xenith | The Well

The best thing to come out Julia Cameron's books (the Artists Way & the Right to Write) is the idea of a date with the muse. That is, you take an hour a week and spend it alone doing something the 'feeds' your creative self. This includes things like going for a long walk, visiting a museum .... I have troulbe of thinking of things, which is why I forget to do it. It could be listening to music or going shopping for something fun. A long, hot bubble bath. Something that is enjoyable, different from the everyday and has some degree of self indulgence.

But it's all about refilling the creative well. If you consider that as you're writing, you're taking from that well. Eventually, if you don't refill it, you'll run dry and this is when it gets hard to write.

Other creative activites also take from the well. For me, crafts do.

OTOH photography helps fill it. So does reading. With some books, it feels like the words are flowing back into my head.

Music should, but it doesn't. At least, the music the computer plays over and over doesn't. Music from other sources e.g. live music does.

Sometimes writing adds to it, rather than taking away. This is why I like to do Nanowrimo. It renews the energy.

It's not about stimulating ideas. Certainly the music from the computer does plenty of that. It's about the creative energy required to do anything with those ideas. If you just keep drawing on it, it'll run out.

So, it's probably a good idea to start refilling it before that happens.