Writers and Muses...where art thou?

I think someone posted this before...do we have any authors on this board? I am just trying to finish up my "Best of" (it's called "The Lilitu") collection and it is a ROYAL pain in the ass. Plus, I'm adding new content as well...then having to edit it, blah blah blah.

I think my best book was "Absinthe: Prosaic bouts of Delerium" due to the fact I worked with so many cool people (and I drank absinthe the whole damn time writing it :D ) So the bulk of it is coming from there...but pulling poems and prose out of my arse from high school...man, what a task.

How do you writers find your muse?

(I'm so scared to say it's me, I published under a pen name until just recently...I am kinda scared someone will trash my work too much...I'm chicken, yes...and sensitive about my babies (my poems).

Sun

my muse ran off with someone else about ten years ago.

the complete and utter bitch.

Lol.

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Originally Posted by sunkarma

How do you writers find your muse?

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I don't have difficulty finding my muse; I have a bit of a problem with just shutting up and letting Her whisper to me.

I have a strong editorial voice. While that's a great strength when editing or proofreading others' works, it morphs into an overly self-critical inner diatribe when I sit down to write.

When I can push that away and listen to Her, the words flow swift and sweet. :D

When I can't, I'm stopping after every page, paragraph, and sentence and second-guessing anything (everything) I've written. :(

Never really have to find her...she's always around. Main issue I have is simply sticking to one idea at a time. Right now I'm focused on my own personal stuff, have been for about a year or so now. I like detailed backgrounds and worlds to work and play in so I take my time about it...what gets seen is under pen names I never admit to...I like the idea of who I am not being tied to what I do...some may not agree but it works for me. The only time I break that is in illustration or comics...cause it's simply too hard to be anonymous in that these days. Especially with some online stuff I have planned for the fall.

My muse has more stamina than I have. She's constantly sticking novel ideas at me. I always give up halfway through.

I am very critical of my writing. I wouldn't be if I just stopped sucking.

Lotus,
I have had a novel in my head for years. I just plug away chapter after chapter, wait a while, and write another chapter. Eventually I'll put all the chapters together, edit it, and its done.
I don't think you suck..no writer does and everyone has an audience. You may just have to go at it differently. A novel is a hard thing to tackle all at once, which is why I do prose and poetry...you write it, its done. Try taking little steps like writing a chapter at a time, that may work.


Tequila...I know what you mean. I am torn in 15 different directions at once all the time and I feel like McFarlane's Rasputin with the hooks in his back. I am hanging from 5 different project right now and some more in the works, so it's a pisser. I like pen names the same reason you do. You can dis-associate yourself from your work, and people can criticize it and you can just not really care. Lately I have been myself because I am getting to the point where I want people to actually HEAR my words and take them to heart more. I suppose it is because I still have that feeling of 'wanting to change the world' deep down within me that is totally futile. But at least I can try, and words last forever. Especially now since we have the PC. :)

my poetry's pretty awful, but my prose is ok. writing is cathartic for me, so i don't have to find my muse too often. everything sets me off and i have difficulty getting out of rant mode.

i do write an ass kicking sonnet though. i just have to wait for those moments of beauty.

all my poems become lyrics eventually

I think you kind of have to lay in wait for the muse to strike. The worst thing you can do is try to force inspiration (at least in my experience) I definitely practice TZ's method of not associating every work of art with my literal existence.

OEC

My Muses are offered cigarettes and fancy pens, or they get chained to the furnace and yelled at.

I think they enjoy that a little bit too much.

Sunkarma: Problem being I find it VERY difficult to write in chapters. I learned prose through short-story writing; whenever I sit down for a new writing session, there's always a totally different tone that's very palpable if the piece is read through. And, as said, I have no stamina - a day-long edit session would end with me sobbing on the carpet amid glass shards, melting ice cubes and stale-growing scotch.

Still, there ARE times I feel happy - such as when I did 15,000 words on my FIRST DAY of NaNoWriMo. It felt like someone sucked out my fucking marrow, but good god. It was like coming away from a day-long sex session to find out nothing got chapped.

Problem with me is I LIVE my work. Every feeling, every emotion, is on that piece of paper. When I wrote Absinthe I drank absinthe. I stayed in New Orleans for about two weeks and finished the whole thing. I don't associate myself with the work when its done..its like great sex, its great, then its over, then I move on... The green fairy and Cafe Du Monde were my muses. Not to say that alcohol makes for a good muse (coffee and beignettes are a hell of a sugar/caffiene kick), but I find my muses in the wierdest of places. Sometimes I can look at a tree or look up at the sky and get inspired to write something.
Lotus, do you have a Quickpad? It's something (very nerdy of me, I know) that I carry around with me all the time, so when the mood strikes...I have something to capture it with. Pen and paper is too slow for me when I can type as fast as I can think (and my thought run in manic flow).

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Originally Posted by sunkarma

Lotus, do you have a Quickpad?

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I use to have one of those...small lil thing to jot down notes, sketches, etc.

I still use it for sketches but by and large I keep anything writing related as associated to what is planned as possible. I add it to the story I'm creating like you would a building to a city...took a while for me not to forget things but now it works out well...so when I have to work on a certain part of a story or idea their is a clearer picture...I may not get what I want till the 3rd or fourth draft (or in the case of my current project...too many drafts to count)...but the world I want it to take place in does grow and thrive. In some cases I feel like an out of place tourist to it all...but when the time comes to get scenes and key plot points done...it gets done.

my original muse is a 24-hour-straight drive away, but i've come to use the whole world as a muse... something i see at work may inspire me, or something in a song may click with something inside even though it's the hundredth time i've heard it. you never know, and you never can even be sure that what comes along will resemble the muse in any way.
and sometimes all i can do is sit around drawing penguins and chickens.
meh, what can you do?

i find it rather hard to ever complete a book, i usually start off with a good idea, leave it alone for a few months and then when i come back to it its usually darker or more comical and just doesnt work so i generally have bits and bats lying around of unfinished stories

its not that my muse is missing, its that its fickle