Do you believe in the Muse?

[KillerMuffin]

I've been writing for as long as I've been able to hold a pencil, but it hasn't been but the last few years that I considered myself a "writer" along with all of the vocational culture that goes with it. Writing was just something I did to have fun. I could write and be a new world of my own where I controlled everything and when I spoke people understood me.

I was still a writer. I had bouts of block and times when I was almost manic in my writing.

Writers talk a lot about the Muse as if it were some capricious nymph that comes and goes as she pleases.

It's odd, but I never thought about creativity in connection to my bouts of writing. I my bouts of block into depression and stress levels and when those lessened my creativity surged and I wrote like a fiend until it all evened out and I became normal.

I suppose that believe in the Muse, myself. I believe that she is me. More specifically, the Muse is my emotional well being. If she is happy, so is my writing. If she is depressed, so is my writing.

What's your take on the Muse?

 

[TheEarl]

My muse is my insomnia. Strange but true.

I have writer's block more often than I have the ability to write. Stories often come very difficult to me. My insomnia comes in waves too: every so often I'll only get an hour of sleep a night for a week or two. Then it goes again.

When I can't sleep, I read or I write and I find that I'm often at my most productive then. Two of my last three stories have been composed in the early hours of the morning.

I don't reckon on the little fairy bloke who sprinkles magic dust on the fingers of writers. If there is one he must hate me anyway for the miniscule amount he gives me. I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES.

There. That's done for him .

The Earl

 

[MathGirl]

Muse?

Do you mean a muse like Bullwinkle?

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

I'm not quite sure what controls my ability to write. Over the last few weeks, finishing Rhiana, I wanted to write non-stop. It was all I thought about all day. But I've been hanging onto depression this winter, and Rhiana was the one constant that kept me going through it, the desire to finish it properly.

Recently everything has gone totally hectic - work is busier than ever and I'm bringing work home to try to meet deadlines, shows and events are coming up left right and centre, and I don't seem to be able to keep a car longer than a week before something breaks and I have to spend all weekend fixing it. To make matters worse I'm going to have to get an evening job for a while to make ends meet and pay for my summer holiday.

So I haven't gone to sleep until after 12 any night for the last 6 weeks, and I've been waking up around 5am and not going back to sleep. Yet during the last 6 weeks, by 10pm, when I'd put all my work away and started to slow down, although I really wanted to go to bed I couldn't pull myself away from the keyboard. I'd sit there typing away until I can no longer concentrate and my fingers stop moving.

But now that Rhiana has been published, I have nothing more to do. I've started about 6 different stories in my head but nothing is happening. I'm on a high because Rhiana has been doing so well, but now I'm having trouble sustaining it because I have this sudden block.

To make matters worse, my insomnia has returned for the first time since 1998, when I least understood depression. Last night I made a pact to have more early nights and went to bed at 10pm. At 1am I got up and passed the time playing computer games. At 2am I turned the lights off, and fell asleep sometime after 3:25am. 7am my alarm went off.

I feel somehow it's all connected, but it's driving me crazy trying to figure out how. But I don't think I'll get any more stories out until I can get a good nights sleep and clear the cobwebs that I'm trying to think through. My brain feels like it's made of cotton wool.

If I'm under a lot of stress I tend to lose the ability to write. I used to blame winter weather, until I started Rhiana - most of which was completed through the winter. Now I don't know what to blame.

Ax

 

[TheEarl]

SMUK: Great sympathy for the insomnia and the block. Been there for both. I would offer advice, except I don't have any. So I'll just offer my support.

The Earl

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

Much appreciated, Earl. You can cry on my shoulder if I can cry on yours ;-)

ax

 

[lobito]

Yep, there is such a thing as muse, you may not recognize it at the time.

I wrote a story for someone here that started in PM's, and turned intoa submitted story. It started out as flirting, and turned into that person being a muse of sorts.

 

[OT]

My take on the muse is that she is very real, but in fairness to her, it's sometimes hard to tell whether she is absent or if I am just being lazy.

I'm an engineer in R/L which often involves a good deal of creativity. I can't imagine telling the customer that his design/product will be late because I can't find my muse. By the same token, I believe that a good design needs to gel, and give the muse an opportunity to jump in and help. I can't design/create on demand. On a timetable yes, but not on command.

A good engineer/writer needs enough skill and gumption to fake it until the muse arrives. Considerable progress can be made in the mundane areas of a creation whilst waiting for the muse to help out with the hard parts. Plan B is to have the uninspired version in hand, just in case she doesn't show.

Since most of what I write is for fun, I let the muse have her way. If I'm not inspired -- I wait.

 

[MathGirl]

Wee folk

I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES.The Earl

Dear Earl,

Then you've never met my cousin Tom.

MG

 

[gauchecritic]

Here's a thought. I don't know how 'new' this school is but I read recently of the position that; along with the theory that every thought is a memory (one explanation for deja vu BTW) the idea that the brain doesn't control muscles, but that muscles control the brain.

I'm guessing that the hypo thalamus must come in here somewhere.

