Like many arts, you must attain the proper frame of mind in order to access your muse.

Music, atmosphere, time of day, ingestions in the body, these all must be carefully managed before you can relax your conscious mind enough in order to allow the muse to whisper through your actions.

She’s fickle, that muse; she likes to be seduced, and she loves presents.

If you ignore her, or offend her, she can leave you for years; then, just as suddenly, smack you across the face with inspiration when you’re least expecting it.

I love that muse.

It’s always been through writing that I have found her to be the most intense; that’s why I am delighting in the month of November once again.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and I’ve participated four times in the past. I have four rough draft novels that have been birthed from this annual re-commitment to my dance with my personal inner muse.

The composition of novels, long form fiction, is exhausting; utterly exhausting. That’s why having this big commitment goal, shared with thousands of writers around the world, helps keep so many of us into it.

The composition is the easy part, though; editing a long-form work of fiction is something I have never been interested in.

I just love to write.

That’s why this year, I was so excited I would not have to take my annual trek down to the muse’s lair in the long form of fiction.

I found Contentpalooza.

It’s for bloggers, marketers, and business writers, channeling a word count of fifty thousand into blog posts, ebooks, and information marketing.

In short, the stuff I love to do.

I started a business so I could spend more time on my computer, doing the stuff I really love. The business is going well, I’ve got plenty of clients, I’m making money and supporting my family, but I realized something the other day, while I was neck-deep in website code:

I actually don’t like web development that much.

(Shhhhh.)

It’s great that I have a dynamite developer on my team, and a graphic designer, and a social media strategist, and two virtual assistants. (This week I’m hiring a video editor, too.) My team allows me to outsource any tasks that I’m not interested in doing.

What I want to be doing most, as it turns out, is what I’m doing right now: writing.

The more time I can spend in raw composition, the better I will ultimately feel about my business and my life.

So it’s very timely, this month of November. This month, I get to dance with the muse, compose thousands of words, AND be a productive blogger.

I love it when everything comes together, so serendipitously.