Hack Your Muse

Day 12 of National Novel Writing Month and another Hack Your Muse episode! Do you feel like everyone else's priorities come before yours? But you don't want to be the one to say no?

Your tip for NaNo Day 12 is a warning: Try saying "Yes, and...".

Listen to find out more!

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

A special National Novel Writing Month Day 1 episode! I’ve been doing NaNo since 2003. I’ve won some, I’ve lost some.

The most important thing for your Day 1 of NaNo? The marathon mindset.

Listen to find out more — and then get writing!

Writing is hard work.

Don’t laugh.

Writers may not move mountains, literally, but we often do so with our minds. To be a successful writer, you need to write. To write, you need to conquer obstacles and writing blocks that arise. And you need to do that quickly.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

Today’s guest is Alison Tugwell. Alison is a poet. Poetry takes a special muse. Can you imagine telling a story in as few words as possible? Those words better be very well chosen, or the story will be lost, right?

Transcript: Allison Tugwell

00:00 Welcome Muse Hackers, you’re listening to the Hack Your Muse podcast with Kelly McClymer. Our mission is to help you discover your muse, and write what you want, when you want, and how you want. Today’s guest is Allison Tugwell, an Austin-based author, slam poet, and business life coach.

02:00 Skipping my first question: Exactly what is Slam poetry?

04:30 What do you think of when you think of a writing muse as a concept? Tapping into an inner child.

08:20 That place where the writing comes through, the muse, is that the same place where the voices that stop also come through?

12:40 Poetry is get in and get out. How do you know when it’s done?

14:50 “A Live Line” poem and reading by Allison.

18:36 The first time you’ve ever written a story. As a poetry writer, have you ever written a story? Did you feel like a writer when you wrote and got published?

23:07 For poetry, you have to listen to that want/don’t-want pull. What’s your favourite muse hack?

Writing is hard work.

Don’t laugh.

Writers may not move mountains, literally, but we often do so with our minds. To be a successful writer, you need to write. To write, you need to conquer obstacles and writing blocks that arise. And you need to do that quickly.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome Muse Hackers.

Welcome Muse Hackers, you’re listening to the Hack Your Muse podcast with Kelly McClymer. Our mission is to help you discover your muse, and write what you want, when you want, and how you want. I'm going to give you the origin story of Hack Your Muse.

1:10 My weakness for great titles.

Here is a secret about me as a writer: I really, really fall for great titles. I can't help it. I love titles. One of my favorite, favorite titles ever is the ‘Salem Witch Tryouts.’

04:44 Longridge Writer’s Group.

For a dozen years, I taught writing through Longridge Writers Group for Adult Fiction and Nonfiction .

09:10 Writing is hard work.

Mainly because you're trying to say something that is profound, you know, and you're trying to make that profound statement simple and entertaining. Part of my job was really saying, “Okay, what's going on? Why is it taking you a long time? How can you do this a little bit more quickly and with less stress?”

12:13 My concept of the muse.

I started to think about my concept of muse. When you're a writer or a creator of any kind and the muse is with you, it almost feels like your muse is running your body and helping the creation, the writing or whatever, just come right through you. Your body feels like a conduit, kind of like those séance movies.

17:56 Muse management.

Sometimes your muse wants things from you that are unrealistic. Like writing a perfect page where you never have to change a word, that's really unrealistic.

22:40 Muse Mindset.

Subconsciously, you have all these thoughts and beliefs about what makes your writing important, what you should be doing as a person. Every time you're facing the blank page, you're thinking to yourself out loud in the front of your brain, “I want to write my book now.” but the back of your brain, that you're not even aware of, is thinking “You’re not ready to write your book.”

27:42 Not all Muses created Equal.

I’ll give you a warning: Some hacks may be counterproductive. If they are, toss them out. It could be 10 years down the line that hack will work for you, but it's if it's counterproductive you'll feel it.

30:49 Meet Your Muse

Your Muse is a minicourse that will show you how to unleash the power of your muse while at the same time reining in some of your most creativity crushing bad habits. If you spend more time thinking about writing than actually writing, Meet Your Muse can help you turn that around.

Writing is hard work.

Don’t laugh.

Writers may not move mountains, literally, but we often do so with our minds. To be a successful writer, you need to write. To write, you need to conquer obstacles and writing blocks that arise. And you need to do that quickly.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany is an award-winning novelist, master neurolinguistic programming practitioner, and certified creativity coach for writers.

