Creativity, Feeding the Muse, and Writing
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This weekend at the MTCW monthly meeting, I’m going to be leading a discussion on how to keep the creative juices flowing, as well as how to break through blocks to be able to be productive and keep writing.
But I’m creatively blocked!
I could blame it on having been sick for about a week. I could blame it on the weather (yo-yoing from the low-30s to nearly 70s to 40s just in the span of a few days, rain/storms yesterday). I could blame it on starting a low carb diet and giving up caffeine.
But the truth of the matter is that I’ve been indulgent and lazy. When I get home from work and I don’t “feel” like writing, I don’t write. And the more often I do that, the less often I “feel” like writing. And it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I quote Madeleine l’Engle on this blog (“We must work every day, whether we feel like it or not, otherwise when it comes time to get out of the way and listen to the work, we will not be able to heed it.” Walking on Water), I still cannot seem to discipline myself to write every day.
I guess it’s that word: discipline. Writing takes discipline. Creativity takes discipline. Even the most talented pianists and vocalists must practice, and practice daily. To win that elusive national championship or Olympic medal, athletes train every day—sometimes several times a day—to make sure they’re in the best condition, that they know all the rules, and that they’re at the peak level of performance.
But to sit down and just write, with no creativity behind it, isn’t much better than not writing at all. So how do I ensure that creativity and the time I set aside to write daily intersect?
One of the things that helps me is visual aids . . . images of my characters, settings, costumes, maps, etc. When I was working on the novel formerly known as Happy Endings Inc., I read wedding planning manuals, history-of-the-modern-wedding books, bridal magazines, wedding blogs, etc. I looked at wedding photos online. I picked up celebrity-focused magazines when they covered some big-name actor’s wedding. I watched Who’s Wedding Is It Anyway? on the Style network (focusing on wedding planners). Always with a view in mind of finding little details to incorporate into my heroine’s character/the plot. With Ransome’s Honor, it was watching the Horatio Hornblower movies; reading (listening to) the HH and Patrick O’Brian books; reading/listening to/watching Jane Austen’s stories; researching the era through books exploring the world of Jane Austen or Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey; trying to find as much as I could online about Portsmouth during that era; finding photos of the interior of ships; etc.
I also draw my characters. I will say I cheat a little . . . I print out an image of the Real World Template, then using carbon paper, trace the basic details into the sketch book. But for the couple of hours that I work on the sketch, it keeps that character firmly in my head, and so many times, I’ve come away with a better understanding of who the character is, what his/her motivations are, and where to go next.
When I do finally sit down to write, what helps me the most is going back and re-reading what I’ve already written. If I’m starting a new project, it’s re-reading the character summaries and the ideas that I’ll have already jotted down—as well as keeping in mind that I’ll probably end up rewriting the beginning twice anyway. Going back and re-reading what I’ve already written (not to edit, just to read) reminds me of why I started writing the story in the first place. It’s like talking to a best friend . . . picking up where we left off and then continuing the conversation as if no time ever lapsed.
So how do you do it? How do you fuel your creativity, feed your muse, when you just don’t feel like writing?
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KayeDacus.com 
Wow, you seem to work out the details so meticulously…
I just look for inspiration from within when I’m creatively blocked. External inspiration just doesn’t trigger enough ideas for me; I much rather prefer probing into my own imagination, or digging up memories and trying to work out something new with them.
However, the best approach for me is questioning. I just take a pencil, cast around on something, and ask a question about it. And more and more questions keep coming. So much so, that I literally have a notebook full of questions ranging from where thoughts come from to what infinity is 😀
Or sometimes, I simply have a nice sleep 😀 That’s almost guaranteed to give me a new idea to write about; dreams my one never-ending source of ideas. :]
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Great question! Lately I’ve been doing a lot of coloring. Seriously! It’s a way to be creative without thinking. I used to do some scrapbooking, but there are so many supplies, I just can’t unload it all with the babies underfoot. We built a snowman this weekend…does that count?
PS. Discipline really should be a 4-letter word 🙂
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I’ve been battling this for a while, and I’ve just noticed that for me it is sometimes a spiritual issue.
Lately I’ve had to deal with some issues in my life, things I shouldn’t have let slide. For months the writing part of me was just dead. But after I dealt with these problems and started putting God back where He should be, the writing ideas and the words began to come.
It wasn’t flowing like a fire hydrant, but there had been nothing before. Now there’s a small stream going.
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Who was it who said ‘I only write when I’m inspired. I just make sure I’m inspired every morning.’?
I like to read fiction that is set in the time period I’m trying to write, has a similar feel/voice, or watch movies that have the tone I’m hoping to create.
If that fails, brainstorming with crit buddies works great too! 🙂
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I took my own advice this evening and pulled up what exists of AMEI* and started re-reading it. (*Name most likely to be changed.) When I received word that the first book was to be published, I sat down and brainstormed a synopsis for it. But it was pretty rough and dry.
Today, as I read, keeping in mind the changes I’d come up with, I started getting a bunch more ideas about details to change/add, and a lot more insight into Meredith’s character (which is changing the most). I have two full pages of notes, through about fifty pages of the manuscript, and am getting excited about getting restarted on it!
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Most often reading good writing will do the trick. If nothing else is around I stick in one of my Brother Cadfael books on cassette. Ellis Peters is one of my favorite writers and her prose never fails to inspire me.
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Discussion with Audry (my non-writing friend). I sit down and start brainstorming my problem with her, or just an idea and it gets it in my head and I have to write it…even those rewrites I didn’t know how to deal with suddenly seem doable.
I’ll read/movie watch, research too, but discussion is was really gets me going.
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Since Russia is my fixation, I’m constantly buying books about Russia’s history and culture. Doesn’t matter if I need it for research or not, if it sounds interesting I buy it. Every time I crack one of these books open, the creative juices start flowing. (that might be why it takes so long to finish them…) I even have a monstrous bookmark folder called Russia Research. Most of the sites I’ll probably never use as research, but they’re still fun to look at.
I also like to play interviewer with my characters. I pretend to be Barbara Walters and just ask them all sorts of things. Always reveals something interesting about them that I didn’t know before.
And sometimes I’ll send rambling emails to my friend Lisa and tell her what all is going on in my head. I can always count on her to help me make sense out of it.
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