photo by Dani Simmonds
After noticing a couple of the blogs I read participating in Problogger’s 7 Links Challenge, I decided to give it a whirl. The idea is to share seven links to posts of interest. Hopefully, it will introduce you to some content on this blog you haven’t seen yet, along with a couple of creative posts by others.
My first post:
Called—what else?—Strangling My Muse, this post begins “I swear when my toothbrush saw me first thing this morning it sighed, disappointed I’d spent another uncreative weekend followed by another restless Sunday night and now I was going to use it to brush away the grit of failure stuck between my teeth once again.” My conversation with my toothbrush continues, illuminating the theme of this blog—exploring how to make creativity a part of daily life in spite of a host of stresses. You also get to see a picture of me as a dreamy little girl.
A post I enjoyed writing the most:
This is absolutely impossible to answer. I truly love writing all the posts here. But, in order to complete the challenge, here are a couple that come to mind, both of which feature some of my own creative writing:
Armed and Dangerous. A riff on my earlier challenge to turn a creative block into a character, this post starts, “The minute she walked into my office I knew she was trouble. She had a pair of To Do lists that just wouldn’t quit. Long and persuasive like I like them. She leaned against the wall and pulled a tapered black pen out of her clutch…”
Turn Your Life into a Movie…or a Book…or a Fortune Cookie…. I had fun journaling in the format of the film synopses I write for a client.
A post which had a great discussion:
In My Muse Strangles Me, I confess to having a hot, verbally abusive male muse. The discussion in the comments (and in some e-mails I received from readers) ranged from whimsical to serious. I do love hearing about how others experience or visualize their muses. So I encourage further comments on this one!
A post on someone else’s blog I wish I’d written:
I went through my Creativity Roundup posts to answer this one. While I still love all the items I included in these roundups, two stood out as pieces I wish I’d written:
7 Ways to Attain Imperfection. A terrific reflection on perfectionism from Kristin Donovan at Journal Writing Saved My Life provides solid tips on how to combat the compulsion to be perfect.
A Short Story About Ladders and Boxes and Possibility. Cath Duncan’s wonderfully inspiring post provides a metaphor about creating and experiencing life on our own terms. (from Agile Living)
My most helpful post:
Based on your feedback, a lot of readers identified with my series Perfectionism: A Great Muse-Strangler, and found the ideas for combating creativity-stifling perfectionism helpful.
Another one people responded to is Write Through Your Pain, which offers tips for remaining creative through periods of both physical and emotional pain.
On a completely different note, Write Naked—with its list of waterproof paper, pens and other resources to help you capture your shower-time creativity—has been re-posted and tweeted a lot.
A post with a title I’m proud of:
10 Effective Ways to Strangle Your Muse. Includes “Believe you need to wallpaper your existence with hundred dollar bills instead of wrapping it around yourself like a beautiful poem,” “Be afraid of looking stupid,” and eight more muse-stranglers.
A post I wish more people had read:
Paddle Surfer Wisdom. I felt inspired when I wrote this post after a trip to Hawaii last summer. It explores the idea of tapping into an ancient, wise creature in the depths of your subconscious to help you navigate through your creative life.
Well, I wasn’t able to stick to seven links, but I hope you find some creative inspiration in my archives and the posts from other bloggers!
Copyright © Sandy Ackers, Strangling My Muse: Struggling to Live a Creative Life in a Stressful World, http://www.stranglingmymuse.com
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