How to Be a Muse

From the beloved movie Xanadu, circa 1980:

Kira: I'm a muse.

Sonny: Well, I'm glad someone's having a good time.

You don't have to be a daughter of Zeus to inspire your talented friends. Being a "muse" in today's culture is defined as "somebody who inspires an artist" or "somebody who is a source of inspiration for an artist, especially a poet' (via UrbanDictionary).

How can you inspire the people around you to write amazing works of poetry with your name embedded in the prose, or sculpt you out of butter and paint your image in frescoes all over their villas? Well, you don't have to walk around naked in a cowboy hat (though it couldn't hurt).

Whether you choose your artist or hope to be chosen just by being muse-ly, these tips should help you join the ranks of Edie Sedgwick and Cathérine Deneuve:

1. Be mysterious. Artists are a fickle bunch and they know it. Falling in love with a musician doesn't guarantee that he or she will write a song about you — most love songs are about the one who got away, or the ones they never got. Throwing yourself at an artist will get you nowhere. Cast all the "I love you" glances you want, but keep to the sidelines.

2. Be emotional. Particularly if the artist is a friend (and not a love interest), make sure they get a glimpse now and then of what a superpower of emotion and pathos you are. Don't yell at the artist or anything, but tell them stories about your life openly, or let them know how you feel about something you're passionate about — or how desperately apathetic you are. Muses often inspire passion by having passion. This is best done late at night.

3. Don't judge. Never tell an artist how to do their work. You can say "I love it," certainly, or "you really captured a vulnerability," but don't get technical. "I like the brush strokes here," or even worse, "You could make this better if you added a harmony here" are muse-status killers. If you want to be an artist yourself, go for it, but the muse's job is to be an element, not an advisor.

4. Be discreet. "This poem is about me" should never escape your lips if you want to continue to be a muse. Let other people say that it's about you. Also, it should be accepted that anything the artist tells you is told in complete confidence.

5. Be free. Openness to your impulses and free thinking are what you must cultivate in yourself to become a muse. Muses inspire through spontaneity, doing unexpected, yet completely organic things, and being their whimsical selves.

Being a muse can be a thankless job — think of all the anonymous women in paintings, pined over in literature or immortalized in song — but the glory of knowing someone truly great was inspired by you makes it worth it.

Photo courtesy of obvatel@sxc.hu.