I need a muse...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I do a lot of writing. Many times, the words flow effortlessly from my fingertips, in a way that makes me think that really I’m just an innocent bystander, or some sort of medium for the unhomed ghosts of writers. I tend to stick to short stories, as those suit my attention span a lot better than a novel does. I have, however, attempted many novels. I have notebook after notebook filled with (warning: immodesty alert) jawdroppingly good material - but it trails off after one chapter. If I’m lucky. Many times it’s simply a great opening paragraph. Once I actually made it all the way to 10 chapters. But I simply dropped the ball. It’s really rather annoying, but completely indicative of my personality - start off like gangbusters, and then fizzle out into nothingness.

So now, I have this idea for a novel that I actually really like, and have developed into something remarkably close to an (unwritten) outline. And what dilemma do I find myself facing? What heretofore unknown issue challenges me in this hour of dawning creativity?

I can’t think of how to start the damned thing. :smack:

No, I am not asking anyone to write my opening sentences. But I do need a Muse. Or, we could just turn this into a thread of great opening lines for nonexistent novels.

2

Start in the middle of the story. Explain what happened earlier through flashbacks.

3

Have you thought about just starting to write the scene that stands out the most in your mind? I always have ideas tumbling around my mind for short stories and I usually end up losing them because I stall too long on find the perfect opening phrase or something like that. I find it helps if I’m able to just capture one detail of the setting or a character – let the mental movie play in my mind and try to transcribe it. Where does the story begin for you?

One of my New Years resolutions is just to start writing down the little pieces of pretty language that bop around in my head – even if it’s an odd moment. I’ll wake up in the morning and a dream will be stuck in my head or a phrase will start ricocheting off my skull and I’ll just grab my notebook and write it down.

Of course, I never said I was a good writer, either. :slight_smile: I say, just let the story start playing in your mind. Or it might be a good time to haul out those old notebooks and start going through them. Who know what you might uncover?

4

I suffer from a similar problem. Not just with writing, but with projects of various kinds - from trivial pursuits, to academic studies, to household chores. I discover something that catches my fancy, and I dive into it all the way - reading up on all aspects of the subject and/or trying to perfect an ability or skill.

That is, until I grow bored, tired or discouraged with the project in some way, and quit. Often times, I’ll tell myself or others that I’ll get back to it. But, more often than not, I never will. My childhood is littered with unfinished projects of one type or another. And the same thing affects my writing.

And I also believe strongly that a “muse” is what I need. If someone else asks me for help with something that I see means a lot to them, I can often do great work, and at a much quicker pace than anything I do for myself. A lot of that has to do with my perfectionism, seeing how it’s not my project.

So, I suppose my “muse” would be less like classical inspiration, and more like the respected boss who knows when to kick you in the ass. But let’s say, for example, that I had a girlfriend who cared about my interest in writing. I believe I could do a lot more, knowing that I’d have someone who would be anxious to see what I have written, and would know how to push me the right way. “No sex until you finish chapter ten.” :wink:

Anyhoo…

5

seriously.

No one she new ever thought she had the capacity to let one of her children die…

OK, now go.

6

Wanna know what’s really eery?

This would almost be perfectly appropriate for the opening sentence.

7

I used to have a problem with ideas. Now I have plenty of ideas, I just have a problem sitting down and writing, rather than screwing around. I think I need one of those R. Lee Ermey motivational figures that I suggested in another thread.

8

Well, I’ll tell ya, I’m anti-muse.

Why, you ask? Because at least for myself, thinking in terms of needing to be inspired doesn’t work and in fact tends to have a negative impact on my being able to work. And while it’s entirely anecdotal, and therefore not real data, it seems like everyone I talk to who has problems finishing things, or is blocked, or whatever, complains about not being inspired, or about needing their muse.

Now, I realize that when you say “muse” you don’t really mean some mystical, external force, but you are visualizing it that way to yourself. I was never able to finish anything until I stopped thinking about it that way. So, speaking as someone who took her first novel to the post office last week, and this week pulled out the first draft of the second for revisions and banging into shape, let me suggest abandoning the muse. Muses are delicate creatures who won’t get out of bed unless the weather is right, or else they’re always breaking a nail, or twisting their ankles and can’t go any farther. Screw the muse–you’ve got a novel to write. Sit down at the keyboard every single day and don’t get up until you’ve written at least two thousand words (or more, if you’re more ambitious or disciplined). After a month you’ll have sixty thousand words written, and I guarantee you’ll be surprised by how many of them will be usable. Sure, there’ll be false starts, and stuff you have to cut, and really awkward writing, but you can fix that later. And if you get stuck, just vamp–take your characters for a walk, write an essay about your main character’s childhood pet or favorite pair of socks or anything to keep going. Do this every day until you get to the end of the story. Don’t try to fix anything–you can do that later. I swear to you, it’ll work out and you’ll end up with a first draft of your novel.

As far as where to start–don’t worry about that right now. Just sit down and start writing wherever it seems like the story probably starts, don’t worry about whether or not it’s a good opening, or the right one, because you can always fix that later.

9

Ya know, there were muses for mathematics and the sciences, as well as the arts.

I’ve experienced inspiration from both. With math as with writing, it’s like you’re hardly a participant in what’s coming out on the paper. You’re, at best, an audience to what is appearing on the page, but, man, what’s showing up there is beautiful, just beautiful, so amazing you want to weep. (Yes, you can feel this way about math.)

Well, the math muse, for me, is a bit more fickle than the writing muse. Or maybe it just seems that way, because I need the math muse more. Unlike writing, which I mostly do for my own amusement, my math gots to be done no matter what, whether or not the math muse deigns to visit. So when the muse is absent, I have to keep plugging away, trying to work the problem from different angles, drawing and redrawing my diagrams, searching for incorrect assumptions, trying out all sorts of crap that probably won’t work until, by hook or by crook, I’ve arrived at a solution.

Now, sometimes the math muse will peek in and check my progress—poke around in my brain and investigate all the blind alleys and trainwrecks I’ve been wasting my time on, and she’ll tickle a neuron—that one, right there—and the suddenly it all comes clear; the heavens open, and I hear the song of “choirs of angels ranking off into geometrical infinity,” to borrow a line from Stephenson. But if I just wait around for the muse, and I don’t to struggle with the problem and beat my head against the brick wall, well, the muse ain’t gonna give me the time of day, and the problem isn’t going to get done.

I guess the point is, the muse comes and the muse goes; but if you want to finish something you just have to keep pounding away at it whether she’s there or not. It doesn’t matter if what you’re writing is good, just as long as you’re putting something down—anything. If it’s bad, you can cut it later and try again. She’ll come to you, eventually—if she feels like it. And if she doesn’t, well, you have to just rewrite it yourself. That’s how things get done. I doubt highly that there was ever a writer, artist, mathematician or scientist so lucky that they did all their work under the influence of the muse. Isn’t the saying, “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”?

10

Well, muse or no muse, I managed to start! I whipped out several pages here at work, and now I have to do my two hour commute (would be perfect writing time, if I didn’t always fall asleep) so hopefully I’ll still have some of this momentum when I get home.

Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself :stuck_out_tongue:

11

All right! Yay you! :slight_smile:

Now just keep going. Don’t stop, no matter what. Good luck!