a Muse Boot

Athletes do warmups, musicians run scales, even meals begin with an appetizer (an amuse-bouch), but writers expect to sit down and just start producing words. If we don't feel ready, we procrastinate. We need a way to prepare ourselves, to get in gear and limbered up.

The readiness is all
-Shakespeare

Great!

First have a cookie
Writing is hard. It takes courage and persistence, so let's start with something rewarding to chew on.

"True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth." 
Umberto Eco

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." 
Louis L'Amour

Now, set a goal

Try to formulate this as a SMART goal, one that's:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.
Ex. I want to write 500 words in my WIP in the next hour.

I want to [write, edit, storyboard, work on]
# [of words, of pages, of ideas] on [a work in progress, a new project] for # [of minutes or hours]

I want to:

First, get grounded

List five adjetives to describe the object closest to your left right now.

Please enter five adjetives

Now, get physical.

Identify the dominant emotion of the next thing you want to write or the
emotion you want to arouse in readers.
Without naming the emotion directly or with synonyms, describe what
physical sensation you experience when you feel that emotion.

Hit return when finished.

What actions do you associate with that emotion? What colors?

Most emotions exist along a continuum.
At the most extreme, how does it feel?

What actions does it suggest?

If you, your protagonist, antagonist, POV character, or reader were feeling that way, what would they do with an invisibility cloak?

If not just the expression of that emotion, but the emotion itself were completely unacceptable to you, your protagonist, antagonist, POV character, or reader, what would you (or they pretend) to feel instead?

How might the real but suppressed feeling be evident in the way you (or they) light a fire?

Well done! Finally, get brilliant.

"But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars."
Aristotle

Think about the relationship being described in the following metaphor:

He is a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
Paul Keating

Rewrite it as a simile (using "like" or "as")

What does it mean?

Create a simile that expresses the same meaning or relationship comparing the same subject to a song or other piece of music

Rewrite it as a metaphor

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