Dear Jean:

I really hope you donÂ’t mind this open letter, but I couldnÂ’t resist on 2 counts. First, I think youÂ’re a brilliant poet and writer and enjoy your words tremendously and seeing as your muse had left thought I might help. Second, I felt like writing to someone tonight and on this occassion you happen to be it!

I read on your latest post your request for suggestions as you felt you were bogged in a creative fetid pond. How terrible of your muse to leave you in such a place! I hope you wonÂ’t mind, but I'd like to share a few of the exercises I was given in my grad school writing program to coax our muses into returning quickly when they had abandoned us.

1) Open a book of your choice at random, preferably a work of fiction. As you flip through the pages in the book, stick your index fix in the book letting it rest somewhere on the page and read the passage where your finger lands. Then either write a sagacious assessment of a character or scene from either an omniscient writerÂ’s perspective or a visceral response to what youÂ’ve read as either another character or an omniscient reader.

2) Your word play is phenomenal and often inspires me to write a few stanzas of my own. It was suggested to me by a published poet I respect that I should read poets I am unfamiliar with to become inspired. For that I go to either poetry.com or google certain key words and sometimes will add poem in the mix. Sometimes it can be a miss, but the last time I did it I found you, so sometimes itÂ’s a big hit!

3) Recently IÂ’ve been going through a poetic dry spell and felt my muse had left once again in a huff because I wasnÂ’t paying him any mind (yes, my muse is a man). So I went to Barnes and Noble and went to the section called WriterÂ’s on Writing and came across a book called The Pocket Muse: ideas and inspiration for writing. I loved this book so much I bought it. HereÂ’s an exercise I picked at random: Write about the worst visitor who ever darkened your door. Ironically, I already wrote a funny post about that. Its a cynical email response I sent declining his request to visit again.

4) Or you can do like I do at times, visit a new blog at random and strike up a conversation via comments with new bloggers. IÂ’ve encountered the most interesting people that way, you included!

Well, I hope one of these inspires your muse to return, if not thereÂ’s lots more where that came from. I Look forward to reading your pearls once again.

m\

Posted by: Michele at 09:35 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Wow... I am so very touched by this, I am almost at a loss for words! (almost, heh) Your glowing comments about my writing have me blushing... and, I absolutely appreciate your suggestions. I'm making notes. Two other books I often use to kick-start my muse are: 'Walking On Alligators' and 'Write Your Heart Out'. M, this is really overwhelmingly nice! Thank you.

Posted by: Jean at March 05, 2007 09:49 PM (86QII)

2 I wanted to comment on this sooner, but time constraints and all. Firstly, what I'll write you may not agree with, but my muses have been beating me for days to write it, so here goes... One's muse doesn't "stop" or get "blocked". The stubborn humans have a pre-determined direction and we want them to try something different. The human is saying "Give me something funny" and we are trying to teach something what the color green tastes like. Do you follow that difference? It's not a matter of apples & oranges - it is a matter of apples and concepts. This "impass" is caused by human stubbornness. Next time, just write down what we want you to write. You don't have to publish it - or even save it. Just let us flow through you. We don't ask much - just full control of your creative process. You have a huge queue items to create - lessons to learn - trying to pick and choose which is counter-productive. So, the next time you claim to have "lost your muse", please don't blame *us*. We know where you are. You're the fallible human here, human. Just close your eyes, take a deep breath, let it out, and let your fingers go to work. Shut off that physical-bound brain and listen to our thoughts. We'll all be much happier. ... That is all. p.s. That is what my muses sound like, btw.

Posted by: _Jon at March 06, 2007 05:01 PM (cPJtC)

3 Typical guy... he has a horde of women inspiring him while I only have one... man!

Posted by: michele at March 06, 2007 05:21 PM (BN/Fu)

4 ha..._Jon....er, Muse... you make a lot of sense. Will ponder this. thank you. M- I did a post early this morning, from a reader's request. Kinda long. Thanks, again.

Posted by: Jean at March 06, 2007 07:34 PM (GQv1b)

5 ... Both of mine are men - immature and all that. And if men have women for muses, that would explain why we go crazy. But at least my muse isn't a ferret or some such stuff like Harvey....

Posted by: _Jon at March 07, 2007 09:49 AM (ZM3Qb)

6 My muse is LEMUR, thank you very much: http://badexample.mu.nu/archives/043960.php

Posted by: Harvey at March 09, 2007 10:06 AM (L7a63)

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