News from Make-Believe Press: # 7 Working with the Muse

News from Make-Believe Press: # 7 Working with the Muse

Greetings Adventurer!

You may or may not have noticed that July's newsletter is a smidgen late. Usually when writing these newsletters, I find that inspiration strikes me like a bolt and the words and theme flow from finger to keyboard easily. I was not so lucky this month.

I agonized and struggled to write a newsletter that I felt was worthy of my fellow adventurers only to come up empty. So I turned to my tried and true source for inspiration. I turned to the notebooks that I carry around with me.

I have a notebook that I keep with me at all times to write down bits and pieces of inspiration that strike suddenly. My “I'd better write this down for later!” alarm sounds off while I’m doing other tasks, and I reach for my pen. The interesting fragment passes through my mind, down through my hand, and into the notebook or on a scrap of paper to be forgotten and discovered later.

Today's newsletter isn't about the content of those wild notes, but more about the process of allowing your pen to jot down rogue ideas as they happen so that your mind and body can get back to business as usual and you won't have to grasp at a vague memory for that idea later.

The act of scrawling down inspiration as the muse hands it to you is exercising an important part of your creative process. You're giving yourself space to have these creative thoughts and building the habit of capturing creativity in the moment. You may not do anything with the majority of your notes, but the fact that you showed up and did the work of writing it out is an important part of creative muscle building.

That brings us to this week’s video. It’s a TED talk called Your elusive creative genius by Elizabeth Gilbert.

She talks about the struggle of capturing creativity, putting healthy distance between artists and their art, showing up every day to the creative table, and the muse. I have listened to this talk multiple times and I always find something relatable. Her talk is outstanding, and it was what inspired me to keep a notebook handy wherever I go.

This month’s word makes me giggle when I say it out loud and I hope it has the same effect on you. I not only hope it makes you laugh, but I hope it kickstarts your fecund imagination into overdrive and you create something that fills you with joy.

Your CREATIVE MISSION, if you choose to accept, go over your notebooks, notepads, or note scraps and write a story or do a sketch from something you’ve written and forgotten about:

Approach it like a child approaches play. No one has to see it. Create with freedom. It can be a paragraph, short story, poem, or a drawing. I believe in you adventurer!

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you can reach me at victoria@make-believepress.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay safe, Adventurer!

-Victoria

P.S. The scraps of crumpled paper, pen, and notepad photo were by Steve Johnson and the notebook and pencil photo was by Jan Kahánek. Both were found on Unsplash. The YouTube screen shot of Elizabeth Gilbert’s video was taken by me.

If you haven't done so already, you can get a look at “The World Is Full Of A**holes” and the first 3 chapters of Equillian’s Key by going to the secret page “Cellar Door” on Make-Believe Press' website and using the password “Magicword” to gain access

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