One of the more challenging aspects of being a writer is the need to be creative on demand. It isn’t always possible to simply write when the mood strikes, especially if an important deadline is looming.
Of course it is easier to write when your muse is in the mood. Unfortunately, my muse is of a particularly quirky disposition. I seem to be at my most creative between 5 – 7 pm (when I am trying to organise dinner and bedtime routines) and after 11pm at night (when the rest of my body is shifting into shut-down mode for the day).
Inspiration often strikes while I’m in the shower but my poor sleep deprived brain is incapable of holding on to the ideas long enough for me to get to a notepad to write them down. A friend once suggested that I use a chinagraph pencil on the tiles, but that would mean more time spent cleaning the bathroom, right? Obviously that’s not going to happen.
I also tend to get quite creative when Meredith is occupied for a few days and can’t get to her computer, leaving me with complete control of our writing domain. This may explain why she rarely goes away for family holidays, as the insane number of emails from me she has waiting in her inbox when she returns scares her a little, I think.
What about you? Do you have a regular time of day when you’re all fired up and ready to write? Is your muse a free spirit like mine (that sounds so much nicer than headstrong and unmanageable) or does your creativity submit to a writing routine? If you’ve managed to achieve the latter, please feel free to share your tips and advice on how to train your muse to perform on demand.
My muse is only allowed to play after 10pm at night – because that’s when the writing day begins. But it (I’m not sure whether it’s a she or he – seems to depend on the book) is not at all co-operative about that and I spend a lot of time stuffing its thoughts into notebooks at odd times and places during the day. My muse has no respect for my schedule at all!
I find that I can only post in the mornings. I can peck stuff out in the evenings/afternoons SOMETIMES, but I’ve trained myself to work in the mornings, when I have a sitter. Thankfully, my muse is practical.
I try to be productive in the mornings, but it just doesn’t seem to happen. Perhaps because I don’t drink coffee, so I have no way of kick-starting my brain at the start of the day.
With my youngest heading off to school next year, in theory I will have almost 6 child-free hours in the middle of the day to get work done. I’m hoping that my muse and I can come to some sort of compromise.
A good muse simply CAN’T be tamed – you are at their submission whether you admit or no.
You *may* try to bargain throughout the game, but they still retain EVERY card in the show.