In ancient Greece, there was a belief in the Muse, the idea that creative inspiration came from a god, one of the muses. We don’t really think in those terms nowadays, and many people don’t believe in a personified God, who literally inspires us.

Melpomene, muse of tragedy

But taking personal credit for our creations is a trap. Our ego is fragile. Easily damaged. It wants to protect us from criticism, from failure. By allowing our ego to become affiliated with our work, we become stilted. Writer’s block is driven by fear, by the possibility of judgment by our family, the public, even our own minds. 


In order to experience true flow, unstoppable creative energy, we must accept that ideas and inspiration comes to us from another realm. That ideas select us from among all of the creative people in the world, that we are given the task of bringing these ideas into physical reality for the benefit of all humanity. But that the ideas are not ours. We are not responsible for their content, only the craft and skill used in manifesting them.


You might think this is just a lot of pseudo spiritual hogwash, to which I’d say only that it doesn’t matter. Whether any of this is literally true is irrelevant. What matters is that we get into a state where it feels true, where our ego accepts it as true. Where your mind can direct potential judgment away from the self and the ego. 


You’ve heard people say before that they wrote as if the words were simply coming to them, they were just taking dictation. Or that a song wrote itself, almost in one pass. That a poem came to them, and they had only to run home and capture it before it escaped. These are stories of artists capturing the mindset of the vessel, the tool of God’s creation. You can get into this mindset any time you want, of course. Simply accept that you are not the creator, and open your mind to the creative flame of the universe. Accept the ideas that come without judgment. Work. Flow. 


You have spent your life developing your skills, your craft, and the universe will now send you those ideas best suited to you. Accept those ideas, execute them. And when people ask where you get your ideas, be honest. Say that they just come to you, as if from the universe itself. You just take dictation.