I recently went to a songwriting class. One of the suggestions of the teacher was to get a representative of the voice in your head that tells you that your songwriting stinks, that there are better uses of your time than working on your music, etc. You know the one. She called hers Ethel or something like that. She advised us to actively tell it to go scratch when that voice kicks in. When I got home, I decided that was too negative. I didn't like telling the voice in my head to be quiet. It seemed to me that was giving it more power than I want to hand over.
So I took my little felted dragon, sent to me by a lovely woman who lives across the big pond, as a positive spirit for my house. It has served in that function admirably.
I decided to give the dragon an upgrade in function, however, and address it as my muse. My muse now sits in Screendale, which is where most of my artistic ventures happen, at least in the warmer weather. He sits and watches me and encourages me to work. I feel the pull, but, unfortunately, not strong enough to get me working!! I still feel pulled in so many other ways, all of which more often get answered. Maybe i do need a symbol of my none-artistic voice to say NO to as well as the dragon, to say yes to when I get distracted by life.
And the worse thing is, I know that after you ignore the muse for just so long, it stops talking to you. It stops whispering that there is work to be done, a song waiting to be written, a melody waiting to come through. I haven't really written a song in a long time. I have taken songs and REWROTE them, but no, no writing. And I have planned to for MONTHS. I went to that songwriting weekend and came home all fired up. The fire is down to coals now. Needs a breath of air. Maybe today. I have to go meet a friend for brunch, then practice this afternoon with another friend and then??? Maybe write. Maybe practice the bass that I just bought and took a lesson on recently. Maybe work on some arranging. I think I have to say yes more often to the little green dragon who sits and smiles at me every time I am in Screendale.....
