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| The Muse is hungry. Take her out for a meal. |
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It doesn't do much for Jill, either.
Writers, illustrators, composers, and other creative types are thought to toil in solitude and engross themselves in work to the point they forget to eat and sleep, never mind drive car pool, grocery shop, fix dinner, and, oh yeah, work the day job.
In "Draft," a New York Times series about writing, novelist Benjamin Nugent describes how a too-intense focus spoiled his prose. His writing improved once he threw himself into interests and amusements that fed the muse.
If you've got a case of the guilts because you watched the Super Bowl, slipped out to see Silver Linings Playbook when you should have been researching alternative book titles, or, gasp! read a book when you could have advanced your page count, click on that article.
Writers must feed the muse, and she's a hungry beast. Luckily for us, she doesn't require three squares a day, just a reasonable number of snacks and the occasional feast.
Last week, a friend and I took our muses to see a movie on Monday. Then, on Friday, I met up with my husband and a friend for happy-hour wine and conversation followed by a visit to a photo exhibit. Recently, I varied my walk-in-the-park route and happened upon this:
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| Ooh, a tasty snack for the muse |
Deadline-hell weeks aside, how do you balance writing with the other demands on your time? What and how often do you feed the muse?
