Finding the Muse

On one of my most recent bookshop strolls I found and picked up Julia Cameron's 'Write for Life, Creative Tools for Every Writer.'

I hadn't realized she'd released another creative guide for writers so decided to buy it without reading the book's description. The title was enough to persuade me -- as I'm always struggling to find the time for my own writing and creative development. Most days I'm busy helping other writers get published.

Last night, after reading the first chapter I decided to resubscribe to Morning Pages, a practice Cameron introduced us all to in her very popular 'The Artist's Way.'

Morning Pages and the artist date are the only two suggestions from that first book I've always kept in my writer's inspiration toolkit. They're brilliant and while I have always known there is sound creative medicine in them, I've failed time and again to implement them in my own creative life.

My failure in adhering to them helped me realize I'm awful at keeping to rigid rituals. Not that the practice in itself is rigid, only that in knowing the way of proper practice requires - ideally the first minutes of the morning - and I am challenged to show up for it consistently.

I always need room to be flexible and do what I can given the daily chaos that is my life.

So while I decided to return to the practice of daily writing, I can't promise myself I'll show up only first thing in the morning. Looking through some of my writing journal entries, I've labeled many 'Daily Pages or Reflections.'

Fast forward to today, or rather last night, I realized just how much I miss the act of creating. Of simply showing up to the blank page to see what magic can potentially happen or what magic can potentially never come to pass. You can't know the muse will always show but thankfully for me it almost always does. I've rarely experienced writers block.

Whenever I sit to write it's as if my muse shows up only to scold me for being late and far too often absent. There is always flow for me once I sit to write. Out comes pent up frustrations, reflections, questions, and surprisingly even answers.

The inner creative is so much wiser than the busy scattered self trying to

keep up with the seemingly endless responsibilities.

The fact is, creatives need daily practice. Not to create something to sell, but rather to feed the creative spirit. To keep it alive.

Most writers feel a sense of satisfaction in showing up for their writing. As do artists and creatives of every stripe. The act of creation is a gift, a blessing, and at times a curse, because not giving in to the compulsion to create often feels like a self inflicted punishment.

As a child, despite the abusive foster homes and the dysfunction I was forced to survive, I'd find time to create. Whether it was a poem sketch on a napkin or an art sketch on a random sheet of paper, I managed to create. Or perhaps back then, it was all an exercise in coping with so much sadness and trying to make sense of it all.

While I am no longer that sad child, there are parts of me that have held onto that version of

myself who was forced to proceed with caution and exit the burning building that was my personal history without getting burned along with it. Today, I'm mostly consumed with figuring out how to

exit the next chapter of my life before it crumbles into the ashes of memory.

I lost so much in my youth and eventually after getting married to and divorced from the wrong person. All I can do now is try to hold on to and capture whatever I deem precious and fleeting.

I am so much more in control when I attempt to stop time.

It is only in watching a minute live that it is slow to die.

I remembered last night there was another book whose title escapes me, about using art sketching as a way to capture the days of one's life.

I thought to myself how fun it would be if I could couple Cameron's suggestion for drafting morning pages (or 3 daily reflection pages as I like to refer to them) with a daily sketch based on whatever insight I garner from what I've taken the time to write.

This morning's writing led to the sketch of a trapped bird.

Bird in a Glass Cage by Marina Aris

I titled it 'Bird in a Glass Cage.' I'm thinking it captures the feeling of trying to free the creative that lives inside. The trap of course is all the other, non-creative roles we're forced to play.

I also subsribe to Michael Gerber's perspective on creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit. He penned the popular book 'The E-Myth Revisited.'

Here are two of my favorite things I heard him say while being interviewed on the EO Fire Podcast.

"You can't do what you need to do with your mind. You need to do it with your soul."

and..

"Entrepreneurial spirit is a drive, a compulsion. Despite pain and discomfort this spirit is driven from within. And if we are born in the image of God, that means we are born to create. And if we are born to create, we are born to create a world that is fit for God."

I mean if these words don't shake your creative spirit to the core and demand it rise out of its weighted slumber, I don't know what will.

The fact is most of us lead hectic lives and can often feel stretched thin or scattered. I happen to be a parent, a partner, a business owner, a writer, and an employee, so it's surprising if I can manage to show up for myself or my inner artist at all.

Over the last decade in consulting with writers, too many of them are still not yet published. Some have a great idea or ideas for a book and have promised themselves that "some day" they'll start writing.

But I know all too well, that 'some' day may never come. And the moment we try to stop time is the moment we can uncover where in the mess of life, there is room to bring out the light inside of us that is obscured by the darkness of inaction.

I don't aim for perfection when I write. That thought alone helps me begin. I expect to write something that won't work or fully express what I want to. But there are always, days and moments, when I do get it. That magic. That feeling that I've created something meaningful. Something that can help someone or simply offer another perspective.

All writing feeds the writer first and the audience second.

I suppose it is that way with all things. Structures are first sketched as blueprints. Films are first words on paper, as are books, and theatrical plays or songs. And long before paper came into existence, words formed into stories that fed us all and led to innovation in all ways.

I hope today's post encourages you to write, or sketch or create.

I hope that if you have a book idea, a song, a play, a work of art brewing inside of you, that today you will decide to steal time to work on it. Your creative spirit will thank you. And the world will lie in wait for the gift you have to offer.

Until next time, keep writing, keep creating and keep me posted.

"Living life at a frantic pace often leaves me forgetting to breathe, that oxygen keeps me alive, but it is the act of writing and reflecting that truly ignites the fire of life within me." June 7, 2025 (Excerpt from My Writer's Notebook)

FOR YOUR INSPIRATION

Below some links to what I mentioned above.

Entrepreneurs on Fire Interview with Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited

I'm a big fan of John Lee Dumas' podcast. I've been listening for years now and often I find insights to help guide me as I continue to develop all I can to support writers via the Book Biz Hub Podcast, the Brooklyn Writers Press and now AVANTHAM for teen authors. Whether you're an entrepreneur or a creative I think you'll enjoy this episode. Listen to the Podcast Episode

Check out The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

You'll find more than just my two favorites, Morning Pages and The Artist's Date.

Get the Book

Check out Write for Life, Creative Tools for Every Writer also by Julia Cameron

This one has a 2022 Copyright so definitely more recent. As noted above, I just started reading it last night but already in being inspired to get back to my daily writing, and sketching, I'm really happy I came across it on my bookshop stroll.

Get the Book