Please Feed the Muse
By Author Elissa Daye
Over the past five years, I’ve
learned more about myself than
I ever thought possible. It
started with a dream, a small
one which was to finish a book.
That one took almost a decade
to complete, but once it was the
next few books flew past the
block that held them captive for
so long. The Land of the
Shadows came first as a Nano
story for National Novel
Writing Month which is an
event that happens every
November
through
nanowrimo.org. I wrote that
book in a month and was
curious to see if I could do it
again. In Flames followed
quickly after and then so did In
Rapture. I was on a roll, but
then something happened that
kept me from continuing the
streak that had come so easily to
me. LIFE.
That’s right, life got in the way
and when it did I forgot to feed
my muse. It happens, right?
Dishes,
laundry,
moving,
having children, and juggling
activities every day; it all adds
up and you start to feel like the
walls get a little closer together
each day. The things you love
to do get pushed aside until you
have more energy to regroup.
You forget how it feels to create
something from scratch, like a
divine inventor building a world
from the bottom up. I never
knew how much my sanity
depended on me doing what I
love. My muse, she sat on a
shelf wrapped in a tiny box until
I was ready to reward myself
with her presence. And when I
did, something else happened. I
realized that putting her away,
even for a short time felt like a
punishment and that having her
sit on my shoulder while I wrote
was one of the best things I had
ever let myself do. My whole
world improved when I did,
because letting her out was for
me. Not anyone else. Just me.
After realizing this, I decided to
find ways to feed her. Muses do
get hungry you know. They
need the opportunity to grow, to
change into something new with
each passing hour. But to do
this, I also had to acknowledge
that finding time to write and
setting my muse free was not
the same thing. I needed
activities to help inspire her. So
I experimented. Here is what I
came up with.
Take a walk with your muse. I
shut out the world around me,
put my headphones on, and
walk it out. Sometimes I just
walk without a single thought in
my head. Other times, as I’m
walking story ideas pop into my
head. Solutions to narrative
problems seem to appear from
nowhere. I also feel invigorated
because I get exercise in the
process. Two birds with one
stone? I think so! Give it a try if
you hit a road block with your
muse.
Smell the Roses Find time to
explore the world around you.
Get outside instead of being
shut inside the concrete walls
that we’ve built around
ourselves. One day I was
outside at a park and saw the
way the branches butted
together at the top of the trees
and found myself comparing
them to the way deer antlers
must butt together when bucks
fight for male dominance.
Anything in nature can inspire
you to create. At least it does
for me.
Play Play
a
game
with your
kids.
It
will keep you young. You may
not have any grand story ideas,
but you’ll be making memories
and by doing so you will feel
less guilty for taking time for
yourself. You can play while
writing too though. Play around
with plot ideas, move things
around, flip them upside down
and turn them inside out. I’ve
learned that even the quirkiest
idea can attract avid readers.
Sleep This one should be a no
brainer, but you see I was
pushing myself to the limit to
finish chapters when I really
should have been making a pact