Episode 1: Hack Your Muse -- More About Mastery Than Violent Subjugation...I Hope. - a podcast by Kelly McClymer

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.

To sign up for Meet Your Muse, go to hack–your–muse.teachable.com, that's hack–your–muse.teachable.com.

Thanks, see you next week!

Further episodes of Hack Your Muse

Further podcasts by Kelly McClymer

Website of Kelly McClymer