BS: Prodding the Muse

Subject: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Pogo
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 07:52 PM

So I'm sitting here trying to write, playing every CD I can get my hands on but nothing seems to be making the ideas come... hrrmphh <_<

so what works for you when you're suffering from creative constipation? What gets the inspiration going again? and this can be for anything...music, writing, art or whatever {O)

hmmm...maybe if I dunk my head in a bucket of ice water...

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 08:14 PM

The most effective muse-prod is a deadline coming at me like the noon freight.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: freda underhill
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 08:25 PM

as an exhibition of someone else's work, or looking at some art books.

as a writer, a deadline.

as a songwriter, the words start coming into my head and i write them down.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 08:29 PM

Usually, i just leave it. Then the muse feel deprived of attention, and offers some inspiration. Failing that, i just get monumentally caned and wait for my thoughts to arrange themselves into a song....

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 04:02 PM

Do something else, but keep paying attention to any words that come into your head or your mouth. And listen to what other people say.

That's assuming it's words that are dried up. But for music it's much the same - go for a walk and whistle as you do so, that might be a good start.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Cluin
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 04:07 PM

Assign yourself a goal, like a writing exercise. Decide to write one in a certain mode or scale, or maybe one that modulates to another key halfway through or on the chorus or bridge. Or pick a topic, or word, or phrase at random by whatever method you can come up with (close your eyes and stab your finger at the newspaper or throw a dart or turn on the TV and use the first phrase you hear, or the first billboard you see wnext time you're driving, etc.).

Things like that can kickstart an effort. Creativity is a psychological and emotional muscle. You have to exercise it.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Cluin
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 04:08 PM

Also, keep a log of interesting phrases or words and mine it once in a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 04:14 PM

stay up late. watch the last crummy programme on the worst tv channel, even the almost interesting things on the history channel -I sold Martin Borman his underpants, vets in Cheltenham lance a boil on a hedgehog, I had a penis transplant - then changed my mind, Emily Bronte - did she escape and marry the Sundance Kid......

then coffee and blank sheet of paper.....third time you wake up you can go to bed

Write a letter to an old friend, if nothings happening just to get you writing. Seize the moment though, you can finish off the letter any old time. If you get an idea, run with it.

All these are not so much a road to creativity - more a way of life.

Joyce said the the best road for an artist was 'silence, cunning and exile' - think hard, is that really what you want out of life?

Exile isn't necessarilly geographical - it also describes the gap between you and other people. The mudcat is full of examples of this. for some people folk music/songwriting is what they do every morning and evry night and all points in between - for others its a sort of social club.

I'm not sure who has the best of it.

Enjoy your music.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 04:18 PM

also keep a notebook , soon it becomes full with ideas that ran out of steam.

then you look back and you think.... I was going well that day. I'll try and finish that one before I do something else.

hope all this is useful...

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Pogo
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 04:56 PM

{O) Thanks all...yeah...I have a deadline that's the problem...the muse picks the worst times to go on break...

Also I've found it helps to draw a little on the side or write about something off subject...the trick is I have to fight myself in order not to get sidetracked. I focus very intensely on whatever I happen to be working on at that moment.

Still music always helps to get the inspiration going...I enjoy reading through the discussions up top, or prowling through the database reading lyrics and listening to tunes.

I don't always post but I do have a deep respect and appreciation for the music and those with the talent to play it...and compose it {O) more so than folks might realize

So anyways...muddling right along...but it seems the muse is finally getting the hint

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 05:08 PM

I find that when looking inward doesn't produce anything, it's time to look outward. Get out and enjoy people... sit around and talk with friends.. go to a movie... basically... live. Any song that isn't a reflection of life is bound to sound artificial. Songwriting is a lot more than techniques and tricks, and there are no secrets to the creative life. It's not surprising that many of the most creative writers, actors and musicians immersed themselves in life. The image of a reclusive writer in a garret awaiting the word from his muse doesn't really work.

Enjoy yourself, and enjoy others. The inspiration will come. It's all around you.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 08:11 PM

The book you want is called "The Artist's Way". It will handle the problem.

Meanwhile sit down and write three pages of anything, but start and do not stop until three pages are filled.

Anything at all will do.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Gypsy
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 10:21 PM

The more you do, the more it comes. Muses require a HUGE amount of attention. When himself is writing, he can barely keep ahead of the ideas. But when he stops for a break..........ooooooooooooo the agonies of starting over!

