When You Meet Your Muse on the Road, Kill Her
When writing, you're
going to get stuck. You'll be sitting at your computer or your notepad,
and you'll wonder "what happens
next?"
 |
| My
A#1 writing buddy, Her Imperial Highness, Princess Irulan |
It is my experience that many of you will wait for
inspiration. You'll want for a white-limbed goddess to whisper something into
your ear that thrills you, fires your soul, makes your mind race. Then, only then, will you rush to your place
of work and the words will flow from your fingertips like wine into a glass.
However, muses are
fickle, and you've got a deadline.
The most practical advice, then, that I can give is: kill your muse. She'll
try to talk you out of it; do not listen.
She'll beseech and beg; ignore
her. Others will plead on her behalf; reject them.
Take your muse out back, put a gun
to her head, and scatter her brains on the ground. Then leave her face down in a ditch for the badgers and coyotes, return to your place of
work and write.
Writing is work. It's wonderful
work where you get to be creative, to express yourself, and all that happy
gooey stuff. However, it is also work. The number of people who get to work when
they want to do it is minuscule – only a
few people are so blessed as to have
their souls constantly inspired, or a dream that doesn't require them to work
hard. For the rest of us, we roll up our
sleeves and get to work. We do it when
it is a beautiful autumn day and we'd rather be taking a brisk walk among the
golden-leafed trees with our lover, we do it when it's overcast and gray and we'd rather be curled up in front of a fire
with a good book all alone. We do it
when we want to and when we do not want
to. Because you've got a deadline to meet, buddy, and when there's work to do,
you can't afford to wait around until the
planets align and some goddess whispers in your ear. You roll up your sleeves and do it.
Here's the good news: no one will be able to tell the
difference. I guarantee it that writers
you like have done it and done it in books you
like. They have moved forward
with their story precisely because it was their job
to write and they had no time to wait for inspiration. You can't
tell when they were inspired and when they were not; neither will your
audience. Because skill is not developed
by inspiration, but work. The writer who
does the most work will be the best writer
because hard work is key to improving any skill!
Therefore, I repeat: kill
your muse. Then get to work.
Kit Bradley
Nanowrimo name: swordandlion
2016 Nano Project: editing Lord Goblin novels
Great advice just when I needed it. Thank you! I'm going to work now. Bye! :)
ReplyDeleteSo true! Now I'm feeling inspired after a dreadfully lazy day avoiding all sorts of work as much as possible. My document is already open and I'm going to take a chair onto the back patio this nice fall afternoon where I will get to work. Thanks for the boost.
ReplyDelete