07/23/10

Has this ever happened to you? You sit before a blank screen and think what comes next? Your mind is a blank, your creativity frozen while your finger edges closer to the delete button.

     Not you? Well, aren’t you the lucky one and don’t I just hate you. Some writers are blessed with driven, direct, and dedicated Muses, others are saddled with lazy, vacillating, uncertain Muses. Count yourself blessed if you have a volcanic creativity, ideas that tumble out so swiftly that you cannot get them down on paper quickly enough. You are on that exalted mountaintop all writers strive for and most never find. For you blessed few I have nothing to offer. Rather, it is for my brother and sister writers – the poor, struggling slobs who’ve bald spots on their skulls from tearing out chunks of hair in frustration when their Muse decided to run off to the Powder room just when she’s most needed – that I’m addressing.

    You know who you are.

    If any of this rings a bell take heart for you can make even the laziest of Muses turn off Oprah, get up off the sofa and go back to work.

    Has your Muse ever awakened you in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea for your current WIP or even a fresh new storyline? Have you said to yourself, before you turned over and slipped back to sleep, “This is so great, unique…whatever…that I’ll surely remember it when I wake up.”

    And did you wake up the next morning with absolute amnesia, with the Fabulous Idea completely vanished into thin air? Ask my good friend Marley about this – we have both suffered from this particular dirty trick from our respective Muses.

    The answer to this is simple and obvious: Keep a notebook and pen on your bedside table. When your Muse decides to be perverse and awake you at 2:00 AM with that superior tidbit, force yourself to reach for the notebook and scribble the idea down – even if you do it in the dark. Write it down – you won’t regret it. Some writers recommend keeping a dream journal. I only write down the most bizarre, most unusual, most frightening, most sad dreams which, for me, are about two or three dreams every four months. Use whatever works best for you, but keep that notebook.

    Have you found yourself stuck in your current manuscript? I mean stuck as in up-to-your-waist- in-quicksand stuck? Let me tell you, that’s where I live most times since my Muse is an octogenarian that needs frequent naps and, I suspect, suffers from Alzheimer’s. When this happens – and it will – one sure fire trick is free association. You will need a trusted crit partner, family member, or friend for this technique.  Anyone who knows your WIP or someone you trust will do.

    This exercise is just what it sounds like: your partner speaks a word or phrase and you respond with the very first thing that enters your mind.

    Cadence’s examples:

    Tomato – killer vine

    Dog – Rabid

    Summer – Solar flare

    You can see my contrary Muse at work here, but the exercise does work. It will help you think yourself out of the corner you’ve painted yourself into and you’ll be surprised with the results.

    What about plot problems? What if your story has grown legs and none of it makes sense all the while your Muse remains sullenly silent.  Never fear. There is a fairly simple way to dig out of this quicksand. Once again it involves a sympathetic ear: a crit partner, or a writing buddy – anyone you know who will give you their honest opinion. A writer doesn’t need others to bash or degrade their infant work – we do that well enough on our own, thank you very much, but as with free-association, here you talk through your plot problems…aloud! Listen to your trusted partner when they make a suggestion – most times you’ll find they cut through all the sticky spider webs that bind you and hold you back. Soon you will find the answer that had eluded you. You’ll be surprised by the fresh, logical options your friend can come up with, fresh options you may not have thought of without their gentle prodding. Sometimes all a writer needs is a friendly ear.

    Try it…it works.

    Finally, for the vacationing Muse, the Muse that is MIA, let me offer this suggestion to kick- start your creativity: Visit a museum, an art studio, a vintage clothing store, a historic home, heck…even your local Wal Mart, and play the “what if” game. “What if” alien warriors have crossed through a portal that opens into the sporting goods section of K-Mart? What if sex-starved nymphs walked into a Catholic Monastery? What if a dirt poor, indigent, homeless man won the multi-million lottery? Or what if the star quarterback broke up with his head cheerleader girlfriend for the loser Goth girl?

    See what I mean? Sometimes you have to trick your Muse, to practice a little slight-of-hand to ramp her up and put her to work, but in the long run these tricks will be nothing but money for you. Here’s hoping your work will benefit from these techniques.

    Good luck!

Posted in News| 17 Comments »

17 Responses

---