Revision update: Couldn’t get up early this morning, so nothing new. Oh well. Must do better tomorrow. Luckily, it’s a holiday.
I read a lovely interview with author Susan Patron today, on author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog, and love that Susan originally got her inspiration from a laundry basket. (Susan is the author of the Lucky series.)
Well, not exactly from a laundry basket, but as Susan describes it, when she was young and would tell stories to her sister, she would imagine that the laundry basket was full of stories and she just had to open it and pull them out. It took away the responsibility of having to create stories, because the laundry basket was always full of them. Instead of having to create stories, Susan just had to retrieve them.
This is similar to what The Artist’s Way teaches when it says creativity is a pond and we have to fill it regularly so we can keep fishing from it. (I read the book companion to this years ago.)
Writing can be frustrating when you don’t feel like your muse is there. But turning it around, telling yourself that you don’t have to write or create the next award-winning title, that all you have to do is put pen to paper — or fingers to keyboard — and enjoy yourself, can relax you enough to let the muse in. Like imagining that it’s not you creating the story; it’s already in the laundry basket.
My laundry basket would be an old painted wooden box I got as a kid. Where do you keep your stories?
Write On!
