This post doesn’t relate directly to Demon Muse’s guiding theme of creativity as a muse/daemon/genius-powered phenomenon, but it does add to the advice I gave in “Advice for Writers: Dig Deep into Your Passion.” Someone recently posted a message to one of my favorite online hangouts for writers, editors, and readers to ask about 1) what sort of output, in terms of length, most writers aim for or achieve on a regular basis, 2) the degree of difference between the first drafts and final drafts produced by most working writers, and 3) advice for overcoming the “inner editor” that can lock down the creative drive by emasculating it at the inception point. This elicited a flow of words from me that’s reprinted below.
Which — as I add before turning you over to said flow of words — means there is indeed a crossover value with this blog, because my demon muse was clearly involved in the writing of this advice. When I clicked the “reply” button to contribute to that online conversation, I was expecting to write two or three sentences. Roughly a thousand words and 25 minutes later, I realized that I had slipped quietly into a flow state. Something had wanted to be said, and I was in the right place at the right time with the right attitude of receptivity. This is one manifestation of the inspired creativity we’ve been exploring here for the past several months. To be gripped by a sudden upsurge and outpouring of unexpected words and ideas is definitely a genius/muse driven experience. So is the sense of A) not knowing exactly and consciously where it’s all going, even as b) you’re intensely aware that it’s all guided by a coherent overarching energy that will make it all make sense in the end.
Yes, the writing of a single blog post or message board response is a rather minuscule example upon which to hang the principle. But it works the same in both microcosmic and macrocosmic fashions — in both short and long works, and in seemingly minor and seemingly major ones. As above, so below, and so on.
For a longer — and quite rambling — and thoroughly fascinating — look at the ins and outs of living a muse-driven life, see Jonathan Zap’s uber-essay “The Path of the Numinous: Living and Working with the Creative Muse.”
In the meantime, consider this combination of practical and attitudinal advice about the writing life:
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