Reading Magnifico's journal

I used to love to do creative writing, poetry and prose. Did it all the time, under the influence of a span of things from love to caffeine to pot to sleep deprivation. Somewhere along the way, though, I feel as though I lost the ability. Everything I write seems to come out rather weak, undefined, or just unavoidably bad. Anybody here with talent have any suggestions on what I might do to lure the muse back, and get in her good graces?

I'll believe in anything if you'll just believe in anything

any suggestions on what I might do to lure the muse back

I find a number of things helpful when she won't talk to me... the muse... I mean. I read other people's stuff until my head feels crammed with writing. Then I go through a random book, say, something by Anais Nin, because I really like her, and write down random words until I have a whole page... then I let my eyes scan the page of wrested words, letting them intuitively form connections in my mind... I've come up with some of my best poems that way...

Other times I try to write straight from the dream state, by either a) trying to write as I am falling asleep (no joke!), or b) trying to write as I am waking up... this tends to require that there be no alarm clocks going off, and no one else sleeping next to me and occupying the side of the bed usually covered with books and writing.

Or, doing something you don't normally do... The poem 'My Bones were Quenas', I wrote while walking around Lake Michigan in thirty degree weather. I was sick, but trudged from the train station at Lake Forest and half a mile through ritzy houses to their portion of the lake, which is considered private property. There, while listening to the ice break up, as my body felt like it was frozen, my heart began to melt, and the poem was 'given' to me.

Sometimes taking a favorite line from someone else's poem and expounding on it, or doing writing exercises, is just the ticket. Assigning yourself writing challenges helps also.

For instance, in one of my books on writing poetry, a young woman read this poem:

Bare Branches
"What would they say
if they knew
I sit for two months
on six lines
of poetry?"
- Lorine Niedecker

This is an ARS POETICA poem; a poem about the art of writing poetry. She sat with the poem above, and struggled through her thoughts to come up with this:

This stark room
how simple, they say,
they not being we
who know it's easy
to be florid,
not get
to the gut.

The bare branches of
the maple satisfy me.
Maybe by noon a bird
will perch in one
like a word on a blank page.
Soon, I hope,
the snow will come,
complete the landscape.

The snow is miraculous
every time it arrives,
like a poem.
-Stephanie Mendel

The author of the book these poems were contained in, went on to say:

What's wonderful about this poem is that it asks us to be patient as writers, tells us that poems don't come often or easily. And yet this poet didn't simply sit around waiting for a poem to appear before her, free of charge; she worked at doing exercises in an effort to get the poem to come to her.

This is one of the joys of exercises; you can do them while you're waiting for a poem to appear, and if you're lucky, and work hard, maybe a poem will indeed appear. Obviously this poet had been thinking about that quote by Niedecker for some time. Maybe she wanted to say something about it but couldn't. Maybe she didn't even know she wanted to say something about it, but the exercise sparked her imagination. Not every exercise will work for you; in fact, most exercises fail as fully realized poems. But even if you can get one good stanza to work with, a good line, even a new word or a title to add to your storehouse, the exercise has been worth the time it took to do it.

Everything helps.

A few weeks ago, I was frustrated about not being able to write anything, and I sat down to read Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and Marc Woodworth's Arcade. Arcade is a book of poetry. It was one of those books that fell off the shelf at me in the bookstore, and I had to buy it. I had no idea why. That muse you speak of...she just knocked it over. When I opened it I read the line:

Today she lives,
Tomorrow she is gone.

I wrote it on a blank page and italicized it to give reference to the fact that it was a direct quote. Then the words just came tumbling out on the page, when I least expected it. I wrote what I consider to be one of my very best poems - Egyptian Frieze. I left the quote in the poem, still italicized, because it was the inspiration for all that came after. It was as if the poem was a tribute to the beautiful writing of Marc Woodworth.

Even in the poem by Mendel above, she used the phrase 'bare branches', which is the title of Niedecker's poem, which inspired her.

Think of what you want to write about, then read poems and prose by people whose work you like to read, and just let your imagination go... when it is ready to settle on something, it will.

It's like coaxing a shy kitten out with a dish of milk. Court the muse, but don't chase her. Involve yourself in activities that will inspire, i.e., taking walks, going to see movies you've wanted to see, trying new foods, randomly sniffing spices in the spice rack, standing in the rain... whatever kinds of things you might do with a new lover in the giddy excitement of sharing things for the first time. Because the muse is like a lover, and the muse is you, so get yourself intrigued with yourself, and the writing will come.

Don't hound yourself to write, that will likely have the same effect that constantly calling someone you want to date will... it will scare the muse off. Tease the muse. Tantalize her with new ideas and new ways of thinking. Then scamper off without another thought. Believe me, she'll come running trying to get closure. And the closure will be the poem or prose you wish to write.

Think of writing as a dance of courtship.

Barring that, read Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. It comes in pocket-size too, so you can stuff it in the console of your car, for those days when you are stranded somewhere with nothing to read...

And if inspiration strikes while reading her book, then write in the margins before you forget what you were thinking... sometimes the most seemingly innocuous thoughts are the precursors to great writing...

Have fun courting the muse! Or storming the castle, or what have you...

These are just some of the ideas I have found to be helpful for courting the muse... I too, would love to hear others.

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Nov 03, 2004.

My writing prof used to say that you need distance from everything. Your stories, poems, whatever, may look like shit now, but give them some space. Let them sit for a while - even a few months - and then pronounce judgement on them. And don't forget to look for the good parts of your work, all writing has some good part to it, and you can work with that.

And while you're letting them sit, keep writing! And keep reading too. Because no one becomes a great writer without the influence of other great writers.

Please contiune to vote AND post.