Perhaps you don’t have to entertain your muse. Maybe she shows up and entertains distracts you at the most odd of moments. I had a friend once who described this look to me as “going with the fairies.”
That little word picture of my wandering mind delighted me. Sometimes it feels like that. When I’m brainstorming sections of stories, it requires long pauses of staring into space doing nothing. I try to keep these moments to private spaces because I’ll be less likely to be interrupted.
How do you invite your Muse to create with you?
Do you do handstands across the floor? Run through a field that’s in the midst of its summer planting? Do you jump in the car to fly down a long stretch of road to think and to dream about the story? Or do you just plop your paints and let the white canvas bloom colors before you?
When I sit down to create, my headphones go in my ears and I choose music that soothes and inspires. It’s a perfect mix. But sometimes I’ll mix it up with something full of beat and wailing voices. It depends on what I write. A glass of water a foot from my right hand. I might scan through Pinterest, but if I’m serious about writing. I try to just get down to it.
When I know I’ve written something good (for once), I list the people I know who might make good readers of the thing. Yes, it’s a thing–not quite fully formed but in the process of growing. Once sent, I sit waiting desperately for feedback. I love feedback, the more detailed the better!
Images delight me, spinning my mind into a hundred different scenarios for stories. Few make it to the page! But it’s fun to let my thoughts ramble like butterflies through a wild flower field. And this is why I’m a Pinterest addict.
As much as I love images, though. Something is to be said about music. It lifts and transforms my view of the world in ways that I can’t even describe. Nothing leaves me as speechless and music.
Here’s my song of inspiration this week. It’s croony, soulful, and so sad. I like my dancing tunes, but these mournful tunes are so much more real sometimes.
What About You?
How do you invite your Muse into your creation? Do you have any little rituals?
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