What a silly question...the obvious answer is, to keep the voices quiet. I have talked about my muse often. I'm really not kidding when I say she is relentless and fickle. Hanging around until a random overheard conversation or unusual sight catches her attention, I can feel her start to work. Nagging in her shrill little voice, 'What if this? What if that?'
As the story takes on life and the plot forms, the various characters start to talk to me as well. Long before a word is typed they are letting me know who they are and what they would like to do. The story starts to take shape after a few false starts. The situations are played with several alternative endings. When it clicks I know, because Ms Muse smiles and nods her head...
Suddenly I am writing feverishly! The ideas are reaching the Word document! I'm in the middle of a great scene... the characters are poised and waiting to be heard. I look around and find Ms Muse has left the building! Really? Really, Ms Thang Muse??? The characters and I all throw up our hands and sigh heavily.
We all know she is off laughing at us somewhere... I start surfing the internet to see if one can fire a muse. My characters start acting erratically. I try to talk to them , "Look, we can do thins with out her." I write a few lines and turn to look at them. One is rolling their eyes, another has both hands over their face. I hear shouts of "Oh My God! I would never say that!" I go back to surfing the net. Turns out we can't fire her...
I get totally distracted by Facebook. Like this, heart that, share this, post that. I feel a tap on my shoulder...Ms Muse! You're back! We start again...but in the back of my mind I make a mental note: So we can't fire her...but can we kill her?
As the story takes on life and the plot forms, the various characters start to talk to me as well. Long before a word is typed they are letting me know who they are and what they would like to do. The story starts to take shape after a few false starts. The situations are played with several alternative endings. When it clicks I know, because Ms Muse smiles and nods her head...
Suddenly I am writing feverishly! The ideas are reaching the Word document! I'm in the middle of a great scene... the characters are poised and waiting to be heard. I look around and find Ms Muse has left the building! Really? Really, Ms Thang Muse??? The characters and I all throw up our hands and sigh heavily.
We all know she is off laughing at us somewhere... I start surfing the internet to see if one can fire a muse. My characters start acting erratically. I try to talk to them , "Look, we can do thins with out her." I write a few lines and turn to look at them. One is rolling their eyes, another has both hands over their face. I hear shouts of "Oh My God! I would never say that!" I go back to surfing the net. Turns out we can't fire her...
I get totally distracted by Facebook. Like this, heart that, share this, post that. I feel a tap on my shoulder...Ms Muse! You're back! We start again...but in the back of my mind I make a mental note: So we can't fire her...but can we kill her?