Reflections on the Muse
Excerpted from a letter to Jay in
The muse is not external to me. It isn’t a second person lurking in my synapses and it isn’t divine inspiration. The muse is a state of mind that rises through many levels and requires exercise (or awareness?) to operate properly. There is a correspondence between the muse and meditation, rather like putting one’s thoughts on a specific track so a narrative begins to form, scenery begins to line the sidings and one’s eyes see the world as might an omniscient presence.
The world is of course not on the outside. It is inside, but there is a sort of portal, dare I use the word palimpsest, through which I’m allowed to see reality and fiction in a single frame of reference. I am watching the world to inform the development of my characters. They are nothing without some tie to actual experience.
As a writer it is easier for me to stand back and observe the experiences of others so I have a three-dimensional model of human interactions. When I am too close to the action, I can not fairly represent all sides. I use the word “muse” to specify the state of mind I need to write new scenes. I don’t need the muse to edit or to pad out a scene because the level of creativity for those tasks is not as great.
I often think of the days when I played piano for hours on end. I always began with Hannon exercises, which limbered up the fingers slowly and deliberately. The exercises were followed by scales and arpeggios, then octaves and Phillips exercises, which built finger strength and the muscle independence of each finger. All this took an hour. Once that preparation was complete, though, my hands would do whatever I asked of them. The fingers were an extension of thought and I felt transported to another dimension.
That is the benchmark I use to gauge the “muse.”
What exercises can I use to find that state as a writer? Playing an instrument is a physical and mental melding, but what is writing? Blazing away at a computer keyboard doesn’t make it easier to write fiction. Something else has to happen. Does a writer require leisure, a dream, a routine or an emotional memory to call forth the muse? What are your thoughts?
Amy
posted by Seven Authors in A Private Conversation at 12:01 PM
2 Comments:
To me the muse is like cooking over an open fire. I can finely measure out my recipe--take two sprinkles of sex and a cup of loneliness--but the muse adds the heat (or denies it) to turn my concoction into anything along a spectrum from a souffle to a crepe.
Swimming cranks the muse up for me. All those long strokes of autonomic energy, my large body's weight made powerful by water.
~ Victoria Benz
Dancing is my writing muse. It's the physicality, same as for Victoria. I go to latin dance aerobics Tuesdays and all sorts of scenes and conversations for my book or something new come to me. Also, showers. I think the physical exercise frees the mind, vacates it, or at least transfers the energy (I have to pay a lot of attention to follow the aerobics instructor) and there's a vacancy and fun stuff rushes in to fill it.
Dance has always been a way for me to develop as a writer, watching dance performance works this way as well. I see the choreography taking risks and getting away with them and it encourages me to do the same.
Reva
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