The Novelist: Finding Your Muse
November 9, 2008 by Nina Munteanu
Filed under Featured, Fiction Writing, Writing Tips, Writing Workshops, the novelist
I often get asked how and where I draw my inspiration from. How do I find my muse? And how do I keep it? (i.e.,, how do I defeat “writer’s block”?).
The Muses, in Greek mythology, are a sisterhood of goddesses or spirits who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music and dance. The Muses are water nymphs associated with the springs of Helicon and with Pieris (from which they are sometimes called the Pierides). According to Hesiod’s Theogony (7th century BC), they are the daughters of Zeus (king of the gods) and Mnemosyne (goddess of memory).
Greek mousa (from which muse derives) is a common noun that means “song” or “poem”. In Pindar, to “carry a mousa” is “to sing a song”. The Muses were, therefore, both the embodiments and sponsors of performed metrical speech: mousike, from which “music” was “the art of the Muses”.
But, what is it really? What IS one’s muse? And how can you summon it (when you need it)? I think it’s a personal phenomenon; like one’s belief and relationship with God. So, I can only tell you of my personal experiences and thoughts and what works for me…
Let’s start with the opposite: many writers complain of experiencing writer’s block at some point in their career—that affliction of not accessing one’s creativity, when the muses have all fled to Tahiti or someplace far away and you are left with a blank page or more importantly—and alarmingly—a blank mind. No desperate search, hot shower, long walk or discussion with a friend will seduce those holidaying muses back. You’re stuck. Here’s my solution: simply let go. Embrace the emptiness … and something wonderful will fill it. We are all vessels, able to carry a diverse and fluid mixture of things. My belief—in fact my conviction—is that God dwells inside each of us, connecting us to the beauty and wonder of nature and to each other through means we need not know. And when I “empty” myself and let my “muse” enter me, I am communicating with God. That simple.
Each of you has felt it: that otherworldly, euphoric wave of “knowing”, of resonating with something that is more than your visible world. Shawn McKim Murphey of Joyous Life Works calls it your “inner spark(le)”: when the hairs on the back of your neck tingle as you write that significant scene…or tremble with giddy energy as you create that perfect line on a painting…or glow with a deep abiding warmth when you defend a principal… or surge in the frisson you share with fellow musicians on that exquisite set piece…or cry out joyously with that cresting orgasm at exactly the same time as your cherished lover. These are all God moments; God’s poetry.
If, indeed God moves us to express that within us which is divine, then poetry is the language of the heart and music is the language of the soul.
I once insisted to a good friend that I don’t—CAN’T—write poetry. I was lying; to myself. I write it all the time, though not formally. We are all poets and we all “write” it, whenever we open ourselves and let our “muse” enter us. Every creative moment is poetry.
That’s not to say that one can’t entice those capricious muses. Here are a few things that help me:
Music: music moves me in inexplicable ways. I use music to inspire my “muse”. Every book I write has its thematic music, which I play while I write and when I drive to and from work (where I do my best plot/theme thinking). I even go so far as to have a musical theme for each character.
Walk: despite what I said above, going for a walk, particularly in a natural environment, uncluttered with human-made distractions, also unclutters the mind and soul. It grounds you back to the simplicity of life, a good place to start.
Cycle: one of my favorite ways to clear my mind is to cycle (I think any form of exercise would suffice); just getting your heart rate up and pumping those endorphins through you soothes the soul and unleashes the brain to freely run the field.
This article is an excerpt from The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! (Starfire World Syndicate).
