Imagine this. It's 2 am, you're about to run out of ideas, you're on deadline, and suddenly your inspiration takes a nap. Or creativity "takes a powder" as they used to say in the hard boiled detective stories.
Or, it's still 2 am, you are about to fall asleep where you sit and you're out of coffee, functioning on less than 2 functioning brain cells and you can't recall the real reason you're sitting there in the first place.
Could you need to meet a Muse?
How about this situation. You have a presentation to make and you are simply frightened out of your shoes at the prospect of standing in front of a group of people and speaking.
Maybe you're a performer. Maybe you've got stage fright. Or maybe you don't consider yourself a performer, but you know that when it comes time to open your mouth and explain why your ideas are the very best, your voice will suddenly disappear, you'll go mute, have a nervous breakdown, or simply melt into the carpeting from anxiety.
Need to meet a Muse now?
Fast forward from that 2 am session in front of the computer screen. It is now an entire hour after the presentation. You are vaguely, perhaps uncomfortably aware, that you agreed to do something by a certain date, and for the life of you, there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that informs you exactly what you just agreed to do.
Add to that, a firm belief that you don't have any memory defects. Or, if you have memory defects, you are certain you didn't have any problems in that department when the meeting started.
Well, the truth is, you need to Meet A Muse.
All of those situations, whether 2 am or 2 in the afternoon, before, during or after your project is presented, printed, published or performed, are times where you need a Muse. Not just the inspiration of the Muse, but the calming, productive functioning Muse.
Most broadly, these are all situations of stage fright. You don't need to be a musician, dancer, actor or performer to have performance anxiety. The Muse can help you.
Stage fright is a blessing and a curse. Whether your performance is on paper, on the phone, via video feed or before small or large groups, stage fright is that paralyzing feeling that it is all going wrong, or will go wrong no matter what you do.
The solution? Check in with your personal Muse. If you don't already know your Muse, consider this. A Muse is not just inspiration. A Muse keeps you on track, mind and memory fully functioning, with ideas (and the right words) clicking in when you need and want them.
But first, the Muse must come to life. You can't meet a lifeless or comatose Muse.
Well, you can, but the conversation is going to be terribly one sided and of little help in the long run.
Bring your Muse to life. Meet YOUR Muse. Life in the world of humans means having a pulse. Pulse-less is lifeless. Pulse-less is dead on arrival. There are many ways to find the pulse in your Muse, none of which involve locating a pulsing carotid artery.
A pulse means rhythm. Rhythm means pulse. Every thing you do has a rhythm. Breathing, speaking, walking, talking, thinking, writing, dancing...everything you do has a rhythm.
So check into the first rhythm you can find and hang on for the ride.
Your project has a title. That title has a pulse. Repeat it to get the flow. Maybe the words of your topic really don't have a flow or pulse. Maybe you're not making sense of things because there is no rhythm, no pulse, no pacing to the words of the title. That's right. The title.
Is there any possibility of music to go with your words? Well, scratch around a bit, and see if you can find some rhythm, any rhythm. This is rough draft time, don't worry if you've got it all right.
Then, walk around the room a bit, moving to your ribbon of rhythmic words. Before you write, find the pulse of the idea, a flow of words before they hit the page. If you're performing music, find the pulse in the opening phrase. If you're speaking, find a rhythm for the first paragraph.
That's it. That's the beginning. Waken the Muse with the pulse.
Find rhythm in the words. If there is no rhythm to the words, find words that have rhythm. Put a pause in if that does the trick. You're on your way. You are beginning to waken the Muse so that you can have a conversation (which also has rhythm, BTW.)
Tomorrow, more hints for meeting your Muse. And a discussion or two about the message of the Muse.
No comments:
Post a Comment