Food for Thought - Literally!

Just when I thought I knew essentially everything there is to know about fan fiction, I come across something that teaches me that there are always new things to learn about anything, even in a topic you think you know so well. The thing that brought this realization on was reading this article titled 'Do You Feed Your Muse Well?' A muse is a term invented by writers that basically means the little voice in your head that comes up with your story ideas. One thing I've learned about my muse is that it's become highly ADD since I hit college. This article gave me a theory to why that possibly is. From the beginning of the article, I was able to relate to what the author was saying: I’m either overflowing with fantastic ideas and thoughts about everything under the sun, or I’m staring at a blank page thinking my muse went and died on me. I wasn’t even invited to the funeral. This fits me perfectly. I can't count the number of times I've had a fantastic idea in my head then by the time I have the time to actually sit down in front of my computer to write it, what comes out is typically nowhere near the degree of awesomeness that it was when I wrote it in my head. It's also typical for my muse to come up with a hundred ideas while I'm under pressure from schoolwork and don't have time to write, but the minute a school break hits and I have time to write, I'm sitting in front of a blank Word document trying desperately to remember the amazing ideas I had just a short couple of weeks ago or I jump around from story idea to story idea to story idea never being able to stick to one long enough to finish it.

The author of this article went on to explain how he learned that a lack of eating regularly and/or healthily leads to a lack of energy that causes our brains to come up with great story ideas. This theory makes a lot of sense, especially in my own case. I eat horribly; I admit it. For one thing, I'm a college student balancing two majors plus a plethora of other stuff, which doesn’t leave much time to make healthy meals. I also have a childish belief that I'm not hungry unless my stomach is growling, which stems from a childhood mantra that I developed to 'not eat if I wasn't hungry' because I had a random fear of becoming fat (not that anyone ever told me I was fat-in fact my mom would get mad if I ever said I needed to lose weight, I just had the same body issues most girls have, even when there's no reason to have them), a small appetite, a hatred of most lunch foods and a love of nighttime junk food snacking. I'm not typically hungry at mid day anyway and 'why eat something I don't like when I'm not hungry, thus making me not hungry for dinner and subsequently eating things that I actually like late at night?'

But it's when I do eat three meals a day that I can write better. Back in middle and high school when my meals were regulated partially by school schedule and partially by my mother's insistence on regular, balanced family meals, I would have what I termed my writing "sessions", where I would sit down in front of my computer and be able to type for hours on end, emerging immensely pleased with the results. But since college, I haven't been able to do that, and I've missed it. I dismissed this by assuming it was the combination of more things to do and less time to do them in that comes from being in college and while, admittedly, this might be part of the problem, I now know that it's not the entire problem.

So will I start eating better? I can't honestly say yes, but I'm going to try. The author of the article said that he makes himself eat a bowl of granola and milk every morning whether he feels like it or not, so I think I have to do something like this. I am learning though. As I write this, it is about noon and even though I'm not incredibly hungry, I am eating a sandwich. Bottom line, I can't keep eating, well, like a college student. I may not be overweight, but with my eating habits plus the fact I don't exercise, I'm not exactly healthy either. And most of all, it causes the lack of energy I need to write productively. And while my sweet tooth might hate me for giving up my nighttime junk in favor of a mid day meal, the energy to write that eating better will bring will more than make up for it. Like the article said at the end: "And for seven days straight, my brain was on superpower. Just three weeks in and the results are all systems go. I'm less tired. I write easily. Ideas flow. So do the words. My creative muse wasn't dead. I'd just been starving her - literally. Food for thought, no?