Ignoring the Muse
May 16, 2008 Labels: writing life 3 comments
For the past few months I've been struggling to write. As always, though, I managed to write the articles, because I wasn't totally blocked -- I just struggled every now and then. Anyway, as I said my prayers Wednesday night, I asked God to give me my muse back, and the very next night He answered -- Praise God! Problem was, I couldn't work as usual that night. I had an appointment the next day, so I had to hit the sack early so I'd be well rested and could get up for my appointment. I did have one article due the next day that I had to write, so I finished it then went to bed. When I wrote that article, that's when I realized my prayer had been answered, and I hated not being able to take advantage of the blessing, but I knew the appointment was one I had to make, so I called it a night.
As soon as my head hit the pillow that night, words to articles were rapidly rushing through my mind.
"Hmm... I wonder if I can manage to stay awake all day without sleep. Maybe with a lot of coffee I could," I told myself. "No, then I'd be running back and forth to the bathroom every five minutes. Besides, I need to be rested," I continued telling myself.
Despite trying to ignore the muse to get rest, I couldn't sleep with everything that was running through my mind, and the last time I glanced at the clock it was 7:00am. Next thing I knew, my alarm was going off! I had set my alarm for 11:15am (yep, I needed that extra 15 minutes
).I came to the conclusion that I should have just stayed up and taken advantage of the blessing, but since I was determined to get rest, I thanked God for the answered prayer and asked him to let my muse last a while, and thankfully, it's still with me.
What did I learn? I learned that you can't ignore the muse when it hits. Even if you don't get up and write, it WILL stick with you throughout the entire night.
Have you ever ignored your muse? If so, what was the outcome?
Photo courtesy of Flickr
I wonder your new site and stay awake all day this site.
Ha! What a coincidence! I've been struggling, too--even to just write a blog post! Then, last night, my fingers were clucking away at the keyboard 'till the wee hours of this morning. Amazing! I finished a few pitches to magazines, wrote and polished an essay, and really got some things done. Answered prayers? Absolutely! Congrats on your abundance of inspiration. :-)
*smiles
Michele
Michele,
Yes, it is amazing how the muse can be with us one minute and gone the next. I can say I am thankful that at least it returns. It may not return when we want it to, but it will eventually return. In the meantime, I open Microsoft Word and type -- good or bad. It's during times like this that you have to type, and it does help. Later, if what I typed wasn't worth anything, I just delete it. I guess you could call it a brain exercise to help the muse return. ;)