I grew up in my mother\u2019s ballet school, so, of course, I\u2019m familiar with the image of the flowy, beautiful Terpsichore, the Greek muse of dance. I believe in the mythology of the muses, and I can easily play along with the notion when it comes to creativity, but if I sat around and waited on ideas to be gifted to me by some ethereal being, I wouldn\u2019t have published as much or as long as I have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my love for studying history and literature, I have learned that the Greeks sought ways to explain their world and themselves. True, this ancient culture contributed a great deal to philosophy, government, education, and so on, but anything they couldn\u2019t exactly touch, eat, or screw didn\u2019t qualify to their norms of rationality and were obviously gifts from the gods who ruled their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve progressed a little farther from that perspective, but the image of the muse bestowing genius and inspiration upon a poet, writer, and others is still with us. For example, in between his writing advice to \u201cwork your ass off\u201d and read, author Steven King claims that, \u201cThere is a muse*, but he\u2019s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer station. He lives in the ground.\u201d (144-145) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I see it, the problem with depending on a mythical character to do the grunt work is irrational and risky. And since my Scorpio roots ground me to at least listening to my intuition, I\u2019m in between a rock and a hard place that are both falling in on me unless I take a pragmatic approach to things so I can get $h!t done. Because if I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t get paid, and I doubt if I need to explain the avalanche of problems that results from that precarious place. I actually have worked for food writing and posting social media for a local restaurant, so I know what it feels like to sell my ideas in exchange for a sandwich because that\u2019s how they paid me\u2014in calories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is that inspiration most often comes from motivation. Even King explains that he wanted out of a distasteful, go-nowhere teaching job and that compelled him to write and submit until the strike hit the mark for him. He was motivated by survival despite his tongue-in-cheek nod to his muse which he describes as a \u201cbasement guy\u201d who smokes cigars while admiring his bowling trophies but has wings and a bag of magic. The muse may have the magic, but the writer must have the motivation. Besides needing to pay bills, where do motivation and ideas come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea for my online workshop \u201c50 Ways to Leave Your Muse: Creativity Hacks\u201d was originally motivated by an assignment in graduate school. I was motivated by getting a grade and inspired by the work of college English teacher and author Wendy Bishop. Her book Released Into Language: Options for Teaching Creative Writing<\/em> has a delicious chapter on how she teaches her students to always be inspired to write and not dependent on the muse. She calls it \u201cgetting in motion\u201d to write. I like that imagery, not only because of my dance background but because I really do feel like whizzing, whirring, buzzing, clunking, clanking, cranking writing machine when I\u2019m in the flow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop has students write to and about their personal muses. Those examples in Bishop\u2019s book inspired me to make a list of all the things that can, do, and have contributed to my life as a writer. A writer who is constantly on the run from writer\u2019s block because it doesn\u2019t have a place at my writing table. There\u2019s a place for my lovely muse who eats daintily and quietly with a constant twinkle in her eyes no matter what I\u2019m serving. She\u2019s polite and inspiring, but like King, I always do the dishes, which is the hard work of procuring, pounding out, and proofreading the sentences. We have a lovely relationship, my muse and I, because I stay open to EVERYTHING. That\u2019s what the workshop \u201c50 Ways to Leave Your Muse: Creativity Hacks\u201d is about: staying open to the world so you never miss the whisper of the muse. And fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next online workshop of “50 Ways to Leave Your Muse: Creativity Hacks for Writers” is a self-paced course hosted by Hearts Through History Romance Writers of America. It runs June 1-25, 2021. You can register here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.heartsthroughhistory.com\/event\/50-ways-to-leave-your-muse-creativity-hacks\/#register<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be well, write well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop, Wendy. Released Into Language<\/em>, 2^{nd<\/sup> ed. Portland, ME: Calendar Islands Publishers, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n}

King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft<\/em>. Scribner, 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I grew up in my mother\u2019s ballet school, so, of course, I\u2019m familiar with the image of the flowy, beautiful Terpsichore, the Greek muse of dance. I believe in the mythology of the muses, and I can easily play along with the notion when it comes to creativity, but if I sat around and waited Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,87,125,177,191],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-50-ways","tag-creativity","tag-hearts-through-history","tag-muse","tag-online-workshop"],"yoast_head":"\n