One might think writers don't need to spur their creativity, but many do. Putting everything you have into your work drains the creative well, or at least it does for me, so I find ways to recharge. I like vivid color, and I like working with my hands.
Completing a small arts and crafts project gives me immense satisfaction, and the repetitive motions of my hands free my thoughts. Before you know it, ideas are burning brightly in my head. Through the years, I've tried many projects: decopague, embroidery, counted cross stitch, collages, tile mosiacs, ceramic painting, seashell frames, creating a planter. The particular craft doesn't matter as much as my absorption in the project.
Another key thing I keep in mind is that my creative well doesn't run dry at convenient times, like at the end of a project. It may be in the middle of the story, it might be at the plotting stage of a book, or even when meeting a publication deadline.
For me, listening to that inner need releases my creativity. I do believe in muses; I picture mine as a Victorian cherub with primary paint colors splattered on her hands, and a few on her face as well.
Until next week, Maggie Toussaint
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I find the whole Muse thing interesting. I have no Muse that I know of, unless you count the Plastic M&M man on my desk, who holds my glasses and my eyeglass cloth.
Others have mentioned Muses and what they imagine them to be. I guess it's like music. When I write my SciFi series, I have music going. I don't have music going for other books, although I always have music going during rewrites.
Like you, I tried craft projects and mastered crochet and knitting (and even entered the State Fair and got my share of ribbons, which is an experience in and of itself). Now I think I need to physically move around in order to kick start my brain. Of course, I'm the person who doesn't sit longer than 30 minutes at a time and am known in the family as The One Who Will Jump Up at Any Given Moment, so I guess that fits, eh?
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