Don’t Wait
“Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time…The wait is simply too long.” Leonard S. Bernstein
I don’t have a muse. Not really. There are times when the story drives me and I need to write it or it’ll make my head explode! Those times are wonderful and the words fall from your fingers like driving rain and you’re so in the moment. Writing is total joy when you’re in that space.
But you know, the life of a writer isn’t always that way. At least not my life. Sometimes I just don’t want to do it. I want to sit on my couch, eat nachos and watch reality television while I pretend not to hear my sons fighting or breaking something.
Sadly, if you choose the latter, you don’t finish your book on deadline. In fact, you don’t finish at all because sometimes writing is exhausting and unpleasant work and you have to force yourself to sit there and do it. If you don’t, if wait for some sparkly, shiny moment, you won’t finish. You’ll abandon the manuscript when you hit the dreaded middle or you’ll rush through revisions and it won’t be as good as it could be and an editor might take a pass on it because it just didn’t catch her eye.
Every bit of effort you give to your manuscript matters. it’s not always easy. It’s not always joyful. But there’s nothing in the world like finishing a book and sending it off, knowing it’s the best you could have made it.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I have no muse, either. I think I’d be freaked out by the idea of someone standing over my shoulder as I write. And would I have to share the jellybeans with her? These are serious issues.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Oh man, I never even thought of having to share my gum and peanut m&ms with a muse - cripes, Diana, you saved me there. I’ll definitely stay away from that, LOL!
March 18th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Nah, no muse here either… I wish I had one. But I don’t. It’s just me and the task of writing.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
*phew* I’m not alone in being muse-less.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I have a muse her name is conchita … LOL!
I do have some sort of muse that drives me, but is it tangible to me. Nope.
It’s my characters and the thrill of finishing a book that is my muse.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Portia - yep, no one to blame but myself, LOL!!
Kim - nah, plenty of us I think!
Amy - if I had a muse, I’d want him to be Gerry Butler. Then I’d get nothing done because I’d be, um, playing chess with him. Yeah, that’s right, playing chess.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I don’t have a muse either - just a voice in the back of my head that gets steadily more annoying the longer I go without plunking myself done on *some* WIP.
You’re totally right about the dreaded middle. And then there’s that scary phase of edits where I freak - thinking I am just going to have to re-write the whole dang thing.
Thanks for the reminder that you just have to sit down and do it. I guess that’s what this challenge is all about - huh? Distractions abound, and there are plenty of things willing to suck us away from writing, if we let them.
(Bit of a segue - but who do I talk to about getting my name under the ’sweaters’ list? I came in a little late. Does that mean I’m not really in? =O )