There’s just NO WAY I could get even close to reaching this 100 song goal without finding triggers – muses – things that quickly and faithfully get my creative juices flowing.

No.

Way.

Thankfully, I’m finding patterns and muses in my own creative journey this year:

• coffee/mocha of some sort. I’m not gonna lie. Caffeine/sugar works for me – starts my brain. And the sensory experience of the brewing, the stirring, the warmth, the smell, the taste. It jolts my creativity.
• lighting – Changing the lighting in the room helps me – sensory again.
• reading – Namely, blogs and books about songwriting. When I’m feeling down on my own creativity, they give me the boost of believing I actually am a songwriter – and they also have great ideas and resources to churn my brain.
• exercise – I’ve written more than one song on the way home from the gym. The chemical boost in my brain is much better than caffeine & sugar, because there’s not that awful dip in energy.
• telling myself that I don’t have to – Believe it or not, this genuinely removes the “panic” and pressure, and allows me to refuel. Sometimes the act of picking up the guitar, even though I don’t intend to write, causes the free-flow to happen. No pressure or expectations, it just happens.
• telling myself I have to – Failure is my most powerful motivator. Period.

These are some of my muses. These are my triggers that get things going. And I can return to them again and again and they come through for me. They spark creativity. It’s the craziest thing, but they work.

So I shamelessly use them. Shamelessly.

What “muses” do you use?