The muse and the grind

Photo by alexiuss

I am writing this blog post after taking a break from working on a chapter of this book I am writing, my first novel. I’m fairly certain it will be terrible but maybe my third and forth ones will show some promise. Later I am also suppose to work on music for the next record, I have artists literally waiting on me to put down vocals but I just can’t make it right. Today seems particularly difficult to get in to the groove of things. Stephen King writes two thousand words a day and says some days he says the words flow easy and other days not so much. Maybe its the power of the habit, maybes its that the muse shows up when you work consistently. Im certainly no expert but it seems the key thing a creative person must do is create. Some days its a struggle to get to five hundred words down and other days two thousand flow out like its nothing. 

I took the advice of James Altucher and try to create idea lists. Just come up with 10 things a day you could write about, or ten things a day to start a business about or whatever you are trying to to. So on this list I have a title for a Bleeding Peanut Butter post called “The muse and the grind” and its beyond easy to procrastinate, in fact I have mastered that skill. That’s one of the reasons I started this blog. To improve my writing and interviewing skills and force myself to have something to write about. To kick out the cobwebs so to speak.

It does seem though that if you show up everyday and put in the work the muse will arrive as well. But boy today is one of those slogging through mud days. Especially since everyone is in quarantine for the Corona virus. It would be so much easier to finish the book I am reading (Duma Key), just play video games, or cook some good food. I don’t have the best advice in the world right now other than the advice I recently got, you write a book one word at a time. I suppose thats true of music as well, write music one note at a time. Record one instrument at a time. One foot in front of the other. Even bad work is better than no work. Bad work you can at least edit most of the time. With no work you are just being a fraud. Creators create, if you don’t create can you call yourself a creator? 

Man, talk is cheap. Everyone wants to be the next great famous artist or the write the great American novel but almost no one wants to put in the grind day in and day out to get there. I can promise you that everyone famous for their art at some point put in the work to get there, I would bet they still do but now that have a team in place to help them along. 

I’m not completely sure my writing is worth reading or music worth listening to because there are so many great artists out there, but art should in some way be about what you need to create. It needs to fulfill you first, if you can write the book you would want to read or the album you would want to listen to I think thats a huge step. Recently I heard someone say that artist have great taste and when an artist starts out and is dissatisfied with their work they know its bad because their tastes tell them so. Their skillset just has to catch up with what they know is good. Once again, practice makes perfect. So make the muse your bitch my showing up everyday, there is no way around it.