 December 2002
Mouthing the Muse
by Linda Dominique Grosvenor
When people discover that I’m a writer they want to pick my brain and tap into the part of me where all of my secrets and creative tendencies are stored. I don’t mind at all, and I smile and humor them because I myself cannot always access this place that they desperately seek. So I tell them what I know about writing in general, I give them tips and try to encourage them in their endeavor knowing full well that they will have days like mine when they can’t find the inspiration that they crave. Getting to the point where your writing flows and learning how to stir up your creativity is a process. Like mental telepathy I pray daily for my gift to surface and take me on the journey of my next novel or writing assignment. I call that process Mouthing the Muse.
There are days when I sit down to write and all I can recall is the movie I watched last night on cable. I can remember each character in the movie and remember their motivation. I remember what I had for dinner and all the places I visited the previous day too, but on days like those, not one inspiration strikes me. As I stare in my husband’s face blankly and he stares back at me, he can offer no assistance. I realize that this is what they must call writers block. I had a professor who never uses the term writer’s block. She said that we write in spurts, like water and so when the writing is good and easy it’s “flowing” but when the muse becomes awkward it won’t move, you have to nudge it, but in an underlying sense the water/muse is still there waiting to be tapped into, waiting to come forth and waiting to create. So, in essence it’s not a writer’s block at all.
To mouth my personal muse, nature does the trick. I walk through a park, observe the birds feeding, I inhale the scent of freshly cut grass or dredge through crunchy leaves in the Fall. We all have things that stir us creatively, we need to just observe ourselves when we are at our creative peak and make a list of the common themes that motivate us during these times. Maybe your muse is the smell of delicious foods cooking. The smell of apple pie or peach cobbler may inspire you to begin writing of a woman alone in a cabin who awaits her family’s arrival for their annual Thanksgiving gathering. Maybe she hums as she takes the pies out of the oven, anticipating the smiles on their faces when they take their first bite. Perhaps sitting on a park bench in the Spring watching the birds flutter overhead and the squirrels chase each other up a nearby tree stimulates something in you. Window-shopping can be an inspirational agent, as you go from store to store touching and taking in the smells and colors of various fabrics. How about a trip to the zoo?The possibilities are endless, but we all have a trigger to our muse that is individual to us exclusively.
On the rare occasions that interacting with nature doesn’t work to stir my creativity the only thing for me that breaks up the monotony of having a writers spurt is knowing that there will be times when my muse comes fast and furiously. Those fast and furious days are days when everybody gets waved away and my coffee gets cold. Those are days that I don’t care who Oprah is interviewing on television and I don’t want Maxwell or Marc Anthony in my CD-rom either. Those are the days when my friends are screaming into my answering machine wondering where I’ve been for the past week and a half. Truth be told, when my creativity is in full force I can’t even put my muse aside and bait my hunger to the tune of a tuna sandwich. But I honestly wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Those are the days I crave. Those are the days when I get so lost in my creation that I’m drowning and am only sustained by the breath and life that I’m feeding into my characters. Those are days when I am in love with being a writer. I’m patient with my writing even when I’m having a writing spurt because I know that my current dry spell won’t last forever. While mouthing the muse and stirring up my creativity I play along although it’s not nearly as much fun as being in a full fledged writing frenzy. But I coax it out to play on a daily basis anyway, hoping that it teaches me something unforgettable and wonderful. I call it surviving the best I can as a writer.
About the Author
Linda Dominique Grosvenor is a budding screenwriter, poet and the author of the novel Like Boogie On Tuesday (BET/Sepia Books/$15.00 - 800-221-2647). She writes for various publications and welcomes visitors to her Web site. |
