“This is the tale I pray the divine Muse to unfold to us. Begin it, goddess, at whatever point you will.” ~ The Odyssey of Homer
These hussies…
… are muses (according to painter Baldassare Peruzzi).
But if you are like me (a writerly person) you probably have a love/hate relationship with these fickle ladies.
Best thing to do is just ignore them. Carry on writing as if you don’t need them, because you don’t, really. Choosing a time and place to write, every day, gets your brain into the habit of writing. I could go on at length about brain waves – alpha and gamma waves to be exact – but I won’t. (I wrote a fantastically unpopular essay describing what happens to the brain when being creative. Apparently a paper on neurology was not what the literary tutors wanted when they asked for an essay on “The Creative Process”. Ah well.)
The point is to write every day whether you are inspired or not. Think of creativity as a muscle, and if it isn’t regularly challenged, exercised, it grows weak and impotent.
Inspiration may seem sudden and electric, but lightning doesn’t strike those lying in sunny fields, but those constantly cranking the generator.
(And I realise I’ve just jumped between metaphors. They are a weakness of mine.)
This is miMewz. (See what I did there?)
He sits on my desk and sends me encouraging vibes of creativity (and rage). While I enjoy his company, I don’t depend on him for creative afflatus. That comes from sweaty cranking at that generator.
I say all this but I’m hugely hypocritical. In fact, since starting my MA in Creative Writing, I think I write fewer words per day than before. However, take this blog post as a resolution. Write every day, even if it’s shit.
~K