What to do When Waiting for the Inspirational Muse of Motivation

The last week or so has been a very trying week.

I went through a rough phase of self-doubt where my writing is concerned. I think that part of it is because I took on too much.

Between working full-time at a bookstore, I'm also working on two novels, trying to read a non-fiction book a month, trying to branch out with new authors in fiction, write a short story a month, have a social life, and prepare for my trip to Belize. Along with all of this, I've been getting limited sleep the past few days because of a new puppy.

(He's a cute little man isn't he? Don't be too fooled, his teeth are sharper than knives.) 

When I don't have a lot going on, I usually have no problem with my muse wanting to hang out. I do believe that everyone has at least one muse. It might be a communal muse, visiting different people at different times, but still. Everyone has one. 

There are all sorts of muses, but for this blog's purposes, I'll focus on inspirational muse (for writing) and the motivational muse (for health).

Mine normally visits me in my sleep. Dreams have been a common place for my story ideas to pop up. Like for the story I started working on in high school, the entire beginning played out in very detailed dreams. I've been fortunate enough to have dreams that play out like a TV series, so if I start one dream, it generally picks up the next night if I have remembered the original dream.

Goodness, if Freud were still around, he would have a field day with my dreams. (One of the more recent ones involve a Russian Spy working in my bookstore, and an FBI agent trying to track her down -- plus one of my coworker's child was also helping the FBI agent.)

But there are times that the muse doesn't want to pop up. He or She runs away for an extended period of time. 

So what's a girl to do?

In the past, I've given up on my diet and exercise plans. And I've just stopped writing. Writer's block hits buries me under a mountain of stone so heavy that there's no way to dig myself out. 

Here are a few of my tips for pushing through.

1.) Don't give up. It's so tempting to completely give up on everything. Especially if you've not been visited for a long time. Muses are busy. They've got things to do. So do you. If you depend entirely on your muse, then your muse will feel the pressure and flee quicker than a roach from the sun. 

2.) Keep writing. If you give completely up, your growing skills as a writer (or artist in any other aspect) will rapidly start to decay. When strength training, you lose muscle quicker than you gain it. It's the same thing with writing. I know it is hard to keep it up, but it's something that has to be done.

3.) Try writing something new. If you feel as though writing what you and your muse have been working on together will suffer too terribly without your muse, then start something new. It can be a short thing based off a side character or a legend that has been mentioned (or will be mentioned) in your story. It could be something completely new. It could even just be a random list of words and ideas. Whatever it is, just play around with it. 

4.) Go out and find your muse. Sometimes our muses get tired of the same old, same old surroundings. So they go out and try to find somewhere new. But you see, if your muse finds a spot, then I doubt said muse would want to lose it. So you have to go out and find your muse yourself. Maybe it's in a new coffee shop, perhaps it went across town and is swinging at the park. It could have just left the room and is now distracted hanging upside-down on a fan, spinning round and round, growing increasingly dizzy waiting for you in a room down the hall. I don't know why they decide to be weird and go wandering, but sometimes they just need to be free. 

5.) Learn a new artistic hobby. Along with getting tired of a scenery, sometimes your muse just wants to try something new. So pick up something else, maybe rather than writing, try painting (even if it's just paint by numbers or one of those painting with a twist classes). Or maybe try your hand at knitting or crocheting, cross-stitching or embroidery, or cooking, or recycling things out of old used objects. 

With all of these in mind, the main thing is just keep doing something. The ideas are the same with motivation for things like working out and being healthy. Don't give up, keep trying, go out and try something new. 

It might be frustrating if your muse hasn't shown up in awhile, but at least you're still doing something.  And doing something will draw a muse to you (whether it's your original on or a new one, that's a different story).

How do you push through when you feel like you've no motivation or inspiration?

Until next time, 

Shelby