MUSE FOR HIER

pilot27407 · Apr 17, 2008

Well, I’ve written all my life. In the beginning, there were some poetry (in my native tongue), and some short stories. Thereafter, non-fiction, the boring kind, reports and analysis, on even more boring subjects. Lately I’m writing fiction, action/adventure, and I actually love it. The plots, they come to me easy, I’m driving, or eating, and something just pops to mind. These glimmers of plots then start taking shape, drawing from my life’s experiences, so, it’s normal I think.
The characters, I develop using people whom I actually knew, I naturally do some ‘adaptation’ to better fit the profiles I have in mind, but it’s not difficult.
The harder part starts once I’m seated in front of my PC. I can stay there for hours, sometime days, facing the empty screen,… and nothing.
I know what I want to say, I know what and how I should say it, but the words just refuse to come.
I have days when I can actually develop a 5,000 words chapter, with beautifully worded paragraphs and days when I can’t come up with a thing, or if I do it, by forcing myself, the outcome stinks, so I erase it, without a guilty conscience.
Does anyone cares to expand and tell me how they work, how they collect the ideas for the plot, how they set it on paper, and more important, how they handle those ‘blank’ periods?

Elliot Cowan · Apr 17, 2008

The only way to start is to start.
Really, it is.
Just start.
Even if it's shit that's good, because you're getting the shit out of your head.
I tend to delete forever great chunks of what I'm working on only to come back to it at a later date and write a clearer more concise version.

sassandgroove · Apr 17, 2008

Butt in Chair.

pilot27407 · Apr 17, 2008

But it gets sore, sassy

CaroGirl · Apr 17, 2008

Read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and give yourself permission to write shitty first drafts.

Elliot Cowan · Apr 17, 2008

pilot27407 said:
But it gets sore, sassy

We can help with your writing.
With your arse, I'm not so sure we'd be that useful...

DWSTXS · Apr 17, 2008

Elliot Cowan said:
We can help with your writing.
With your arse, I'm not so sure we'd be that useful...

I've heard that massage will help the soreness. I'd be willing to give it a try anyway. LOL

pilot27407 · Apr 17, 2008

So, how do you overcome those 'blank' periods?
The Muse, in Homer’s time, was someone who’ll come and stand behind him, bringing forth ideas, guiding his quill.

Elliot Cowan · Apr 17, 2008

DWSTXS said:
I've heard that massage will help the soreness. I'd be willing to give it a try anyway. LOL

It's not easy to massage one's own bottom.

Soccer Mom · Apr 17, 2008

pilot27407 said:
So, how do you overcome those 'blank' periods?
The Muse, in Homer’s time, was someone who’ll come and stand behind him, bringing forth ideas, guiding his quill.

Homer's muse retired. I don't have one. I just write. It sounds silly to say "Just type words" but I do. If I waited for inspiration, I would be old and gray before I finished a short story. Make a schedule and stick to it.

BIC=Butt in Chair is the only way to be a writer.

DWSTXS · Apr 17, 2008

Elliot Cowan said:
It's not easy to massage one's own bottom.

mine is not the sore one. I was offering my help to pilot

Soccer Mom · Apr 17, 2008

Enough on the massage, guys. Office Party went thataway ----->

DWSTXS · Apr 17, 2008

I'm confused, pilot, was the name of the thread supposed to be 'Muse for hire'?

Or, was it actually supposed to be 'Muse for hier'? (Hier being french for yesterday)

just wondering, didn't know if you are a frenchie, or what?

Bubastes · Apr 17, 2008

Remedy for sore butt: write standing up. That's what I do, anyway.

Don't be afraid to write awful first drafts. That's why it's called a first draft. I write my first drafts longhand, so there's no illusion that it's anything but a draft. By the time it makes it into my computer, it's already a second draft because I revise while I'm typing it in.

I'm like Soccer Mom: I don't have a muse, so I'm left to my own devices and write when and where I can (like when I'm waiting for my tires to be rotated). Writing longhand makes my drafts wonderfully portable.

Soccer Mom · Apr 17, 2008

I write both longhand and on the computer. When I'm staring at a blank screen, I take my pen and paper and go someplace else. That often helps. I do some of my best writing at the soccer fields.

Willowmound · Apr 17, 2008

Or take you own "advice": pretend non-fiction and fiction is the same!

(see other thread)

sassandgroove · Apr 17, 2008

pilot27407 said:
But it gets sore, sassy

Then get a cushion. Have you read Uncle Jim's thread in the novel writing forum? That's where I picked up the term BUtt in Chair.

I mean it. When I show up at the page, stuff comes out of me. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes it is just something I need to get out so I can get to the good stuff. But when I am blocked, it is never in front of a blank page. When I am blocked it is me doing things other than showing up. Like watching TV or reading, or cleaning behind the stove where no one is going to look, or hanging out here or whatever.

Toothpaste · Apr 17, 2008

I write some of my best stuff when my muse is off making coffee. Seriously. Usually the stuff I write when I am inspired is fine, but the stuff I write when it is so difficult I am typing out one word every few minutes is the stuff that winds up being golden.

It is simply untrue that one only creates great work through inspiration, as most authors will tell you, most of the time writing is just really hard work. Butt in chair.

pilot27407 · Apr 17, 2008

I do that too Willow, and it helps, but not all the time. But then, the Muse refused to come sometimes even when I was writing NF.
I know what I want to say, the words just refuse to come out right.
It’s not a ‘blank’ of ideas, just a ‘blank’ of the right words.

Willowmound · Apr 17, 2008

Then do what the others have said. BIC. It's really the best way. That way the muse knows when you'll be there. And after a while, she'll start showing up on time.

megan_d · Apr 17, 2008

The Muse? Pah! Real writer's don't need a Muse. Real writers send the Muse packing and do all the hard work themselves. (In other words, don't wait for inspiration. Just write!)

pilot27407 · Apr 17, 2008

To answer you dwstxs, never thought of the French meaning (though I know the language), I used it as the German word for ‘here’.

megan_d · Apr 17, 2008

Muse for here?

DWSTXS · Apr 17, 2008

pilot27407 said:
To answer you dwstxs, never thought of the French meaning (though I know the language), I used it as the German word for ‘here’.

vraiment? je ne sais pas cela! (le mot allemand)

pilot27407 · Apr 17, 2008

Megan, let’s not tell that to Homer, Ovidius, Cervantes, Michelangelo, and all the rest who had invoked divine inspiration.

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