WritingSpirit Resources

Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write

A Fabulous Spiritually Based Book on Writing!!!!

Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write
by Mark David Gerson

When I was on Twitter.com one day, I connected with novelist and writing teacher Mark David Gerson. Having said our hellos online, I went to check out his books at Amazon.com. On the page for Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, I clicked on “search inside this book,” and started reading. The more I read, the more it felt like the words on the screen were coming from my own heart. I was completely blown away. So, of course, I immediately ordered the book, along with the companion CD set of guided meditations for writers.

I’ve read dozens of books on writing, but none have moved me as deeply as The Voice of the Muse. Mark David’s words are not only eloquent, they have a meditative quality about them that takes me directly to the core of my own creative being. He picked the perfect subtitle, “answering the call to write,” because his book is the embodiment of that call. Every page invites me to open, and then compels me to write.

His approach is decidedly spiritual, yet it’s the spirituality of being totally present, open, courageous, alive, and consciously connected to your creative source. He often talks of surrendering: to your writing, to your Muse, to your deepest and most sacred Self. He says that “when you sit down at the black page or screen, you have three simple tasks: Trust. Let go. Leap.”

There are several guided meditations in this book, but simply opening to any page, and reading, can give you something to meditate about. This morning, as I was using The Voice of the Muse as an intuitive guide, I was led to an idea that I would like to spend some time with.

Mark David pointed out that there’s a difference between a good idea and the right idea. Being the Brainstorming Queen that I am, with an ability to mass produce ideas, I know that the line between the two often gets blurred. I view discernment as the key to making sure I start down the right path, rather than following a creative detour that will eventually lead me to a dead end after days, or even weeks of work. But Mark David got me thinking, what makes an idea the right idea? What do I need to know, or do, or feel to be able to accurately discern the right path? This is something that each of us needs to discover for ourselves.

• Of the many good ideas you have, how do you distinguish which of them is the right idea for you to work on at this time? 

Unsure how to end this article, I opened up The Voice of the Muse to see where it would lead me. The page I landed upon was the title page for chapter 5. There, in large bold letters it said, “listen to your heart.” What a perfect message to receive, for the call to write both emanates from, and ends within, the heart. It is with our heart that we hear the voice of the muse calling us to write. And it is from the still and silent center within our heart that our “yes” joyously arises to answer the call.

So go to Amazon.com and check out Mark David Gerson's The Voice of the Muse. The book's detailed Table of Contents will both intrigue and inspire you:

• The Muse Stream
• Awakening your vision
• Birthing your book, even if you don't know what it's about
• Breathing light and life into your writing
• The heartful art of re-vision
• Your words are your teachers
• Surrender to the journey
• What is it you fear
• Leaps of faith

After reading the excerpt, it's fun to hit the "surprise me" button and see where it takes you. Enjoy.

Mark David's website is http://www.MarkDavidGerson.com

Writing For the Soul - Jerry B Jenkins

In Writing for the Soul, best-selling author Jerry B. Jenkins takes you on a personal and inspiring journey, imparting experience and wisdom gained from his impressive writing career. Unknown in his early days, Jenkins persisted in his passion to write, and his story reveals the rewards that can come to writers who put in the hard work and keep their priorities straight. Jenkins shares the honest and straightforward truth about how to find writing success and why the journey is a continuous one.

With heartfelt advice and intimate anecdotes that will satisfy writers and fans, Jenkins discusses:

* the skills and abilities required to build an exciting career
* breaking into the industry through reporting and writing for small markets
* establishing and maintaining a professional image
* how even experienced writers should continue to learn and grow (including Jenkins himself)

Writing for the Soul is filled with Jenkins’ autobiographical stories—including many of the famous people he’s written about—and the lessons he’s learned from his decades of experience in the writing and publishing world.
--from Amazon.com

Screenwriting Books For Spiritual Writers

The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
By Christopher Vogler
The Writers Journey.com

The Writer's Journey explores the powerful relationship between mythology and storytelling in a clear, concise style that's made it required reading for movie executives, screenwriters, scholars, and lovers of pop culture all over the world.
Writers of both fiction and non-fiction will discover a set of useful myth-inspired storytelling paradigms (ie. The Hero's Journey) and step-by-step guidelines to plot and character development. Based on the work of Joseph Campbell, The Writer's Journey is a must for writers of all kinds interested in further developing their craft.

The updated and revised second edition provides new insights and observations from Vogler's ongoing work on mythology's influence on stories, movies, and man himself.


