I began The Muse Newsletter about a year ago but didn’t think anyone was interested and thus stopped. However, last month someone sent $12 for 12 issues. I am happy she somehow found me, and for her and anyone else who agrees to join us, I will write the next 12 issues.
I wrote two FREE samples (on in February, one in March) so readers could have a taste.
Steven Pressfield motivated me when he wrote about sweeping the house, so the Muse doesn’t soil her gown when she enters. That was such a beautiful picture that I began the Newsletter about The Muse. And I was impressed when after rattling around for years in his VW bus, ruining his marriage, and resisting the very thing he knew he must do, Pressfield finally set down to the typewriter and pecked out a few pages. After that, he whistled as he washed a sink full of dishes. The writing was terrible, he said. But he had found his calling.
Wasn’t that the Muse who visited Pressfield? She visited even though he said his writing was terrible.
She visits when you feel creative and enter a no-time zone, where thoughts are popping and you feel inspired. You are in a happy place.
But my work stinks, you might say. No, remember how you felt when making it? That’s yours whether anyone likes it or not, and she visited whether your skill was up to par or not.
Skill is learned.
And art is subjective.
Think about being in the 1800’s and seeing an ear deformed painter selling his wares on the street. Would you have liked Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings? Would you have appreciated his Irises, Sunflowers, or a strange starry night? They are valuable now because of their perceived value. Would you want them on your wall if they only cost a few dollars? Myth says that Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, The Red Vineyard. Some think there was another one sold but not recorded. Still, that first painting sold for only a couple of dollars. On the last sale, Sunflowers sold for over 39 million.
Van Gogh’s life paints a picture of the tragic starving artist and another that encourages parental advice “to get a real job.”
You might wonder why we felt so good while producing yet are rejected. Hey, people like different things. Don’t expect to reach everybody. Plus, we are limited by our skills.
We work to improve our skills, so we have something of value to offer when the Muse visits.
I liken it to those people who call themselves channels.” Channels say they get a download of information. Yet, for audiences to listen to them, they must articulate that information artfully or dramatically. Our data is filtered through our own skill and belief system.
I follow Steven Pressfield’s Writing Wednesdays, (not every Wednesday) and was saddened when I first saw a picture of him in his backyard. Such a pretty well-kept backyard. Then I learned that he had lost his home in the LA fires and was on GoFundMe.
He plans to rebuild.
Live well. Find a happy place.
Jo
P.S. Please keep scrolling to read the March issue. The first February issue was posted on January 30, 2025.