Whatever. If I remember correctly it showed that because some muscle reaction times occur before any connection with upper, mid, lower brain or thalamus activity then it is possible that we 'think' with our muscles, and therefore any actual brain activity connected with this is a simple measuring or storing activity.

What has this to do with the muse?

When I have a story to write I find myself fidgety, my fingers are just too tense to type at the required speed and I often find I am most mentally creative whilst driving, no relaxation there.

Maybe our muse is a particular tiredness (The Earl) anxiety/nervous tension (slavemaster) and finally the proof of my pudding (which I'm sure I'll be made to eat) KillerMuffin she is her own muse.

Me? I'm just

Gauche

 

[openthighs_sarah]

I belong to the "inertial" school writing: as long as I'm writing, I'm fine, and I don't even stop to wonder where the ideas come from. As soon as I take a break, I become lost, and it may require some external force to get me back in motion.

And with erotica, anyway, I find that there are no shortage of external forces...

 

[NoJo]

We are not a muse.

I notice lunar cycles in my creativity (yes, in my horniness too). No shit. I sometimes worry about suffering a sort of creative "menopause", but then, usually all I need is a break.
I had a ton of dreams last night, and it seems to have charged the creative batteries. I often write them down, because my dreams are the nearest thing to a muse I have. From them, orginal stories just come to me almost as though someone else were telling them to me, to entertain me. Probably , all that's happening is that when I dream is that I can stop thinking so logically.
Last night's dream was about me arguing with a policeman (Not sure how I can turn that into erotica).

Anyway, that's what I think about this subject. Oh, there's my cufflink, I was looking for that.

 

[jfinn]

Every paragraph, every sentence, every word lately is an incredibly painful process. I find myself willing to do anything (even laundry!) rather than face the prospect of sitting in front of blank screen and trying to write. If I have a muse she/he is a #@%&* sadist.

Jayne

 

[Sabledrake]

I don't reckon on the little fairy bloke who sprinkles magic dust on the fingers of writers.

Fornit Some Fornus!

Sabledrake

 

[chastity420]

I believe in The Muse, For me it is any high range of emotion. If I'm having a well balanced day it will be a bad writing day. Get me mad, crying, horny or laughing and I will write you a great story!

 

[kiwiwolf]

I believe that everyone who does anything creative has a muse. My muse is actually this site and the writers who submit work here. I arrived here about 4 years ago and just read the stories. It wasn't long before I figured that I would love to see some of my own stuff here and for a long time I wrote and discarded hours worth of dross.

I had written stories while in the army but not of the erotic variety, so I knew from my buddies reactions that I could at least string together a few sentences. My frustration at not being able to finish a story to my satisfaction drew me in to the boards. From here I was able to chat with other writers and get inspiration, encouragement and most importantly... advice.

Lit and it's writers, characters, and to some extent, drama, is my muse.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I believe in the Muse.

I believe in the balance of the Universe. What goes up, must come down. The waves of the sea go up and down, like the tide. Sometimes, my creativity is at a low, and I can't write anything. Even a letter to my penpal is like re-writing War And Peace. And then there are other times when I'm so full of creative energy that I type all my stories with one hand, while I'm painting a portrait with my other hand, while recording a song I just made up...

Muse. Inspiration. Flow.

No matter what you want to call it, I believe it's vital for me in order to create anything. I can't sit down and just Produce. If I did, it would sound like an instruction manual for the VCR.

 

[OT]

I almost forgot about this:

moody muse

Albeit a bit corny, I wrote it a few months ago to sum up my thoughts on the mysterious muse.

 

[Rhys]

mine took the last train to clarksville and has not been seen since.

 

[oggbashan]

I don't have a Muse - I have Muses and they are very demanding. When they are present I write as if I'm possessed. When they are gone I don't always recognise what I have written as the product of my conscious mind.

When the Muses aren't present I can edit, punctuate, tidy up and do the routine work of an author but I can't create.

When they are there they are infuriating. The contradict each other, they demand more space for THEIR character/story, and they criticise my competence as a writer. I will NEVER be good enough for them.

Help! I've got voices in my head - they are all female and very demanding Ladies.

Oggbashan

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES.

You obviously haven't met my pal Christer...

 

[Dirt Man]

I can't explain it, but yes, I believe in my muse...

For those who don't, I can only say this: "don't piss them off by saying that you don't believe in them, because they won't inspire you to write until you do."

What most creative people don't realize is that their muse is a conterdiction of their real inner self. For instance, if you're a female, then your true muse is a male counterpart, and vice versa. It's why you have simpatica, empathy, and the like, and are able to feel more in sympathy with your characters, and the stories you write than those who try to write without any creativity in their blood. So in essence, your muse's last name is creativity, and its middle name is inspiration. (Yes, they are all related to each other.) However; you give your muse their first name, even unconsciously if not on purpose by what you do create, and that name changes constantly, and only you truly know it.

And thus begins the legend...

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

 

[PaulX35]

I often notice that when I'm busy reading and writing a lot for my work, my inspiration to write fades much easier. It's hard to make the switch from "academic writing" to creative writing, I find.

I wouldn't know what Muse causes that, but I do know I require a certain kind of relaxed mood to be able to write.

Paul