How to Hack Writer’s Block: It’s a Myth

How to harness your Muse with habit and hard work

Photo by Arthur Yeti on Unsplash

Where do writing ideas come from? To describe the writing process, writers use ideas rooted in myth.

The Muse

Writers and artists speak of “The Muse” or of a personal muse. A mystical force who inspires their work. The Muse originated from Greek mythology.

The Greek poet, Hesiod, wrote about nine Muses. These were daughters of Zeus and of the memory goddess, Mnemosyne. After making love on nine consecutive nights, they conceived nine daughters.

The Muses entertained the gods on Mount Olympus. They embodied poetry, music, and the arts. When Homer composed The Illiad and The Odyssey, he invoked a prayer to one of the Muses.

Respected writers, like Steven Pressfield and Stephen King, speak of the Muse.

Pressfield speaks of his muse with reverence, calling her a goddess. King speaks of his muse with irreverence and suggests you must “furnish an apartment for him to live in.” King describes his muse as follows.

You have to do all the grunt labor, in other words, while the muse sits and smokes cigars and admires his bowling trophies and…