Unleash Your Weird Muse: A Creative Ritual Challenge (plus funny story)

[Susang6]

Sometimes, it’s the little personal rituals that power our creativity. It helps to pause and laugh at how delightfully weird we can be when we’re in the zone.

Okay, this might be the most entertaining creative ritual I’ve come across and I had to share it here to break up the usual tone and bring a little joy to the room.

My friend Sara uses her AI assistant to write ebooks overnight while she sleeps. Totally normal, right? Well… not exactly.

She asked her AI to talk like a sexy cowboy. And I mean full-on drawl, slow twang, and boots-thudding-on-wood-plank-floor cowboy. He throws out lines like, “Darlin’, reckon it’s time we saddle up and rustle us a page-turner,” while spinning tales that smolder like a campfire under the desert moon.

But wait ….it gets better.

Sara once dressed up in a cowgirl outfit to complete her writing ritual. Hat, boots, fringe, sass the whole Wild West look while her AI sweetheart tapped away in cowboy mode. Her husband? He now refers to the AI as her boyfriend.

I laughed so hard I cried. Literal tears.

And honestly… I kind of loved it. It reminded me that sometimes, a little silliness is exactly what fuels our creative spark.

So here’s a challenge: Share your quirkiest ritual, funniest routine, or most random creative habit. Do you wear costumes while designing? Talk to your mockups? Blast Christmas music in the middle of summer?

I’ll go first:
When it’s 95 degrees outside and I need to summon the Christmas spirit for designing holiday products, I crank the AC down to 67 degrees, blast Christmas music, and don a Santa hat like it’s December 24th. Total brain freeze. But hey festive ambiance works, even in flip-flops.

Note: The name "Sara" has been changed to protect privacy

[Sara_H]

Haha - that's such a funny story! I have a friend called Susan who uses AI to write stories too!

Christmas music is a must when working on festive collections. I have a youtube playlist all set up. (don't have a santa hat though)

"Joy to the World" and "Deck the Halls" on full blast and then of course my very favorite "Silent Night"

[Susang6]

does your friend called Susan use AI to write ebooks?  My friend is publishing them like they are on a conveyor belt. She doesn't even edit them, and  AI is not perfect..I think she should edit the cowboy claude stories .   Because who knows they could be different title but basically same storyline.  Don't know I never read one. I am not a fan of romance storylines.

I agree with you Christmas music is a must. Right now I am trying to get inspired for Halloween designs, its not easy when its 103 heat index outdoors...

[Barbara]

I create Muck Monsters by painting swoops and swirls, shapes and lines, and maybe drip water on the creation or sprinkle salt on the thing to suck up specks and splotches. If that isn't enough, I start "decorating" with black pens, white ones, and sometimes metallic ones. I then look at the Muck Monster in sections--columns, boxes, circles--and darned if I don't periodically find inspiration. Once in a while, the Muck Monster works as a whole, but this, of course, is as rare as hens' teeth.

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[Susang6]

For Halloween designs I always need a little spark to get going...sometimes it’s watching those old TNT spooky marathons, (that I record on my DVR)  other times i decorated a black Halloween tree in July while blasting monster mash just to channel peak creative muse energy. spooky sunshine season is weird like that lol 

does anyone else have strange rituals??

who's next there's no shame in sharing your creative muse...honestly i think we all have a ritual or two especially for off-season artwork

[Badeesie]

I don't necessarily have to do anything special to get into the holiday headspace for creating, but I have noticed that after working on holiday stuff for a while, I feel like I'm behind for not having finished my Christmas/Valentine's Day preparations over a month before I usually start.

[Perelandrian]

I make a lot of Christian products and enjoy listening either to Alexander Scourby's audio Bible (on YouTube) or a hymn playlist while I create.