So one of my earliest posts, and probably at least one post after that one went live discussed my Altare de Muse. Or my Altar to the spirit of inspiration. Let's revisit that. My own religious and spiritual beliefs follow a sense of divine polytheism, but that doesn't mean that your beliefs are the same as mine. This altar isn't about worship, it's about veneration. Not so much crediting a divine source away from the Creator, but a place to call up or pray for specific energy or guidance, in this case, the creative spark or Inspiration. I am an intensely spiritual person, and I have the drive to include that spirituality in every aspect of my daily life, with no exclusions, with writing being such a large part of who I see myself as, setting a specific place for prayer regarding it just makes sense for who I am.
Where I am currently, I don't really have anything that I would call personal space, so I can't really set up an office or writing room. This means that many of these comforts for my writing space are just unrealistic at the moment. No matter how much I love having my fun collections, what I have now is a single shelf that is everything that inspires my work.
I do find that having something to draw my eye helps' to remind me that I need to get my writing done, but for the foreseeable future I have combined my relevant Sea Shift props in one place, that I can look to while working from my laptop. As Pinterest and other sites are filled with flashy shots and how-to guides for creating a Writer's Notebook. I thought that you might appreciate some more on this visual practice.
My shelf contains the figurine that I use to represent The Muse, Inspiration herself, something a nib pen and ink, an empty journal to represent all the words never written a token or nod to how frightening a blank page can be when you start something new. Then a journal with things that inspire me, and a few books that I love and am likely to reread at least once a year: JM Barry's Peter Pan, The Art of War, An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope (which I keep meaning to read, but keep on hand for Quotes), and the book my Grandmother wrote and published "Drop Something?" by JAEDL.
The shelf has a purpose beyond being pretty, it reminds me of what I'm doing on those days when real life decides to remind me that I'm almost 40 years old and have wanted to be a published author since I first learned how to read. We all struggle, we all ask ourselves "Is it worth it?" or "why do I keep trying?" and the truth is we keep trying because at one point or another a book changed us, the dream within the words affected what we wanted for ourselves. The shelf, while not necessary is grounding it helps you shed the energy that comes with the doubt and reminds you that the dream is bigger than ourselves. It's not about fame or wealth, it's about crafting letters into words and collecting the words together in a way that might affect somebody else. It's about love and immortality that can only be achieved in the memories of others.
I have my playlist on Spotify for my current project, because music remains important to my process. Most of my writing remains a combination of Method and Creative, and I like to maintain an active voice in presenting either a story or technical information. My Cookbook is still in development, I keep getting distracted, let's face it, writing out and formatting recipes and instructions is a little tedious.
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