The Muse Newsletter

Hi, I'm Joyce.

I am not The Muse. I sweep the floor so she can enter without soiling her gown.

Artists and writers all know when the muse visits its magic, time stops, and you are on a roll. But she is elusive, quiet, and slips in when you least expect it. Most people wish she would visit more often, but she has her timeline.

Our job as writers and artists is to prepare a space for her. We need to get the junk out of our heads so we can stop cycling day-to-day stuff and clean out of our ears so we can hear her whisper.

When someone asks Auston Kleon (Steal Like an Artist) where he gets his material, he says, "I steal it."

I love that man.

Now you know we don't plagiarize, meaning claim others' material as our own, but verily I say unto you, nothing is original. Most work comes from another, an idea, a picture, or a source, and we build on it.

That's where The Muse comes in, to keep us laying bricks until we have a Cathedral.

Kleon also says, "You can cut off a couple of passions and only focus on one, but after a while, you'll start to feel phantom limb pain."

Finally, someone I trusted gave me permission to be all over the place. That contradicts the blog gurus who say, "Find a subject and stick with it." That is called a Brand.

Yikes, ranchers put branding irons in a fire and burn hair off with it.

In her last writing tip, Barbara Kingsolver said, "If you are young and a smoker, you should quit."

I qualify as a writer.

I don't smoke, and I'm not young.