How Do You Kickstart Your Muse? by Diane Burton

Last week, a colleague posted on Facebook, asking for help. She was adrift, having lost her day job and searching for a new one has been frustrating. While she has the time to write, she can’t get motivated. She asked if it’s ever happened to anyone else.

My response and several others was an overwhelming YES! Been there.

So what do you do when your work-in-progress (any of them) doesn’t interest you. And no new idea is popping up. Several writers responded with suggestions. As I wrote my response, I thought this would make a great post. Most of us go through something similar. A time in our lives when we just don’t feel like writing.

The following writers offered suggestions:

Margo Hoornstra

Anne K. Stone

Thimgan Hayden

Tracy Ragap Keely

Lucy Naylor Kubash

Diana Stout

Erin Bartels

Nancy Gideon

A frequent suggestion is to read. When the well is dry, you can't get anything out of it. Stress has a way of drying up creativity. Take this time to read—in your genre as well as in other genres. Try something new.

Follow Julia Cameron’s (The Artist’s Way) advice and write “morning pages.” Every morning, write three pages in longhand (pen on paper). Stream of consciousness. Vent about the job search, life in general. If you can’t think of anything to write, write “I can’t think of anything to write” over and over until something occurs to you. Another recommended book is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Since writing is a right-brain activity, try something left-brain: cleaning out files, organizing research, re-organizing notebooks, type up research notes.

Write for fun. Something crazy and wild. Something you’d never submit. Don’t worry about publication.

You know those templates that you get at workshops or are available online? Character sketches, world-building outlines, etc. Fill them out for your WIP.

Read movie blurbs (newspaper, Netflix, TV guide). Take the blurb of a movie you haven’t seen and start writing. Remember, it’s for fun. Or write Fan Fiction. Write an episode of your favorite TV show. (FYI, my high school girlfriend and I used to do that; with ourselves as the main character. 😊).

Write questions about your character (or the plot). If you can’t answer, ask another question. Interview your character. You get to play both roles, interviewer and interviewee (as the character).

Write a short story for Women’s World magazine. They have a Facebook group for potential authors.

Check out OneWord.com. A new word is presented each day. Write about that word for sixty seconds (or longer). That might stimulate an idea.

Watch movies. Binge watch a series. It’s passive, but possibly what you need right now.

Since you have the time, this is a good time to take a writing class. A couple of people recommended classes by Becca Syme, writing coach. If you belong to a writers’ organization (like Romance Writers of America) check their website for classes.

Watch YouTube videos that help your research (e.g., women in Elizabethan or Victorian times.)

Write one paragraph a day on your WIP. The lack of pressure may help you write more, but don’t force it.

Get a writing buddy and go to a coffee shop and write. No internet, turn off your phone, no distractions. Some writers use noise-cancelling headphones for even less distraction.

The best advice, though, was hang in there. Give yourself time to settle into the new “normal” (whatever that is). The desire to write will come back. It’ll take time.

My thanks to the lovely ladies who responded to our friend’s cry for help. We all want her to succeed. In the process, she’s helping all of us who go through the doldrums more often than we’d like.

What do you do to kickstart your Muse?