January 4, 2020 Not Waiting for the Muse

I recently read the book “On Writing” by Stephen King and among other things, he was a big proponent of establishing a habit of writing every day, rather than waiting for the mood (or the muse, as it were) to strike you.

“Don’t wait for the muse. As I’ve said, he’s a hardheaded guy who’s not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. …Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you’re going to be every day from nine ‘til noon or seven ‘til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he’ll start showing up, chomping his cigar and making magic.”

I want to take more photos and do more writing, so I’m combining those things by trying to do a short daily blog about the pictures I take that day. I expect there will be plenty of days in which the muse is hiding, but I’m hoping there will be days when he shows up, chomping his cigar and making magic.

An apartment building is going up across the street from our library. I can see the men working on it from my water aerobics class three times a week. I resented its intrusion at first – how dare they put an apartment building where my favorite parking lot was? I’ve always had a hard time embracing change. Yet I have to admit a fascination with the process that starts with a hole in the ground and ends up as a sound structure in which people can live. A blueprint becomes reality; someone’s math becomes someone else’s living room; my parking lot becomes someone’s home. I guess I can live with that.

I turned around and made my way into the library, passing this charming trio of imperatives on the way. It’s a chant I will no doubt hear throughout the year as I endeavor to meet my Goodreads Book Reading Challenge goal of 100 books in 2020.

And here is a the prize at the end: a book I’ve been eagerly awaiting for a few weeks. I may be posting the fruit of my efforts as I go through it. Or not, if the muse has rejected me utterly in this department.

This was more of a “slice of life” post. Thanks for joining me.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning unless you say “please,” like Westley did.