Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity

by Jan Phillips and Jan Phillips

Book Overview

Working and would-be writers, photographers, painters, journal keepers, sculptors, musicians, poets, and creative folk in every field will find inspiration and practical suggestions in this joyous book. This complete course in creative expression is based on Jan Phillips' smash Marry Your Muse workshops, and was chosen a Ben Franklin Award gold medal winner for 1997.

In Part One, the stirring affirmations of The Artist's Creed empower us...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835607593
• ISBN13: 9780835607599
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Quest Books (IL)
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

I thought. Then I felt and cried tears of triumph.

Jan Phillips took me on a journey I had never been. I had sensed this part of my inner being, but stayed out, afraid of the power I may find. Then my eyes got wider and wider as I turned each page and suddenly, without being conscious of my change, I trusted her honest voice and slowly let go of fears that had restrained me from being and creating more. I became deeper and truer, because Jan was deep and true. And my writing and art expanded. Marry Your Muse is well-organized, rich and meaty, and void of fluff. Every chapter contains its distinct wisdom, realness, and a high calling to "Marry Your Muse." I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to go further in themselves and their art.

A Gentle and Powerful Approach

Jan Phillips brings a gentle, even poetic, sensitivity to the opportunities and challenges of really living a creative life. Her Guidelines make a powerful way to work for anyone--artist or other. This approach will make a difference in expanding your creativity!

MYM is about the sacred transformation we call creativity.

If you haven't yet realized the joy and self-empowerment of participating in one of Jan Phillips' workshops, MARRY YOUR MUSE comes as close to that experience as any book could. Jan manages to infuse the magical energy she brings to her creative sessions into print, providing a wider audience with her inspiration and her affirmation that we are creative, spiritual beings--no matter what we've been led to believe. For those lucky enough to have written, danced, laughed, cried, created in a Jan Phillips workshop, the book is further confirmation of the promise of our Muse: that we can in fact partake in the joys of creativity, that this sacred transformation isn't reserved for a few elite individuals. "Do not doubt that you are born to create," she says, "Do not believe that the realm of art belongs only to others..." MARRY YOUR MUSE evolved from "The Artist's Creed," a prayer of commitment to her creativity that Jan wrote some years ago after leading a workshop at the annual International Women's Writing Guild summer conference (an event held every August at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY, at which she still teaches a weeklong session). However, the book is more than just "The Artist's Creed"--it's a meditation and a plan for action and a litany of stories about the joy of living a creative life. It dispels those nagging doubts about the existence of creativity in our lives-- and it stresses the importance of creating our art NOW, making time for it. My favorite Jan-quote is, "There are a lot of things we don't have in life, but time is not one of them. Time is all we have. One lifetime under this name to produce a body of work that says, 'This is how I saw the world.' Your work is worthy of whatever time it takes." As a Regional Representative for the International Women's Writing Guild and a facilitator of a women's writing group, I am often asked about books/tools I suggest for enhancing creativity, "getting started", dispelling writer's block--and MARRY YOUR MUSE is the first title out of my mouth (generally followed by Julia Cameron's THE ARTIST'S WAY, Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES and WILD MIND, and Dorothy Randall Gray's SOUL BETWEEN THE LINES: FREEING YOUR CREATIVE SPIRIT THROUGH WRITING). And then, after you've read MARRY YOUR MUSE, done the exercises, crafted your own imaginative work-- you may just find yourself wanting more... perhaps seeking to attend a live Jan Phillips workshop--to see where this creative lady is headed next and if you can thumb a ride. I know I'm looking forward to my next dose of Muse Magic in August!

A beautiful book...layout and content inspire creativity

I have many books on writing and creativity. Jan's is the only one that I never shelve. It rests on my coffee table so that I can pick it up whenever I need encouragement or inspiration. She inspires, she reassures and her suggestions and exercises are easy to complete. Her wonderful collection of quotes which grace the margins spark insights. Her Artist's Creed reminds me I have a right to take the time to create whatever calls me at the moment. And you know from her words that she's lived everything she writes about. Don't miss this one!

GENTLE support for Creativity!

This book is very encouraging about honoring your own creative gifts, without making you feel GUILTY, which was my reaction to the book everyone goes on about, THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron - just made me want to curl up in bed and go back to sleep!! It was just too demanding - Do this! Do that!! Like you had all the time in the world to devote to "Creativity" - MARRY YOUR MUSE is a lot more accepting of who you are... there are suggestions for exercises you can do - and some good ideas and inspiring words, but they're not COMMANDMENTS - Thou shalt be CREATIVE!! Now, JUMP!!!! ("Too hard" says me - "let's see what's on TV!?") Jan Phillips takes it MUCH easier - she encourages rather than commands! My reaction is, "Sure!! This is DO-ABLE!! And worthwhile! And validating! What's next?"