14
votes
How do you summon the muse?
I used to work as an artist full-time, and I've learned a few tricks over the years to help me create consistently, even when I don't feel very creative.
I recently read a book called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield that hit on a lot of what I've discovered and presented a lot more insight on the subject of creating and overcoming blocks.
So I'd love to hear what helps all of you out there stay creative and spark the muse. Are you willing to share your process and approach?
I like to draw/paint/design every once in a while and definitely suffer from blocks. Don't eternally wait for it. Get rid of distractions(phone goes on silent mode an as far away as possible. Don't spent eternal getting the paintbjust right or the digital brush just texturey enough. Just go for it. The more time spent thinking about such things, the less spontaneously creative you can be.
Throw rationality aside and just go for it.
I use music to match my mood and hopefully trigger something. Also, I just start with basics, for example, if I'm trying to paint, I practice techniques, or if I'm writing, I do a simple outline or just practice rhyming words or similar.
Just pick up the guitar once a day. No matter what. Play at least a note. Putting it right back down is totally OK. It's surprising that those times when I expect that, but it doesn't happen, are often when I feel I'm most locked in to bridging the gap between thought and sound.
I do the same thing with writing and drawing. Even if I don’t want to, just starting the process will sometimes get me going. Something else I’ve started doing with drawing is dating all my sketches so that I can see how long of a streak I’ve currently built up. Much harder to break the chain when I’ve got a significant streak going.
I'm not an artist myself, but I've been enjoying listening to The Art of Process, which is about exactly this.
She randomly calls up at work and gives me urgent random snippets she thinks is completely brilliant but fall apart when asked to elaborate on it. To get anything continuous out of her, I have to sit her down, turn off the phone, get all nice and disconnected and even then, she's bringing up random questions or concerns about mundane things or things I could be doing instead with the same amount of urgency that she originally delivered the inspiration with. I don't think she's all that serious about being a muse in the first place.
I do creative work in a research space, which I'm told starts out very much like art's creative process.
I get really drunk.
I'm well aware it's not healthy (nothing that fun is) - but it's effective. The work that happens after needs to be sober, but the idea? Of my top 5, probably top 10, all began with either me drunk as a skunk staring at a whiteboard at 4 in the morning, or were scrawled by a research group on scraps of paper at the pub... at 4 in the morning.
I'm an actor and a writer. When writing a new novel or stage play I need a few days of near-solitude to drop deep enough inside to find my voice. It can't happen in the normal busyness of the daily world. Usually I'll go on a solo hiking trip, walk all day, sleep under the stars, get properly exhausted.
As an actor it's the opposite. The muse descends in the cauldron of rehearsal. It's a full-contact sport. Or if it's improv or screen acting with little to no rehearsal then it's fearlessness, it's jumping out of a plane without a parachute with no thought of the consequences.
A lot of caffeine and chocolate.