Wake Up Your Muse: How My Cat Taught Me the Art of Being

Sammy enjoying the rooftop garden




I’m not a very patient person--ask my publisher. I make no time for writer’s
block or lingering in useless limbo over some plot issue or misbehaving minor
character. I write pretty much to a tight schedule: this short story to that
market by this date; edits to this book to the editor by that date; blog posts
created by such and such a time; an article to another market by another date.
It goes on and on. When I go to my computer to write, I write. 




Then there’s Sammy. My cat.




Who likes to jump on my lap, make himself all comfortable
and then lie over my arm — trapping it along with five of my typing digits. Now
what??? Some of you would advise me to simply pull out my pinned arm and/or
shove him off.  But how can I disturb
such a blissful creature? He is so content furled on me, so satisfied that he
has captured that wandering appendage of business that is all his now. Content
in the bliss of now.




Pinned in the moment, my mind first struggles with the need
to pound out the next line. My mind then rephrases and teases out nuances of
that line. Finally, it wanders out with my gaze and I find myself daydreaming
in a kind of trance.  It is here that
magic happens. In the being; not in the doing.




This is the irony of writing and the muse. To write we need
to live; we need to have something to write about and we need to be in that
state of mind that allows us to set it to print. I am at my best as a writer
when I am focused on the essence of the story, its heart and soul beating
through me with a life of its own.




My cat Sammy isn’t the only vehicle to my magical muses. 

    

Waking up the Muse




Here are a few things that help me entice those
capricious muses into action:




Music: music
moves me in inexplicable ways. I use music to inspire my “muse”. Every book I
write has its thematic music, which I play while I write and when I drive to
and from work (where I do my best plot/theme thinking). I even go so far as to
have a musical theme for each character.




Walks: going
for a walk, particularly in a natural environment, uncluttered with human-made
distractions, also unclutters the mind and soul. It grounds you back to the
simplicity of life, a good place to start.




Cycling: one of
my favorite ways to clear my mind is to cycle (I think any form of exercise
would suffice); just getting your heart rate up and pumping those endorphins
through you soothes the soul and unleashes the brain to freely run the field.




Attend
writer’s functions: go to the library and listen to a writer read from
her work. You never know how it might inspire you. Browse the bookshelves of
the library or bookstore.  Attend a
writer’s convention or conference.




Visit
an art gallery, go to a movie: art of any kind can inspire
creativity. Fine art is open to interpretation and can provoke your mind in
ways you hadn’t thought before. If you go with an appreciative friend and
discuss what you’ve seen you add another element to the experience.




Go on a
trip with a friend: tour the city or, better yet, take a road trip
with a good friend or alone (if you are comfortable with it). I find that
travelling is a great way to help me focus outward, forget myself, and open my
mind and soul to adventure and learning something new. Road trips are
metaphoric journeys of the soul.




Form a
writer’s group: sharing ideas with people of like mind (or not,
but of respectful mind) can both inspire you and provide the seeds of ideas.