"Inviting The Muse" - Dean F. Wilson
"My Muse just isn't with me today!" We've all said it (in some manner or form), and we've all voiced our frustration when our Muse just gets up one morning (always a little earlier than us, of course), packs their bags, and heads off into the sunset. Perhaps they're only off on a holiday, but whatever their reasons may be, they left no word (indeed for us writers, having no word is often the very reason for our frustration), and they may have even left some dirty dishes or the toilet seat up. How dare they abandon us like this, leaving us with our sparkling blank paper and 0k Word documents. How dare they depart just five pages before the finishing chapter, or five words before the last verse of a poem we thought was going somewhere. Indeed, how dare they go somewhere and not take us along with notebook or laptop at the ready.
And here we are, looking at a huge wall of emptiness, of pointless and dull ideas and weak lines made up of weak words made up of weak thoughts. We miss our Spark, our inspiration – indeed, we find it difficult to even sit down and write at all, and when we do we start with nothing, and this nothing quickly becomes something we want to send to the Recycle Bin.
So - what do we do? Well, we can sit and wait for our sunburnt Muses to come back from their holidays (fresh with interesting cultural tales), or, for the much less patient of us (like myself), we can invite our Muses to join us when we need or want them. Yes! No need to write once every cycle of the moon – you can bring inspiration into your life – you do not have to wait for it to find you.
But how do we find it? Well firstly we need to sit down and force ourselves to write – true, this is nowhere near as enjoyable as when we get a new idea on the bus and rush home to write it all up, but it really does beat writing nothing, and writing is great practice, no matter how bad. Plus, wouldn't you rather write the crap stuff in your "off time", leaving you with just the good stuff when you do get back into your cycle?
There is, however, another thing you can do. When you invite your Muse to join you, literally do just that – send out an invitation. Don't just sit there whining about being left behind with no inspiration – ask to be inspired!
Name your Muse. Be it Average Joe or Unique Eugene, personifying them is an excellent way to bring them into your life. Write a story about them (indeed, ask them what their holiday was like), and for those of you who really want to have fun, give them multiple personalities (mine certainly has a few!). And when there are empty pages, fill them with something – anything! Look around you; wires, mouse, pens, pick a word and follow it as it scurries off somewhere. You may be surprised where it leads.
So next time you see that wall of emptiness, bulldoze it down, and send a surge of reclaimed inspiration at the dam in your creational landscape. Sometimes your Muse really can't help if you don't ask!
