If you are struggling to get past writer's block, this rule is for you!
I used to get so angry with myself for getting stuck. Not having a clear vision of the puzzle pieces & how they fit feels Gods-awful. Back then, I thought the only way through was to beat myself up, admit defeat/failure, or push through the agony and just keep struggling...
Until one day, when my Muse whispered:
What would happen if, instead of believing that you have a block, you simply accepted that our idea is still cooking?
That made me laugh.
My Muse & I are cooking.
Once upon a time artists didn't believe they "had" ideas.
Artists thought that Muses "gifted" them with ideas.
What would happen if you believed that too? Imagine for a moment, that if you considered an idea a sacred gift, how that might change your process. Downloading treasures from a Muse into a human mind is a big deal & should be a process. If something is attempting to inspire you with a whopper, wouldn't it make sense for that to take more than a millisecond? More than a month, even?
Hearing ideas from your Muse can occasionally be like attempting to remember a dream. The more you struggle, the more it fades... but if you go on about your day, minding your business, then flashes of the most important parts will return to you.
Ideas work much the same way. If you stop choose to stop struggling & go on about your day, minding your "writer business" (working on your technique, filling your creative well etc), the gifts from your Muse will arrive.
So now I take a breath, a walk, & pictures of something gorgeous, like street art or a sunset. Sometimes I go to an art gallery, or cook something extremely & extravagantly complicated in my kitchen. I might read other people's work that I find inspiring. I've had days where I just let my Muse know I'm grateful by re-reading what I already have & celebrating that.
When my Muse and I are cooking, I am not interested in "fast" because, quite frankly, I do not want a half baked idea. When we are cooking, I do not think about making my word count for the day, or get mad at myself for not being able to solve plot issues. My job is definitely not to declare or announce a block. Who in their right mind would block a Muse??? My job is simply to mind my writer business by nurturing my creativity & technique toolboxes so that I'm ready when my idea/gift arrives.
Your Muse's job is to guide you by planting seeds of brilliance & creating a dazzling trail that will allow the ideas to unfold in a way that will uniquely fit your voice. That's what makes their inspiration a sacred, special gift!
There is a reason for the pace that ideas arrive in. I've seen evidence of it, time and time again. That's why the best way I know to avoid writer's block is to TRUST in yourself & in your Muse.
The next time you start to feel 'blocked', remember:
Jodi's Writing Rule #2: Ideas arrive in divinely perfect order.
"Truth dazzles gradually, else the world would be blind."
-Emily Dickinson
I used to get so angry with myself for getting stuck. Not having a clear vision of the puzzle pieces & how they fit feels Gods-awful. Back then, I thought the only way through was to beat myself up, admit defeat/failure, or push through the agony and just keep struggling...
Until one day, when my Muse whispered:
What would happen if, instead of believing that you have a block, you simply accepted that our idea is still cooking?
That made me laugh.
My Muse & I are cooking.
Once upon a time artists didn't believe they "had" ideas.
Artists thought that Muses "gifted" them with ideas.
What would happen if you believed that too? Imagine for a moment, that if you considered an idea a sacred gift, how that might change your process. Downloading treasures from a Muse into a human mind is a big deal & should be a process. If something is attempting to inspire you with a whopper, wouldn't it make sense for that to take more than a millisecond? More than a month, even?
Hearing ideas from your Muse can occasionally be like attempting to remember a dream. The more you struggle, the more it fades... but if you go on about your day, minding your business, then flashes of the most important parts will return to you.
Ideas work much the same way. If you stop choose to stop struggling & go on about your day, minding your "writer business" (working on your technique, filling your creative well etc), the gifts from your Muse will arrive.
So now I take a breath, a walk, & pictures of something gorgeous, like street art or a sunset. Sometimes I go to an art gallery, or cook something extremely & extravagantly complicated in my kitchen. I might read other people's work that I find inspiring. I've had days where I just let my Muse know I'm grateful by re-reading what I already have & celebrating that.
When my Muse and I are cooking, I am not interested in "fast" because, quite frankly, I do not want a half baked idea. When we are cooking, I do not think about making my word count for the day, or get mad at myself for not being able to solve plot issues. My job is definitely not to declare or announce a block. Who in their right mind would block a Muse??? My job is simply to mind my writer business by nurturing my creativity & technique toolboxes so that I'm ready when my idea/gift arrives.
Your Muse's job is to guide you by planting seeds of brilliance & creating a dazzling trail that will allow the ideas to unfold in a way that will uniquely fit your voice. That's what makes their inspiration a sacred, special gift!
There is a reason for the pace that ideas arrive in. I've seen evidence of it, time and time again. That's why the best way I know to avoid writer's block is to TRUST in yourself & in your Muse.
The next time you start to feel 'blocked', remember:
Jodi's Writing Rule #2: Ideas arrive in divinely perfect order.
"Truth dazzles gradually, else the world would be blind."
-Emily Dickinson
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