What Is the Muse?

I wonder about this a lot, because as much as I WANT to write consistently, I tend to waffle around, going on mega spurts of writing and then fading for a month or two. This back and forth thing is something that many writers wrestle with, I know, because there are so many comments and articles and "how-to" books about this very topic.


Then the other day a Facebook friend posted a quote that hit me like a train.

     Everyone must choose one of two pains: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. ~Jim Rohn


Think about that for a minute. This is what life, THE GOSPEL PLAN, is all about. That is why we are here on this planet, suffering through the slings and arrows of mortality. Part of the plan of our Heavenly Father is to have us grow, and the only way we can see what we're made of is to struggle. Sometimes the stimulus is external, but what we'll be judged on at the last is that internal struggle...did we choose to discipline ourselves or did we slide backward into the great, wide way and into regret?
 
But we can also narrow that focus and apply this to writing. In all my struggles with this spotty writing habit I have, I have read so many suggestions that say basically the same thing: if you sit your behind in the chair and at least attempt to write everyday, it will come. Maybe not at first, maybe not the second, third, or thirty-first day. But if you can work though the pain of self-discipline, the words will come.
 
One of my favorite movies of all time that is ALL about this is Field of Dreams. Watch these three clips and see if you can put your writing self in Ray's shoes....
 
 



I don't want my life to be filled with the pain of regret. I want that discipline. I don't like pain, and it may have taken 40 years to figure out that not all pain is bad, but I know I need it. In every aspect of my life. Because even if I never publish a single thing, if I hadn't at least tried to school my natural man into something closer to the perfect discipline of the Savior in every part of me, I will not achieve that which I want most: to return to my Heavenly Father and hear Him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."