My Muse: My location: Her Rules

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Jack Nog

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Well, because I can't muster up creativity to write on my WIP, I've decided to drop a little something in my journal. I came up with a question of the muse.

Everyone talks about their muse (or to their muse for the crazies). It's where we get our ideas from. I think everyone has one, but you have to pay attention every now and then when he/she shows up.
I would hope mine is a she actually. And hot. That might make things easier. However, I have a feeling, while hot, she is unattainable and strong willed. I'm not too handsome or intelligent that I'd think I'd impress her anyhow.
Along with this, everyone imagines where their muse hangs out. Steve King said his muse is in the basement. He's a humble guy. Basements creep me out a bit. Like clowns and snowmen. And Anna Leigh dolls. I prefer to think that I write in a great tree, alone in a field with roots that shoot out for miles, grabbing at lives and stories and maybe even feeding them to me. Of course, not directly to me, my muse is the only one who can translate these stories for me. And that crazy bitch just left me up in the tree today, taking the ladder with her. Maybe it's her birthday and I forgot to give her a gift.
So, I'll sit here and write in my journal, or the equivalent of one. I'll sit here and imagine the view. I bet it's a beautiful sky, red and orange clouds shifting in the twilight sun. I should really be getting home and thinking of more corporeal things, but that damn muse left me up here.
 

victoriastrauss

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Me either.

Seriously...I don't like the muse idea because it implies that the creative process is something outside oneself. If only that were true. In writing, as in life, wherever you go, there you are.

- Victoria
 

sunna

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One of my friends says his is his gerbil. I assume he's joking. Maybe all that running in the wheel is inspiring.

I don't have one either, unless it's the white space on the page.
 

Soccer Mom

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Hah! Love the idea of a muse-gerbil. It is like running on a little wheel sometimes. Seriously, I have no muse. But I wish I did. Then I would have someone to blame when my inspiration well runs dry.
 

Rich

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The muse is a ho looking for payment for poorly executed penile and clitoral manipulation.

It would do the writer good if he/she just masturbated.
 

MidnightMuse

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The only muse I have is in my name.

I had a cat named Muse once. He couldn't write, though.
 

Sean D. Schaffer

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I will sometimes mention a muse in passing. But any more I do not believe in one. I think the best way to come up with a story is to think of something cool, that interests you as a writer, and write about it.

You might think of fifty 'something cool's before coming up with a winner, but the fact remains it's your own mind and your hard work that will get you where you want to go.


I hope this helps you out, Jack, and I wish you the very best with your writing endeavors.

:)
 

Jack Nog

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The muse is a ho looking for payment for poorly executed penile and clitoral manipulation.

That is some funny stuff. Just cracked me up.

I really meant the journal entry to get the juices flowing so I could get myself started. I don't really believe I'm sitting in a tree somewhere (might be nice, but I'm not...I'm in a cube farm...). Just thought it would be fun to see everyone else's ideas.
 

AnnieColleen

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Mine's Murphy. I don't know much more about him than that, except that he lives up to his name. :)



Serious note: I think talking about My Muse and meaning it seriously could indicate a problem, the writer expecting creativity to come from outside or not wanting to do the work or some such. But meaning it in fun, as a mental game, can short-circuit some of the negative emotions involved in the process -- e.g., with Murphy, I should expect ideas to come at exactly the wrong moments or to dry up when I have a deadline, right? And then it becomes a challenge to beat him at that game, rather than beating myself up for not being perfect.

(Of course, I also talk about gremlins in the office file cabinets. Doesn't mean I'm not the one hunting for random folders that go missing or re-training the support staff on how to file, but it does lessen the frustration at finding the folder I hunted everywhere for exactly where it should be the next day.)
 

dub

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I have a voyeristic female cat, who sits on the edge of the tub and watches me shower, I call that an incentive to get quickly dressed and begin to write, never thought of her as a muse, she also walks across the computer keys if my hands are not typing - perhaps that is a purposeful muse. Ah ha, I have it, the word is simply spelled mews; for that is what she does when she wants out. :)
 

Sassee

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My muse is a ninja. Mostly he remains invisible and silent, working his magic secretly, but every once in a while he jumps out and scares the bejesus outta me when I have writer's block. That, or he slips in my head unnoticed and leaves little ninja droppings (he calls them "pearls of wisdom"). Those usually leak out onto the page before I realize what happened and I end up having to erase or fix them.

Ninja Muse also has this tendency to fire up my creativity in the middle of the work day, rather than waiting till I get home. Freakin' ninjas. <grumbles>
 

FredCharles

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Wow. I'm kind of surprised by the replies to this thread. I thought that I was the only one who didn't buy into the the whole "muse" thing.
 

Claudia Gray

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I don't think in terms of a muse -- I don't find it helpful, and IMHO it tends to make the process of creation seem like something mystical, beyond the author's control. That doesn't seem like a useful mindset to me.

I don't go where any muse takes me. I get my butt in the chair and my hands on the keyboard, and I work.
 

RG570

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I never got the muse thing, and have felt secretly guilty about it. Maybe I just have no imagination?

Then again, I have no trouble coming up with ideas. If a muse could correct crappy writing, I'd welcome one.
 

Mel

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Have joked about my muse, but have seriously never believed that I had one. There's just myself and my imagination. After that comes figuring out all the aspects of who the characters are and what the story is about. A muse might make it a bit easier.
 

Elodie-Caroline

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I don't have a muse, I don't need one, I have imagination... To be honest, I never understand what people mean when they say they have a muse. Does a ghostly figure come and whisper ideas into writers heads, if so, isn't that plagiarism? ... Just wait until the muses rise up and demand payment for all of their ideas and stories being used! LOL :D


Elodie
 

Pagey's_Girl

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My muses are really just me personifying my favorite characters. It's the way my imagination works. Whatever gives me a little spark of an idea. It's up to me, though, to develop that little idea into a scene, a chapter, a story, whatever. Sort of a combination of outside ideas and my own creativity, I guess...
 

Oddsocks

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I've never understood the muse thing. I think my creativity seems to come directly from the worlds, characters and plots, which themselves come from...somewhere. But I've never posited an external source (aside from when you see something that gives you an idea).

My characters are the closest things to my 'muses', I think - they do sometimes surprise me such that it feels external, though I assume it's more a subconscious thing.
 

Carrie in PA

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I'm jumping on board the "No Muse" train. I have things that inspire me, (or set me back) but nothing I'd call a muse.

I'm glad to see these responses. I thought I was the only museless freak. :D
 

DragonHeart

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If it's a bad idea it's all that cursed muse's fault, but when it's a good idea it's because I'm a genius. :D

Kidding, kidding.

If a muse can be defined as inspiration, then I have hundreds of 'em. However, it's still up to me to put the story on paper and get it right. In that regard I don't feel that I have or need one. My work is my own and I'm not about to give the credit to someone/thing whose existance I can't prove. Unless it's illegal. ;)

~DragonHeart~
 

A. Hamilton

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I've always thought of a muse as a fun way to personify my own imagination. It's definitely a unique part of me, independent from standard bodily functions but very neccesary to my mental well being.
Unfortunately, mine is a moose.
Quite troublesome really.
 

Lisamer

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My ski instructor used to be my muse. When I broke the emotional connection with him, my writing improved.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Muse

I don't really believe is a muse, but I still think the idea of a muse is not at all a bad one. There are times when ideas just drop in from the blue, and seem to come from somewhere else. My notion is that the muse is really the subconscious mind, but this is every bit as mysterious as any Muse, so what the heck.
 
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