Stealing Fire From the Gods: A Dynamic New Story Model For Writers & Filmmakers
By James Bonnet
Storymaking.com

Designed for screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, directors, producers, studio executives and anyone else whose livelihood depends on an understanding of what makes a story great and successful, this new state-of-the-art story model will guide professional writers and filmmakers to a more complete understanding of the fundamentals that drive the world's most important art forms--storytelling and film.

Author James Bonnet takes you on a journey through the creative process of storymaking, uncovering not only what makes a story great but also how we can use the creative process to reconnect us to our lost or forgotten inner selves. In the tradition of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler, James Bonnet explores the connection between great stories and personal growth and the significance that connection has for screenwriters and other storymakers.

Armed with this new, deeper understanding, there is no limit to the power and art that can be created through your stories. You will know how to tap powerful creative sources deep within yourself and have the tools to use modern metaphors to create stories and films as significant for today as King Arthur and The Iliad were for their times.


The Force is With You: Mystical Movie Messages that Inspire Our Lives 
By Stephen Simon
Spiritual Cinema Circle.com

"Movies are the most electrifying communications medium ever devised and the natural conduit of inspiring ourselves to look into the eternal issues of who we are and why we are here."

So says film executive Stephen Simon, producer of more than thirty films, including Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come. Simon illuminates for the first time, with humor, energy, and passion, this emerging category of Spiritual Cinema; a genre finally being recognized for what it is: a metaphoric pathway to explore such things as the nature of love, the meaning of life and death, the concept of time and space, the visions of our future.

Movies have become our windows to the universe. The sheer imaginative power of the screen has shaped the way humanity views itself, the world, and the cosmos. The increasing technology of cinema has given us the opportunity to see before our eyes images that reflect all that imagination can conjure up—not only to ask the questions plaguing us since humans first contemplated the heavens, but to pose some answers as well.

Through his exploration of more than 70 movies that best represent the genre in all its aspects, Simon gives us his personal interpretation of these films and the extraordinary messages they embody.

Here is a wealth of inspiration, including the inside stories behind the making of many films and the familiar names who participated in their making. This is a book that will break ground for the many visionary storytellers and filmmakers to come, and most of all, their audiences.

Spiritual Writing Books

Writing Spiritual Books: A Bestselling Writer's Guide to Successful Publication
Hal Zina Bennett

I particularly like the chapters on "Mapping Out Your Book," which uses one of my favorite tools--mind mapping--to help you structure your book, and "Exercises That Grab Your Readers' Attention," which helps you write spiritual exercises that are both grounded and engaging.

Spiritual Writing: From Inspiration to Publication
Deborah Levine Herman with Cynthia Black

Written by a literary agent and a publisher, the bulk of this book is geared towards the business of getting a spiritual book published.

Christian Writers' Market Guide 2005: The Reference Tool for the Christian Writer
Sally Stuart

How to Write for the New Age Market
Richard Webster

Journalution

Journalution: Journaling to Awaken Your Inner Voice, Heal Your Life and Manifest Your Dreams by Sandy Grason.

Studies confirm what avid journalers have always known: that writing about difficult experiences helps the writer move forward. Many self-help books recommend journaling as a way to express emotions and explore past hurts - as well as to simply get organized, make plans, and set goals - yet few of the books show how to do it. In Journalution, Sandy Grason combines the writing guidance of Julia Cameron with the emotional nurturing of Shakti Gawain. With chapters including "Completing Your Incompletions," "Masterminding Your Destiny," and "Communicating with a Higher Power," the book balances basic instruction in the art of journaling with intimate entries from the author and her workshop participants. Activities, such as timed and stream-of-consciousness writing exercises and keeping a dream log, follow each chapter. Throughout, Grason offers guidelines and prompts, encouraging readers to pick up the pen and journal their way to greater self-awareness.

Journalution

Spiritual Doodles and Mental Leapfrogs

Katerine Q. Revoir's book, Spiritual Doodles and Mental Leapfrogs, is a playground of experiences which uses both the right and left sides of the brain as well as the heart to reawaken your sense of awe, creativity, and self-discovery. Mystics, prophets, and other spiritual leaders from various cultures and wisdom traditions say in different ways that we are ALWAYS connected with Spirit, and that awareness is the only thing that stands between us and that connection. The purpose of this playbook is to provide a guideline for consciously re-connecting with the Spirit within, through self-reflection, self-expression and humor. Over fifty playful exercises (plexercises?) help celebrate your individual creative self-expression while planting seeds and tending the garden of your life purpose.

This interactive book will help you to nurture your wildest creativity, awaken your heart's passion, and doodle your way to enLIGHTENment.

You can get more information about this book at Katherine's site:

www.SpiritualDoodles.com