CREATIVE PROCESS
Your Muse or Mine?
THE SHIFT IN SEMANTICS …
YOUR MUSE …
Long, long ago, far, far away, there were nine divine Muses who personified art in its many forms. These veiled, sometimes winged daughters of Zeus, his lover, Mnemosyne, or possibly Harmonia, (it’s complicated) symbolised all that was exquisite and much that was inventive.
Artists and poets of the Romantic era were enslaved by their Muse. The result? Epidemics of ecstasies and anguish …
Graves, giddy-eyed, portrays his aesthetic as a blue-eyed woman with ‘rowan berry lips’ and ‘hair curled, honey-coloured to white hips’.
Pre-Raphaelite painter, Rossetti, felt his destiny was defined by the very existence of his copper-haired Muse, Elizabeth Siddal.
Keats woefully relates a young knight’s encounter with a ‘full beautiful … wild eyed … faery’s child’. Said faery’s child entices said knight into fatal ‘thrall’.
The Muse of the flowing veil variety will always be associated with tremulous yearnings, but is this fickle siren the only Muse to inspire passion? Must every Arthur have his Guinevere, every Shakespeare his dark lady, or every John his Yoko?
Cut to present day. How can we express our passions in this not so Romantic era, where our Muse has shed her ethereal, scented ways in favour of tractor-pulling, rig drilling, or log-severing chainsaws?
Our latter-day Muse has, of course, taken a shift in semantics, away from diaphanous deities to embody all possible sources of inspiration, whether they be person, place, or thing.
LET ME COUNT THE WAYS ….
We all find our Muse in different ways. For the lucky ones, inspiration can materialise from the mysterious ether. For the rest of us, our Muse remains coyly hidden behind a bookcase of writer’s block. Caress that bookcase. take out some books. Read and absorb every printed word of literature you can lay your hands on, from classics to contemporary, modern, and popular.
What speaks to you and why? What doesn’t? Turn off the daily humdrum, go for a drive in the country, bury your nose in scented flowers, eat ice cream, see a black-and-white movie, lie back on a grassy slope, and watch the sunset.
Reflect and recharge. Consider your own beliefs and passions.
HOW AND WHERE …
Anything from the everyday to the magical can trigger the Muse:
- The potency of heady scents;
- Paintings, posters, old photographs, a glossy magazine;
- An atmospheric old movie, a thrilling new movie;
- Chords or lyrics from music that’s special to you;
- A handwritten letter, an unexpected postcard;
- The fairground at dusk;
- The aroma of charred wood smoke on a winter’s evening;
- Your lover, your friend;
- Ancient citadels, futuristic skyscrapers;
- A crystal clear starry night;
- Rain, thunder, lightning;
I could go on, ad infinitum (can’t you tell?) but your Muse, your ‘aha’ moment, is waiting to be discovered.
PRESERVATION OF THE MUSE:
It could be said the role of the Muse is to ignite the spark of creativity and keep it aflame. We have the source material to call upon our Muse at any time.
How to capture the moment?
If you have a photographic memory, wonderful! If not, try recording the essence of your response on the spot. If you’re out and about, carry a notebook or use the notepad function on your device. Find a park bench or a coffee house where you can sit and make your notes. Do not stalk any human Muses!
Describe what you see, what you hear, or what you feel. Take a photo of something that strikes you, but get your first impressions down. The rawness and freshness of your first response will repay you over and over.
For now, I’m going to assume it’s a rainy day and you’re at home, reading this article (lucky you).
Let’s see what we can do about that.
INVOKING THE MUSE
My ideal place to create and write is on one of those rainy days on a (typically) book-cluttered desk. Family and friends are forewarned, phone (checked at reasonable intervals in case of emergency) is switched off. Pets are pre-fed, fussed over, and content — except the cats who will always find ways to clamber over my keyboard, no matter what. Any other form of background disruption is unplugged.
There should only be the sound of raindrops, pulsing softly on the window pane, and purposeful (but not so poetic) tapping on my keyboard.
ALL WILL MAKE SENSE!
So — how we can use inspiration in a practical way to muster creativity?
I’ve created the exercise below. I’ll call it ‘Blueberry Musings’.
For those of you who like lists, you’ll need:
- Pen, paper or device
- Favourite background / ambient music
- Candles (optional)
- Fragrance
- Ice Cubes
- Favourite dish or dessert
Carry on reading. All will make sense!
BLUEBERRY MUSINGS
This exercise, using visceral taste bud stimulation, is designed to help trigger your personal Muse. You’ll need to have a little something in front of you to tantalise your taste buds. Whether it be strawberry cheesecake, chocolate fudge cake, or blueberries and whipped cream.
Settle yourself into your most comfortable writing spot.
Take a few minutes, and close your eyes. Concentrate on your breathing. Relax. Clear your head. Allow your mind to become a blank canvas.
When you feel ready, open your eyes. It’s time to activate your senses.
Concentrate on the dish in front of you. Let’s go with the blueberries and whipped cream. Take in the colour, the scent and the textures. Allow your mouth to water, it’s research!
Using a fork, a spoon, your fingers, or a combination, start eating, slowly.
Close your eyes. Allow your taste buds to experience the arousal (coming from the right side of your brain) of sensations. Allow the sensuousness to power up and populate your mind canvas.
Now, open your eyes and free-write every describing word, phrase, memory, and association, (names of people, places) that come to mind. Write for a full, three minutes, with no hesitation, no editing, just letting the pen glide seamlessly across the page.
Review. Keep everything you like. Draw a line through everything you don’t.
Stylistically, make a point of rejecting any vagaries such as ‘good’ and ‘tasty’ in favour of specifics, such as, ‘smooth’, ‘soft’, or ‘sweet’.
Take a ten-minute break. Dab some ice cubes, or scent behind your ears and on your pulse points. Light the candles, play a little music, or just listen to the rain. Then, come back to your draft.
Can you heighten your associations with imagery? Could the blueberries be ‘juicy-sweet indigo orbs’ or the cream be ‘smooth as ivory-white silk’? Do these enhancers activate any further ideas or associations?
AND SO …
Find that spark. Awaken your senses. Our Muse isn’t restricted to one person, place or thing, our Muse can be anything and everything around us. Sometimes we just need to stop what we’re doing. Sometimes we just need to take time out. Take a trip to a shopping mall. Take a trip to the museum. Take a trip to the beach, a fairground, or the countryside.
Or stay home and try blueberries with whipped cream.
Our Muse with ‘rowan berry lips’ and ‘hair curled, honey-coloured to white (or any colour) hips’ is closer than you think.
© 2023 Susi Moore. All Rights Reserved.
Thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts on this topic I’d love to hear them in your comments!
For more on the elements of fiction …
Calling all fiction writers! Aspiring or otherwise! Want to showcase your writing and imagination? Write for The Scriber’s Nook! We love stories, poetry, and more!
Susi Moore runs MuserScribe (a new publication to Medium) where writers submit their stories and talk about the inspiration behind them …💜💜💜
