Posts Tagged ‘Muse’

How’s your entelechy?


16 Apr

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Creating, Intent, Practice, Work, inspiration | 2 Comments »

Great post from Emily McPhie about a word and concept I was unfamiliar with. It’s called entelechy. I especially liked the two quotes she shared:

“Entelechy is a particular type of motivation, need for self-determination, and an inner strength and vital force directing life and growth to become all one is capable of being.” – Deirdre Lovecky

“The tricky thing about being in the entertainment industry is that basically no matter how much money is involved, how good the life is, the thing that still compels you is that thing inside.” – Tim Burton

So how strong is your own entelechy? How deep is your drive to make whatever it is you feel compelled to make? What one step, no matter how small, will you take today to move (at least) one step closer to your creative goals?

Bright Star


11 Oct

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Creators, Muse, inspiration | 1 Comment »

491px-John_Keats_by_William_HiltonA movie you’ll be seeing soon is Bright Star, the true story of the Romantic Poet John Keats and the woman who became his muse and inspiration, Fanny Brawne. The reason you’ll be seeing this movie is simple: You want to support great art and to discover how great artists get their inspiration.

Little movies like this are having a harder and harder time getting made. There’s no money in them, or so the studios say. Without any explosions, special effects, space aliens, or other “popcorn movie” elements, Hollywood is saying “no” to more and more projects like this.

So find your way to your neighborhood theater and make sure you vote with your wallet. One of the many reasons I loved this movie was due to the way it dealt with Keats’ creative process. Most of the time he was frustrated and trying to figure out what he wanted to say. Once he met Fanny, she inspired him to reach new heights in his work and inspired his greatest expressions. Here is the poem many think was his last, written to her shortly before his death (at age 23!)

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–
No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

Here’s also a wonderful little site that explores the production of the movie. See Bright Star soon. It is not one of those movies that will be spending a lot of time in the theaters.

Muse


01 Oct

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Creating, Muse, Work | No Comments »

I never know when you’ll show up. No advance warnings, no hints, no whiffs of your perfume just before you knock. I don’t know if you’ll arrive on time or at all. And nothing I do seems to attract you. Worst of all, in the moments when I’m hanging out there, desperate for rescue – for even a word or breath of inspiration – - nothing.

The truth is, (you’re always about the truth, aren’t you?) if I pay the price by simply doing the work, CONSISTENTLY, somehow there you are. I’m learning you can’t be forced but must be invited. And the invite isn’t in me wishing, it’s in me doing – taking a few steps into the dark, so to say.

So the answer is in the work itself. You’ll not be deceived. I can jaw away about making time to write (add in your own thing – remember, this is about your muse, too) but unless and until I’m actually sitting in front of the white piece of paper or blank screen (also white, what is that?), you will not condescend to do your part.

Mr. King’s thoughts – “There is a muse, but he’s not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and scatter creative fairy-dust all over your typewriter or computer station. He lives in the ground. He’s a basement guy. You have to descend to his level, and once you get down there you have to furnish an apartment for him to live in. You have to do all the grunt labor, in other words, while the muse sits and smokes cigars and admires his bowling trophies and pretends to ignore you. Do you think this is fair? I think this is fair. He may not be much to look at, that muse-guy, and he may not be much of a conversationalist (what I get out of mine is mostly surly grunts, unless he’s on duty), but he’s got the inspiration. It’s right that you should do all the work and burn all the midnight oil, because the guy with the cigar and the little wings has got a bag of magic. There’s stuff in there that can change your life. Believe me, I know.”

Want more? Here’s Mr. King musing further on his process. Up-front caveat: It’s Stephen King. (And this from a recovered King-aholic. Just so’s you know.)

I’ll own you yet.

Yiassou!


16 Aug

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Creating, Joy, Sharing, Work | 2 Comments »

MAA122468

Welcome to Be Mused. As in Be Creative. Start making things. Don’t let fear muffle the creative spirit in you that just simply wants to be free, unfettered, unleashed. This blog invites all who might happen upon it to share their creative process, whatever it is they might be the creator of. No one is “not creative,” so don’t bother trying that lame excuse here at Be Mused HQ. Whether you want to learn how others create things or share your own creative quests, the hope is that this might be your home for digital kindling. So come along. Be engaged, inspired and ignited, creatively speaking.

Oh, and about “yiassou.” It’s Greek for “hello.” Say “YAH-Soo.” And why Greek? Simple – they came up with the whole idea of the Muses. The goddesses of creativity, yes? We’re going to be all about following the muse here at Be Mused, oh yes we are. But aren’t they a fickle bunch? They’re Greek goddesses, are they not? But they can be brought into submission with enough deep practice.

Be Mused

every fire needs a spark