Art is a funny thing… it is hard to schedule around a time frame. I have heard that many people are successful at that — writers who get up and write at 5 am no matter what. I’m a firm believer in just DOING but sometimes it gets stuck!
What do you do when your creative juices start sputtering instead of flowing?
I have decided my muse might be at the beach. Or perhaps she hoped a plane to Paris. I wish she gave me her itinerary so I would know when she will return!
It’s not that I’m not getting anything done, it’s just that it has seemed harder the past few days. What do you do when that happens? (seriously, what do you do??? Suggestions welcome!)
I remind myself that this is my pattern. It happens every once in a while. It usually means I just need a mental time out. Go read a book. Have a movie marathon day. My muse will be back, I know, but I always have a teeney-tiny-piece of worry that she won’t.
Be sure to give both yourself and your muse a break sometimes. Maybe planned vacations will help eliminate unexpected interruptions in flow! 🙂
Have a creative day!
~ Tara
My Muse ran screaming away from after I was left holding the empty money bag when 2 publishers I worked for decided to not pay up after I did a ton of work for them. ONe went out of business owing a bullpen of artists thousands of dollars. The other own decided we were getting more press than him and he decided to shut down operations owing us money, owing vendors money, who in turn seized artwork not even theirs. Somewhere I have an entire comic book lining someone’s draws or tacked up on the shop walls. Just over the past 6 months has my Muse returned to me full strength. I never gave up drawing, but if the juice isn’t flowing, then the inspiration is difficult. But nowadays things are moving along and hopefully seeing something in publication soon will give my Muse an even bigger kick in the can.
I go fishing, watch a movie, or read blogs when I am tired of drawing. If I am stuck for inspiration, I’ll look through all my little Moleskine sketchbooks. I know I’ll have moments of nothingness (artwise) so whenever I do have a flash I jot it down or if I see something I like I stick it in the sketchbook (sure, it has to be printed on a small piece of paper). That way there are always ideas just waiting to be exploited. One thing I avoid is waiting until the last minute to come up with ideas – if I do that, I usually panic and drive everyone crazy!