Creativity Cheat Sheet: Summoning the Creative Muse

The artistic muse has something of a reputation as being the vital yet exploited object of human perfection and inspiration for the leering male artist. Always beautiful. Usually young and female.

However this article is about my creative muses, which while some might see as a source of possible embarrassment for me, are not quite so sensitive a subject.

If you are interested in pursuing your interest in the traditional artistic muse, check out this piece by Aussie expat Germaine Greer. While not normally the biggest fan of Germaine, her (appropriately feminist) take on the subject of the artistic muse is worth a read: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/jun/02/theroleoftheartistsmuse (hashtag free steemit article idea - you're welcome 🙂).

No, this article is about summoning inspiration, not ostensibly perfect people.

For me, this process is closely linked to my previous piece on recharging the creative self (link below), and involves getting in touch with the (slightly damaged) teenager, ever-present in my psyche.

As a child I grew up in a household where my mother’s mental illness cast the shadow of uncertainty over daily life. I didn’t know mum was mentally ill. Dad didn’t tell us. To us, the mood-swings and intermittent crazy was normal.

I would escape from the endless emotional roller-coasters by playing guitar, or reading science fiction and fantasy, or by playing my favourite roleplaying games and wargames. Usually while listening to 80s music (the shame!) and if possible Australian rock or the New Romantic genre of the early 80s (OMGods the shame!!).

I must have achieved this with such passionate intensity in my childhood years that all I need to do now (assuming my creative self is fully charged), is listen to Blondie or Planet Earth, or Chisel or Viking Warriors and I'm there. Ideas are blooming.

Similarly, to get into the headspace for writing fiction (fantasy/sci fi, obviously - which I will hopefully share with the world at some point) all I need do is look at my old games on the shelf of my study.

I'd love to hear about your ways of connecting with your creative spirit 🙂

The ideas presented here are closely linked to those presented in my previous posts:

https://steemit.com/creativity/@drwom/the-importance-of-recharging-no-not-your-phone-you

https://steemit.com/creativity/@drwom/the-1-secret-of-creative-collaboration

Parts of this article originally appeared in my steemit introduction https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@drwom/what-if-the-future-arrived-and-nobody-noticed

Images courtesy of pixabay.com