace to see what you’re up to.
She’s so happy to see you working! And guess what? She’s here to help.
She peeks over your shoulder, watching you create, and soon begins to whisper brilliant ideas into your ear. Stuff you never would have thought of!
It’s a collaboration now. It feels wonderful. Look at you go! You’re inspired! All because you took the first step.
This is exactly what’s happening to me as I type these words.
I started this post with no ideas. The first thing I did was upload the photo. I stared at the “Open” sign and thought, Hmmm…I need to open my mind to ideas.
I started typing…and here we are.
I’m often guilty of waiting for inspiration to strike before I begin work. Do ideas occasionally hit us out of the blue while we’re shopping or doing dishes? Absolutely!
However, it’s easy to use the excuse- oh well, no ideas again today - guess I’ll watch a movie.
If you create for a living, you can’t wait too long for inspiration. Start moving that mouse, tapping those keys, scribbling those sketches.
Enjoy the process of creative movement, purely for it’s own sake. Be like a little kid again - just have fun making stuff.
Stay open, and trust that your Muse will eventually wake up and find you.
For more information about this process, check out Stephen King’s On Writing, Steven Pressfield’s War of Art, and Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about the Muse. Leave a comment!
Wow this is a very special blog! I love it!
I had to subscribe so maybe you can help me harness all my creativity…
Nicole- thank you & welcome! I’ll do my best.
Hi Mark,
I have now read all of your posts, and am truly impressed with your work. It will be such a pleasure watching as you journey into blogosphere, sharing what you’ve learned with the world.
I’ll be back again soon, so reserve me a seat in the cafe.
Thanks Barbara. At Creative Journey Cafe you’ll always find an empty seat, an available plug for your laptop, free wifi, friendly people who wave hello when they see you, free refills, free muffin samples, a roaming magician, and lots of space to daydream.
This is so true. Once you begin something - it’s amazing how those ideas just flow. I haven’t tried War or Art, although I love the other two books.
Good post Mark. My muse is asking for health insurance and a raise. AND daycare. She’s going to have to step it up.
Oh, and I agree about Stephen King’s book - a must read for anyone in the creative field. As you know, I find Hunter S Thompsons book of correspondence pretty inspirational as well.
@Cath - Welcome! Definitely check out War of Art - it might change your life. Yes, many great creators had mundane jobs - Charles Bukowski the poet was a postman…too many to name!
@Dale - Ha! about your demanding muse. And yes, everybody needs to read a little HST. Bracing.
I’m a Barbara fan
so naturally I had to head on over here and it is quite clear why she chose you as NBOTW (congrats by the way!)
I can attest to the usefulness of the some of the tips on here and I’ll be bookmarking this is if I ever hit that block and need to try out some of the ones I havent yet
As a writer both of music and as.. blogging stuff
I do catch wisps of thoughts as you say.. I love to write random stuff in my notebooks, I’ll call myself on voicemail if I have to capture an idea while Im driving..
I absolutely love the feeling of being inspired.. It really drive a strong feeling of content, happiness, and success my way
When I used to write music in my room (another one of those things people didn’t know I could do) I WOULD lock myself in there for days until the piece I wrote and recorded was just right.. vocals and all.
*sigh*
I hate when my Muse goes away
Thank you for helping us keep ours nearby!
Mark - I love your table and your cafe concept. It follows along with my theme of gathering around the kitchen table. Sitting around and sharing with food and beverage is where creativity is born and new ideas are formed.
You’re are right about awakening the muse and starting somewhere even if it just tapping your pencil. I can relate to what you said about writing. A lot of times I don’t know what I’m going to write but I sit down and somehow, somewhere, the words comes and there it is - I guess that’s the muse.
I’ll be back to visit. This has been fun.
@JEMi - thanks for your thoughts. Yes, the songwriting process in particular is wonderful isn’t it? I used to get completely immersed writing songs. No eating. Hours feel like minutes. I love how you use your voicemail to remember ideas. That’s a great tip. Thanks.
@Pat - Welcome! Yes, I often think I need to have a solid idea first, but when I let go of the perfectionist attitude and start with a simple theme things seem to flow. I look forward to your future comments!
GREAT Post, Mark . . .
You really tapped into something here. Reminds me of Einstein’s “nothing happens until something moves” - Really fun to read your post create itself from a blank page.
Congrats on the blog - it’s a nice place to hang out!
John
Mark, this is unbelievable and so, so how things work with me. This might be different than from what other people experience, but a couple of weeks ago I was starting to design costumes for an upcoming show. I was completely indecisive about which way to go for a “look.” I finally got to the point where I decided that it didn’t matter what I did, I just needed to DO something. So off I went with the most “meaningless” part, and then everything fell into place. Final dress rehearsal was tonight, and for the first time ever, everything was done before opening night. I thought I knew this before, but maybe this time I’ll remember!
Tami
Hi Tami! I’m so glad you stopped by and congrats for your successful costume creating! Great story, thanks.
Sometimes your greatest act of creation will occur when your life has been destroyed and you have nothing left to lose and you only create to rescue yourself and survive.
Tanya - yup! Creativity is such a powerful way to heal oneself. Thank you.
Mark,
You are so on track here. I think when you make the effort, the universe conspires to help you. I have read Stephen King’s book and a host of others on writing and have always heard the same thing, sit down and just do it, sometimes what comes out is great and sometimes not but at least you are producing so the great will come eventually. Being a perfectionist by nature, getting to that somewhat unconscious place to write from has been at times very difficult. I struggle to come up with something perfect and it’s paralyzing.
Lately I have just been making myself do it and the results have been amazing. I have been more prolific than ever and some of my best writing has come out of it. One trick I use is to commit to writing for an hour, whatever comes out, no distractions, no veering from the path and if at the end of the hour I want to stop, I stop. Usually I’ll get so wrapped up, I forget about the hour and write until I’m pretty sure I have most of it together. Then if I’m feeling creativly schlumpy, I go back and edit my work with a fresh set of eyes. I have stuff in three categories, ideas, partially fleshed out and ready for final edit. I write the ideas as they come, whether it’s in the car(sorry person in front of me who thinks I’m honking when I’m really using the steering wheel to write against), on the verge of sleep(I won’t remember in the morning)or whereever I am inspired. I flesh out when I’m feeling pretty creative and I edit when I’m feeling more critical than creative.
Thanks for the reminder that it really works.