Problem: Misplaced/Runaway Muse.
For going on two months now, my muse has run away into hiding. I’m guessing she’s out there getting all the experiences I wish I was having right now. But the thing is, while that muse is off having the time of her life, my creative life is suffering greatly back at college.
After my muse disappeared, it was a little like going through the stages of grief. You know, DABDA. At first, there was denial. I could do just fine without my muse. Who needs a muse, anyway? I didn’t need no stinkin’ muse. This stage was short-lived, followed quickly by anger, which was more like extreme frustration at my inability to wring even a drip of inspiration or creativity out of me, my utter lack of competent writing. This stage lasted the longest. Then there was bargaining. If I journaled, that would be enough. Daily journaling would make up for it until my muse came back. I was certain. Unfortunately, writing about mundane experiences in a mundane town through mundane college life week after week does not find a lost muse. Bargaining gave way to Depression. Certainly I would never find my muse. Perhaps I would be far better off if I just gave up on writing all together. Certainly there were other jobs out there that needed me to get by in this world. After all, what were my dreams worth anymore? Yes, my friends, it was a dark time in my creative life. But eventually Acceptance came around, and when it did, it was almost worse than depression.
I simply gave up, and assumed that my muse was lost, never again to be found. That perhaps one day a new muse would come along and claim me, but until then I was destined to spend my days in a fictionless blur, still alive and living, but nearly without passion. Then, a few days ago, I moved beyond acceptance to the point I find myself at now. I am searching for my muse. At times, begging for her to come back and sprinkle some sentiment of a fiction idea on me.
But the point is, I am looking. I am actively seeking. In this world, for whatever your passion may be, you will hit lulls. When this happens, I am finding that the only way to return to a place of inspiration is to continuously try to be inspired, to seek out inspiration, to never stop practicing in your passion (in this case, I am continuing to try and write daily). Especially for writers, a tip that I can never say enough times is to read. Read, read, read, read, READ. When your muse is missing, read even more. Read in genres you love, read in genres you never thought you’d touch. Read blogs with some sort of merit. Read articles online. Read the newspaper. Just, read. And when your muse returns, never forget what reading did while it was gone, and continue to read. Reading for writers is like putting extra-strength miracle gro in a plant and taking care of it in the best way you know how. It brings about beautiful, flourishing answers.
So, for now, I’m taking to a cup of tea and a book in my free time to kill this writer’s block and find my muse. She likes to come back just when I’m getting comfortable, so here’s to hoping she pops up to shake things up soon!
If your muse is missing, might I suggest a daily dose of writing something, anything, making sure you read something, and just going out there, open to finding inspiration and constantly looking for it.
