When do you do your creative pursuits? How do you attract your muse?

[Nycteris]

I know that I (when I can) go to a friend's house for "Art/Craft Thursday" and have that time set aside for "creative pursuits",
since they don't always seem to fit in on other nights of the week, even if I want them to (sometimes I think I'm going to do art and end up playing Peggle).

Does anyone else have "designated time, set aside" for doing your creative stuff?
Or do you set aside time every night? Every morning? Twice a week?

I have to say I usually do my arts & crafts at night, but that's also when my free time happens to be.

Do you have any secret to getting "in the groove" if you are writing/etc.?
How do you kickstart your muse?

[blob]

Man, if I had the answer to that, I would have many fewer failed NaNos.

[Nycteris]

I tried NaNo once, and then decided that it wasn't my thing, and I wasn't going to feel guilty about it.

Then again I also just wrote off the top of my head, without a plot in mind.
I really stink at finishing a story, plotted out or no.

But tonight is craft Thursday and I will probably do stuff with polymer clay.
I'm a little excited because this is the first "official" Craft Thursday of the year.

[Kris Johnson]

Man, if I had the answer to that, I would have many fewer failed NaNos.

Ditto!

My creative oulet seems to be the written word, at least over the past several years. (I used to draw a lot, but don't do that much anymore, which annoys me.) I could get a lot of writing done in the evenings and on the weekends (or in the morning, were I to actually get up early enough), but I'm not at all disciplined. I've got blog posts that have been moldering, unfinished, for weeks, months, even years, and I spend most of my time tweeting or reading RSS feeds.

FAIL.

[Nycteris]

(I used to draw a lot, but don't do that much anymore, which annoys me.)

Oo, don't give up.

I know I'm not great, but I just think doodling stuff is so fun - so I think everyone should.

[kingfish]

The idea occurred to me recently that maybe I should try and write a book about creativity for ordinary folks.  While it's not a completely novel idea, I thought I'd take a stab at trying to balance the "how to" side of developing creativity with anecdotal interviews with folks actually being creative (and not necessarily doing it professionally).

Anyway, I haven't decided if I'll pursue that or not, but it's germinating.

[Nycteris]

Have you read A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech?
I haven't read it for awhile, but it's an interesting book, full of exercises and images to help concepts stick.
http://www.amazon.com/Whack-Side-Head-More-Creative/dp/0446674559

[Natalie Metzger]

If there's something I really want or have to work on (be it art, writing, whatever) it's a matter of me developing a habit. For instance, with NaNoWriMo, I get myself in the habit of writing whenever I have a free moment and not worrying too much about the result. With art projects it's pretty much the same thing although I find I can multitask watching TV and drawing/sketching (kind of like how some people knit while watching TV or whatever). Now, if only I could develop those habits easier. They usually disappear once the project is done. *sigh* Why is it so hard to develop good habits? Maybe if there was crack involved? Yes, that's what we need, muse crack, or would that be crack muse?

[Nycteris]

Do you have "a muse" that you have imagined a name/shape for and things like that?
I know some people are awfully attached to their muse.

[blob]

To give that fickle bitch a name would be to humanize her.  And one musn't humanize the enemy, lest he develop sympathy.

[Nycteris]

  Good point!

[kingfish]

I think of Dr. Pepper as a cruel and merciless temptress, but I guess that doesn't count as a muse.

[Nycteris]

I'm having one of those days undetermined periods of time when I think I should switch to being an evil genius or something, because every project seems to end with one fatal flaw. Grr.