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: KT
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 12:55 AM

Hey Pogo! Take a look at this thread. It is a GREAT writing exercise! Helps to get those creative juices flowing while honing those writing skills. Good read, too!

Also, try to create the space for the muse. Clear your calendar and make time to just sit or walk ...create open time. Writing takes a lot of focus and if you're overcomitted, it's harder to do.

KT

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: KT
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 12:38 PM

oops! That's overcomMitted!! (if that's even a real word!)

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 01:05 PM

If you're having trouble writing it may be because you don't like what you're writing about. I had a book chapter to write last year at this time, with a bifurcated subject. The half that I knew about and enjoyed went well and relatively quickly. The other half that didn't interest me was like pulling teeth to write. I had to simply force myself to write.

Make an outline, then fill it in with details that must go into the project. Make notes that are thorough enough so you know you'll include everything that should be there.

Find the materials you have to read for your research. Then try this technique of mine: read your list of things to cover, then read some of the research material, then set a timer and take a power nap. About 15 minutes will do it. I find that the time in which I'm relaxing into the nap is also when my brain is sorting out what I've been working on. If I'm in the middle of something like this and I suddenly feel very tired, I jump on that as an indication that my thought processes need a rest and need to sort through stuff. Most times I get up from the nap (when the timer goes off--DON'T go back to sleep or you lose the benefit of this technique!) I can sit down and do some good solid writing.

I thought this was my own personally developed technique, but recently a professor of mine commented that he relies on power naps to help him sort out some of his most difficult writing.

Great minds think alike!

Good luck. Don't put it off, get going and you'll also feel virtuous when you get finished by having been so disciplined in your approach.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 04:59 PM

bifurcated ...don't worry the lads not talking dirty, it means split up into two forks or strands.
(I looked it up)

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 05:48 PM

A couple of tricks:

One(similar, at least, to what someone said above) is, just write down bits and pieces of the subject, whether complete or not, whether they even make much sense or not. I set out to write a sort of manual for newcomers in my field, and couldn't get anywhere when I was thinking of the whole project. But I would think, "Somewhere in there I have to say to do thus-and-so." So I'd write one or two sentences about that, and just let it lie there. Then I might say to myself, "Got to warn against blah-blah!" (which had nothing to do with doing thus-and-so). I'd write as much as I happened to think of about the dangers of blah-blah, and let it lie there. Then something else, and suddenly I'd think of an expansion on thus-and-so. Eventually, over a period of time, these odd bits coalesced, or they inspired a real flow of thought. And so forth. And eventually you get to the point where the odd thoughts need to be shoved around, rearranged to make a good flow of logic.

The other, in writing songs, is to take a song you admire, and figure out how it might have been written differently, or how the story could have ended in another way. Or how that comic song could be turned into a tragic one, or vice versa. Sometimes this works just as planned, and sometimes it jogs a completely fresh thought.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:52 PM

Don't write the things you want to say - write the things you want to hear. As in "I wish someone would write a song about..."

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 04:10 PM

Care and feeding of muses...

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:48 PM

English Lit lecturer told us about writing poetry

"Don't TELL me, SHOW me"....

meaning using the visual images...

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:35 PM

By all accounts, the Muses never liked being prodded, or even the suggestion of a good prodding. Look at what happened to Thamyris.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Crystal
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 04:24 AM

Yes prodding muses is usually a bad idea, their methods of revenge are vairied and subtle!

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:37 AM

When prodding muses be very careful, they can speak with forked tongue (or should that be bifurcated) and whisper words of plagiarism that sound oh so original. I have seldom been visited by a muse without thinking 'haven't I heard that before?'. It is a very pleasant surprise when you find that you have, but in your own head. Mind you, I have seldom been visited by a muse anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:21 AM

Time to reintroduce my pal Erato:

Interval With Erato by Scott Cairns. I've posted it here at Mudcat before, but this link to it looks pretty good and I don't have to rework the html for all of the italics, etc. Cairns was fired from a christian university in Seattle after this was published in the Paris Review.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Crystal
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:06 AM

AAAH more from the Imagination Collegium. Why on earth was the guy sacked though. It's not a particularly shocking piece.

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 11:05 AM

Because it is a particularly conservative christian university and they had their heads . . . I'll look around later to see if I can find the story. It was in the Seattle Weekly, but I don't know if you can get to their old stories from that far back.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Prodding the Muse
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 05:31 PM

refresh