She specializes in helping writers experience clarity, so they can write, revise, and proudly publish their novels to the delight of their readers. Her courses are packed with useful hands-on information that you can implement right away.

Her latest book for authors, co-written with her husband, also a novelist and teacher, is Plan Your Novel Like A Pro: And Have Fun Doing It! and comes with a downloadable workbook and other goodies.

When she's not helping writers, Beth writes magical tales of romance, mystery, and adventure that empower women and girls to be the heroes of their own lives.

Transcript: Beth Barany

00:00 Welcome Muse Hackers, you’re listening to the Hack Your Muse podcast with Kelly McClymer. Our mission is to help you discover your muse, and write what you want, when you want, and how you want. Today's guest is Beth Barany, an award-winning novelist, a master neurolinguistic programming practitioner, and a creativity coach for writers.

02:00 What even is a neurolinguistic programming practitioner?

04:30 What do you think of when you hear ‘writing muse’? The mystery, the big capital M.

06:55 When you sit down to write and you don’t write, how do you handle that?

13:10 Do you remember the first time you sat down and wrote something?

24:00 How vivid is what you want to write in your mind? Is it misty?

25:50 What’s your #1 go-to cat to get the writing done?

Writing is hard work.

Don’t laugh.

Writers may not move mountains, literally, but we often do so with our minds. To be a successful writer, you need to write. To write, you need to conquer obstacles and writing blocks that arise. And you need to do that quickly.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

Today's guest is Beth Ann Erickson. Beth is a writer and publisher, so she's seen the muse from both sides. She's also had the muse disappear on her. Not something any of us want to deal with, but it is life.

Transcript: Beth Ann Erickson

00:00 Welcome Muse Hackers, you’re listening to the Hack Your Muse podcast with Kelly McClymer. Our mission is to help you discover your muse, and write what you want, when you want, and how you want. Today's guest is Beth Ann Erickson.

01:50 First question When you hear the term writing muse, what do you think?

05:00 When did your muse decide to come back? There was so much work to be done. Just the idea of the muse being absent is terrifying.

09:53 Did it change your nonfiction? Duh, I wrote a book about it. No one ever talks about maintenance, it’s not just ‘be positive.’

14:20 Losing your muse changes you a lot, it will take time to come back. Stephen King was in an accident that changed him in similar ways. Keep humor in dark times.

20:00 Society needs storytellers. The world needs storytellers. Go write your story now.

22:40 What’s your number #1 go to hack when you’re feeling avoidant?

24:20 Find Beth’s nonfiction filbertpublishing.com for a monthly newsletter and writer resources for free. And find her fiction at baerickson.com

Support Hack Your Muse

If you love this podcast and want to support it with real dollars and cents, I have the perfect course for you on teachable. Meet Your Muse is a minicourse that will show you how to unleash the power of your muse while at the same time reining in some of her most creativity crushing bad habits. If you spend more time thinking about writing than actually writing, Meet Your Muse can help you turn that around. Once you’ve met your muse, you will have the keys to creating the most productive writing sessions ever, even if you only have 10 minutes a day to write.

Remember one page a day, 250 words, equals 364 pages to 90,000 words. That could be two short books, or one good-sized book, or five or six or more short stories, articles, or blog posts. Isn't that worth $20 in two hours or less of your time? The best perk, you will be supporting this podcast to continue seeking out the best muse hacking writers around and sharing that wisdom with you for free.

Writing is hard work.

Don’t laugh.

Writers may not move mountains, literally, but we often do so with our minds. To be a successful writer, you need to write. To write, you need to conquer obstacles and writing blocks that arise. And you need to do that quickly.

USA Today bestselling author Kelly McClymer is here to help with her podcast Hack Your Muse. Find the right hack to bust your block and get back to writing without delay.

Transcript:

00:00 Welcome Muse Hackers, you’re listening to the Hack Your Muse podcast with Kelly McClymer. Our mission is to help you discover your muse, and write what you want, when you want, and how you want. Today's guest is Michelle Spiva, writing as Mychal Daniels.

01:43 Do you believe you have a writing muse?

04:50 Create-xiety? We are mortal beings tapping into immortality. What is the cost?

11:45 The Vulnerability of writing a book.

13:30 Attachment and detachment from creation.

21:06 So you believe in the power of the muse. Think back to the first time you sat down and wrote.

28:50 Your first books are your sacrificial lambs. Done is the new perfect.

37:16 #1 Go-to hack to get the words down.