links on the side: Elizabeth Genco on How To Connect With Your Muses

I’m away on vacation these next two weeks. During this period, I’ve arranged for several guest bloggers to visit. I’ve long wanted to feature some of the talented people whom I’ve linked to on the sidebar of this blog. First up is Elizabeth Genco, a multitalented writer, tarotist and Brooklyn neighbor — she’s written a wonderful post on romancing the muses, a subject very close to my heart.

Elizabeth is also affiliated with the Endicott Studio blog, which is one of my favorites. If you’re ever short on inspiration, a quick visit to the either Elizabeth’s or the Endicott Studio site will set you up right!

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How To Connect With Your Muses: 9 Ways To Get Inspired When You’re Anything But

Ah, muses! How I love thee!

I’ll confess: I do love muses. And I appear to be somewhat fascinated with them, as they often appear in my work (of course, I didn’t notice this until an amused - pardon the pun - third party pointed it out). I have a few of my own and yes, I’ve been one for others a time or two (oo la la!).

But what happens when they don’t show up?

All artists face creative challenges, from sticky wicket story problems to out-and-out fallow periods. It’s part of the price of entry, I think, of being a creator. Odd as it may seem, that perspective alone is one of the hardiest tools in my toolbox for when it happens to me.

Here are a few others that have helped me keep the muses within reach and working overtime:

1. Work.

Early and Often. Not to sound like your mother or your high school art teacher or the countless professional creative types who have said it over and over, but: work whether you’re feeling inspired or not. Keep doing that and you’ll be inspired way more often.

I have no idea why that is. But I do know this: cliches are cliches because they’re true! Okay, at least this one is.

2. Make a list.

I’ll counterbalance the obligatory muse medicine with a muse, uh… popsicle (currently my husband Leland’s favorite treat, feel free to substitute your own). Making a list of your muses is a lot of fun, plus we’ll use it in the next few steps. What inspires you? What shows up in your work all the time? Here are a few of mine:

• New York City
• Folklore, fairy tales and old books with the same
• Mythology
• Tarot and esoterica (fancy word for “occultism” don’t ya know)
• Ghosts, ghost stories, cemeteries
• New England
• Ballads and old school folk music
• Boardwalks and amusement parks
• Husband

Just writing that all down gets me excited. A zillion ideas I’ll never have time to get to. Thinking in those terms zaps the lack mentality pretty darned quick.

3. Cultivate, collect, splurge, indulge.

Got your list? Great. I hearby give you permission to bring these things into your life in any way that you can and as much as your budget allows. Behind me is a bookshelf (check out a picture here) filled with books and things on all of those muses I mentioned. Most of them have been carefully selected for strategic writing room placement. This is not an accident!

4. Now go play with it all.

One of my favorite games in the world: go to the shelf, pick up a book, flip around until I find a picture or old tale or old song or whatever calls to me at that moment, and write a story around it. No pressure, no rules, just me chillin’ and having a gay old time doing what I love.

And yet, several published pieces have come out of it, including things that I’ve actually received checks for. Haha! I win!

That’s never the intent going in, of course. The intent going in is to just to totally indulge myself in what I love. Note: I still win.

My advice? Give it a try.

5. Take walks.

When I’ve got story problems, nothing but nothing beats a walk. Oxygen to brain? Check. Healthy glow and spring in the ‘ol step? Check.

Muse and mind working overtime while I’m not looking? Check, check and check.

Bonus tip if you live in one of your muses like I do: get off the beaten path and go somewhere new. Instead of looking at the ground, look up. There’s a huge world in those buildings and it lives above eye level. (Learned this from Rachel Pollack while sitting on a bus heading into the city. Changed my life. Seriously.)

6. Be with people that love you, support you, and support what you do.

Nothing scares the muse off quite like judgment. I’m sure you have enough of ‘em living in your own head; you owe it to yourself to banish them from your enviornment, or (because I know that’s way easier said than done) reach out to folks of like mind.

Cultivating a team of cheerleaders is an oft-overlooked tool in the creative person’s arsenal. I couldn’t do this thing without mine.

7. Make some space for the muses to hang out in.

One way you do this is by working. The rest are trial and error. For me, that means having a relatively clean office (ie, just the right amount of creative clutter), plenty of open space, pictures on the walls (this one’s all Leland), books nearby, and a notebook close at hand everywhere I go.

The notebook thing is crucial. I’ve even taken to keeping a small leaflet-style book (from redhorseshoe.com) in my wallet. Its official job is keep track of where my money goes, but serves double duty for ideas in a pinch. What does this do? This sends a message to the muses, and the message is this: “I love you! I am always prepared! Feel free to stop by any time!”

And so they do.

8. Refill the well.

Creative work is a delicate balance of input and output, and you really can’t have one without the other. So drink up! In addition to what’s on your muses list, look elsewhere. Books, movies, music, plays, pictures, places, people — fodder is everywhere and you need it like crazy. Indulge in your medium or genre, but step outside of it, too.

One word of caution, especially if you’re working in a commercial medium like comics or screenwriting or novels or whatever: it’s all too easy to produce the same stuff that we’ve all seen over and over. No judgments here, just a quick check of the compass. One thing I don’t like to admit out loud (and yet, here I go, about to do it now) is that I haven’t read a lot of the classic fantasy literature. I found fantasy well after I left home, and sometimes I feel a zillion years behind. But I’m learning that there are real advantages to that, too. Again, balance.

9. Rest.

Easy does it. You can’t create when you’re exhausted, and my muses always seem to know when I’ve hit that point before I do. When they stop coming ’round, that’s my cue to take a nap.

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