I'm sure every artist, every writer faces a slope down to rock bottom where it seems that the creative mind has gone AWOL. I can say this for I have faced it during my relentless quest to write a series of short stories. It doesn't give you any clue, but this total lack of inspiration just hits you home when you least expect. So, what was I supposed to do? Sit back and wait until my muse shows up? Well, that's what I thought I would do, and that's what I did.
Only two days later it started to grow on me that my muse, my inspiration, was not going to show up. All I had was two unproductive days. My guilt having half-eaten me by then, the third day I took the sheets of paper and pen, and rode down to the place where I always wrote my stories. That day I sat with the blank sheets of paper staring back at me with indifference. My muse didn't come. But, there was a sense of satisfaction nonetheless. The fourth day I went again, and again it was the same story. The fifth day however I wrote a few lines. The day later, a paragraph. And then, it turned into an outflow thereafter. The short-story that came out of it turned out to be a really good one after all.
The entire episode made me understand that the muse that I was waiting for was a really self-obsessed being. It wouldn't have showed up unless I impressed her with my incessant pursuit. Waiting for inspiration to hit you sounds really poetic, but I learned that this muse named Inspiration only reaches out to you halfway; the other half you've got to reach out. Once it's there you've just got to keep her occupied. She'll just sit there and polish her nails, run her hands through her hair, maybe even wink at you at times. But your bag of inspirations will be full as she stays.
You can't keep waiting for inspiration; just get a really nice bunch of flowers and go impress her. She'll in turn keep you happy, believe me.
~ RN
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