6 ways to "court the muse"

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Listen To Your Dog

Sometimes the only thing standing between an artist and his art is the lack of a good companion animal.

When Wagner composed Tannhauser he used his spaniel Peps to guide him through the creation of the composition. The dog had his own seat next to the piano and whenever Wagner got stuck, he'd take direction from Peps. The dog would go berserk when something didn't agree with him sonically, and Wagner would alter the composition to please him.

Tannhauser is very interesting, although I don't care much for opera, understanding how it was composed really makes it an epic story about the struggle between sacred and profane love.

 

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Turn Hatred Into Motivation

Ibsen despised Strindberg for example, but he couldn't have written some of the greatest works of modern drama without him. Strindberg accused Isberg of copying Miss Julie when Isberg produced Hedda Gabler for example. Isberg proclaimed him "psychotic" in public in response which was probably more true than insulting, given Strindberg's proclivities of pub;lic catatonia, and lashing out at invisible enemies he saw around him with a knife.

The feud progressed to the point where Isben had a portrait of Strindberg hung over his desk, where his hatred of the man would inspire him to write. Considering the volume, clarity and brilliance of most of his later work, that's quite an effective inspiration.

 

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Smell The Success

in 1785 Friedrich von Schiller composed wrote "Ode To Joy". He wrote it under the stench of rotten apples. The poet insisted he needed the odor of putrefying fruit around to be able to write, so he kept his writing table drawer stocked with fruit.

Took modern science 200 years to verify that indeed, spiced apples can boost mood significantly.

Ode To Joy was later set to music by Ludwig von Beethoven in his 9th Symphony

 

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Pretend You're Dead

When poet Dame Edith Sitwell was a little girl, in Victorian England, her parents would lock her in this metal brace, an iron frame actually, to straighten out her spine. She hated them for it, and never forgave them, even as she went on to become a celebrity for her poetry about the London Blitz during WWII. She was probably permanently traumatized for the childhood incarceration, because she would wake, have coffee and lie in a coffin for a few hours each day before she then would go on to write.

 

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Change Your Hairstyle

Demosthenes was a brilliant orator, according to Greek history, but a notorious partier that would often cause him to miss his deadlines.

So when he felt his wanderlust arise he'd shave his head. He felt he then looked so ridiculous he couldn't possibly go into town to party. At least for a couple of months.

 

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Get Naked

Victor Hugo was classic. When he was working and got writer's block, he'd take off all his clothes, lock himself in a room with just a desk, chair, pen and paper. He ordered his servants not to allow him clothing until he was finished.

When he wrote his final novel Ninety Three he'd write by going to his rooftop at dawn completely naked, douse himself with a bucket of water, then would enter this glass cage, which he called his "lookout podium" and write in there standing up.

He wrote Les Miserables and Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

[Tisiphone]

I just colored my hair a nice burgundy. Perhaps that was the key to unlocking my writer's block!! And, I've got a dog! I'm 2-2. THERE'S NO STOPPING ME NOW


This is actually cool shit. Thanks.