Paragraphic Rift: How Loyal Are You To Your Muse?

Now that we have been over 1 (What is your Inspiration?), 5 (Creative Workshopping), and 10 (Adaptive Bookcraft) you may proceed to the next level of JWC Paragraphic Rift, which begins to unlock our method for creative editing and analysis of voice. 

2: How loyal are you to your Muse? 

What is your muse? A Muse (in as far as we are concerned) is a continuous (reoccurring) source of inspiration if it be about a character, a theme, or even an entire secondary world.*

You must honor the muse of your first inspiration in order to explore its potential. 

Honor the first draft inspiration, then honor the muse flash from which it arises. 

But first… you have to acquire a creative obsession. And before you can gain a creative obsession, you must first find what you want to write and a vision/dream to work toward. 
We’ve already asked the questions: 
– Dream / Write What? 
– Are you adapting something that is? 
– Or are you creating something new and continuous, a foundation for a creative obsession? 
Inspiration becomes muse becomes vision. The vision tells the creative obsessor what they will be willing to do, and how far the vision reaches. This is the difference between a goal and a dream. Goals are for every day, but the dream is timeless, with the vision encompassing both. The muse is derived from the connectivity between goals and visions, temporality and timelessness, and of course consciousness and unconsciousness. 
Consciousness is knowable whereas unconsciousness is unknowable; that is to say, known and unknown come distinct through what we experience consciously. 
Inspiration is born of what we know, and so is derived from preexisting forms, but a muse flash arises from the mutation of forms into something other than. Otherness is prime. Other than what we read or watch, so that it seems new in some way, even though its formula is tried and true. 
It is not newness but rather timelessness that is perceived, which is either converted into “newness” and or nostalgia vibes. A mixture of rose-colored past and a timeless now leads to this precious otherness and so a place among the others who are valued by the many. 
Here’s the thing… the networking of minds is key, especially between your conscious mind and unconscious mind, with the muse being a network route interfacing between the two, and so much more. 
Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash
Conscious thought is an island. 
Unconscious thought is a boiling sea. 
Subconscious processes come from both, but don’t factor into this directly. 

Creative Obsessor 1:    Creative Obsessor 2: 

Temporality = Consciousness = Adaptivity 

Conscious Thought      X   Conscious Thought 

X   Escape into Bliss / Creative Obsession   X = Muse Flash

Unconscious Thought   X   Unconscious Thought 

Timelessness = Unconsciousness = Creativity 

What is a Muse Flash?

Definition: A point during creative meditation when the compulsion to capture an update of the muse takes hold of consciousness, having arisen from the unconscious or timeless mode. 
What happens next? That is the subconscious question being asked, by the reader, by the narrative, by the debt between the two. They have a networking with the author through the text, and so the conscious/unconscious must be bridged in that way also. What is revealed and what is obscured, mystification hiding explanation, verses what is known through the details of revelation. The guessing game is phenomenal! 
Conscious thoughts, which could be figured out during a workshop dialogue with a fellow creative, are adaptively debated, but then a muse flash strikes and something unforeseen occurs. You find yourself impressed with the inspiration of inspired work, a muse, not just fan fiction or a wild what if, but a true continuity into your own creative obsession! Inspiration is one thing, sometimes the first thing, but a muse flows cyclically in flashes and foundationally, becoming a continuous project, defining itself and seeking to finalize all expression, making a bond with one’s creative obsession. 
Your muse brings bliss and satisfaction to the project that you are constantly thinking about / working on. Creative obsession is built from a muse that literally won’t leave you alone. There is a persistent need to work on certain ideas, and during the day when you are dealing with adaptive work (your job or any other obligation) these concepts will appear in your third eye (imagination) offering you the creative obsessor, an escape from temporality. 
Timelessness is the goal. Temporality is what our clocks measure. Timelessness is made of limitless moments, and in these spurts of anti-time, the muse comes. Inspiration comes from this source, especially after wandering through a well-loved reread of a favorite book or some top five movie watched until quotes are memorized.  (and friends tire of the endless references made to certain scenes) 
Just like muse flashes, the intellectual shift into inspiration seems to come from seemingly out of nowhere. The nowhere it emerges from is unconsciousness, or rather the result of consciousness being added up over long years of life, research, and or creative obsession. Like the otherworldly threshold between wakefulness and dreaming sleep, this place holds nearly limitless potential. 
Photo by Brannon Naito on Unsplash

Fathomless Dimensions of the Muse

As the muse flows we find ourselves and otherness. An artist seeks to dimensionalize the known and unknown, and the fantasy artist must describe that which is not. To sketch a field of flowers is different from a flight of dragons since we can have a broad contrast of flower fields, but we don’t have very many examples of dragons. 
It is the same thing with cyborgs, or fairies, or a sentient nebula, are an artificial intelligence because to imagine or see is not to experience. To witness is not to be witnessed, and the experience of another is half of why we escape into both our own muse or the muse of others. 
One must set aside adaptive (necessary) or temporal (scheduled) by completing said tasks; then, they may address the creative (satisfying) or timeless (unburdened) mode. Creative obsessions are made in the balance of these two modes, and the states of being between them. 
The Muse = Timelessness 
It is timelessness that a writer seeks, that a creative obsession provides, and if they get out of the muse’s way they shall have it. Give yourself a moment of creative meditation alone each day, and in that solitude see if you don’t find profound satisfaction!

*Coming soon:
JWC Secondary World & Tree and Leaf: J R R Tolkien – On Fairy-Stories – essays

2 thoughts on “Paragraphic Rift: How Loyal Are You To Your Muse?

  1. I appreciate your attention to the abstract concept of inspiration and vision. I've been thinking about the clarity of a creative vision. For me, the muse can have varying degrees of clarity, and I think that my writing approach might need to change accordingly.

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