Create Your Own Muse

The hardest part about writing is uh….writing.

Most writers have reels of stories in their head. When that story begins to coalesce in my mind, I get excited, almost giddy, to write it down. However, my fingers tend to lag behind my mind.

Writing takes time. And if I get bogged down in the details of writing well, sometimes I lose the excitement that caused me to write in the first place.

That’s when the hard work begins.

Many who want to write don’t because their waiting for a spark of inspiration.

For their Muse to awaken.

The word Muse comes from the nine goddess daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. They were considered the source of inspiration for poetry, art, and science. In our modern day, it usually refers to a person, thing, or feeling that sparks a person’s creativity.

But the word muse has another meaning according to Websters.

It’s “a state of deep thought or dreamy abstraction”. In it’s verb form it means “to become absorbed in thought, to think about something carefully and thoughtfully”.

I don’t believe in Greek goddesses, and while I have things that tend to inspire my imagination, too often we writers want the stars to align before we’ll sit down to write.

My best writing occurs when I sit down, stare at the blank page for a bit, and start musing about my story. It might take twenty to thirty minutes, but eventually my imagination kicks into high gear, and the excitement is back.

Yes, there are hard parts to press though. But if I wait for everything to feel perfect, I get nothing done.

If you’re waiting for Zeus’ daughters to show up, it might be time to sit down and create your own muse 🙂