For those who read my blog regularly, I am very sorry for missing a day, my real life interfered once again, a response to a much appreciated comment from a regular reader contains the details for those interested. But, as I said in my last post, I'm not going to be discussing my challenging times this post, I'm going to be discussing muses.
When I read through the NaNoWriMo forum boards, it seems to me that for most people, their muse is an arbitrary, imaginary figure in their world, either in their head, or something else. But for me, my muse is a real person. Well, no, that's not exactly true, because I have two muses. And both of them are real people. They are both women in my life who have in some way inspired ideas in my mind. They share their thoughts, and their ideas, and although I never actual use their comments directly in my stories, I have on many occasions, discovered a new plot twists that has helped to complete my stories, after listening to the suggestions they have.
Now, if these two women figure out that this is about them (well, one of them knows already) then I'm sorry, but sometimes inspiration is fickle, namely, my muses are fickle. They are both significant in my life in some way, one my wife, and the other someone I would consider a good friend (and I hope that she feels the same way). And when I remain uninspired by the two of them, I'm sure I'm not the easiest person to live with, but when they can't offer some sort of criticism, or comment on my work, it really frustrates me. Especially when they attempt to smooth over the wrinkles in my ego, telling me that my work is good when I know that it's terrible. How is telling me that my work is good ever going to help me get better?
I've gotten off track, and I'm sorry, the reason I wrote this was because I wanted to know how you all feel about muses. Are your muses real or imagined? Are they fickle, harsh, or sometimes downright useless? However you feel about your muse (or any other source of inspiration you care to share), please, share it with us all, and let the discussion that ensues be a fascinating and friendly one.
My muse is imaginary, and seems to change with each project I take on. For Nano, my muse is my Second Life character - you can see her here http://kphilbrick.blogspot.com/2010/11/unexpected-visit-from-my-muse-nano-day.html
ReplyDeleteI am sure that they are many people in my life that I could refer to as my muse - I have just never looked at it that way. Thank you for sharing your point of view, it must be wonderful to have these two women in your life!