If
you’re lying awake in bed, and you look over at your sleeping partner
with their tongue hanging out, snoring, making odd farty noises, and
your heart starts beating faster and you think, “Of course! What a
brilliant idea for a horror story,” then congratulations, you have a
genuine muse on your hands.
Sadly,
that’s not the case for everyone. Having someone who can inspire great
ideas and put thoughts in your head that lead to marvellous stories is
something we would all love, but the muse as an independent being who
feeds out creativity is a rare and unreliable creation.
So where can you go for a refill when your well runs dry?
For
most of us the real muse is ourselves, or to be more specific, our
viewpoint. Having opinions and ideas about the world and the stuff that
goes on in it, is what fuels a lot of storytelling. An objective and
simplistic tale told in a balanced and reasonable manner doesn’t have
the inner spark of a story told by someone with strong beliefs and firm
ideas, even if those ideas are complete hogwash.
If
you’re writing a romantic story about a man and a woman, what is it
that you’re really writing about? What do you feel about relationships
or dating or marriage or whatever?
It’s
easier to put those thoughts aside and just write and see what turns up
on the page. The muse in this case is seen as an otherworldly force who
will whisper in your ear and if you’re lucky what they whisper will be a
600 page international bestseller. And occasionally this is what
happens.
Will
it happen to you? Probably not. Will it happen to me? Definitely not.
However, you have every right to play those odds if you wish.
Stating
what you think about something beforehand is often difficult for
people. It can be embarrassing, or others can use it to make you feel
foolish (You really think that?!). But I have found if I sit with a
writer and just ask them questions about the subject matter they’re
planning to write about, they, like everyone, have very definite ideas
and opinions.
If
you asked me about romantic relationships, I might say I think it
puzzles me that a woman asking a man out is still considered odd. Even
though men might say they have no issue with it, they tend to find it a
little threatening, an attempt to take control. And while we should all
be assertive about the things we want, if the woman I’m with makes me
look like a follower rather than a leader, what will my friends think?
Maybe an assertive but understanding woman will allow her man to take
charge when they’re out with friends, just so he doesn’t feel
embarrassed, but what if he starts to like being top dog and wants
things to be like that at home too?
My
point being my interest in women asking men out (not whether it’s right
or wrong, just my view that it is an interesting idea to me) acts as my
muse. It leads me to a certain issue in relationships, which might not
even be central to the story I’m writing, just part of the make-up of
the characters. The scene where a woman asks out a man scene may not
even appear in the story. But that muse only exists because I asked
myself what I thought about the premise.
This
can be a tricky thing to do on your own. Possibly sitting down with
someone (preferably who doesn’t hold the same views as you) and asking
them conversationally what they think about a subject, and using that to
investigate your own position, can help.
Of
course, some people have no problem working out what they think about
these sorts of matters. In fact they have too many views and won’t shut
up about any of them. Having a muse surplus is not helpful. You have to
be able to cut through the background chatter and focus in on the meaty
parts you can get stuck into.
And
once you have your muse, your definite spark to start your fire, you
don’t want to over sell it. Acting like you have the one true answer and
there’s no other approach is going to read as anodyne and one-note.
That’s why you have a cast of characters, to challenge and shape your
muse.
Having
a viewpoint, no matter what it is, fuels ideas and creativity. Sitting
on the fence, taking an even-handed apporach, waiting for your
subconscious to do the work for you, are approaches which will peter
out into a dithering mess.
Things that don’t seem right to you, or when people seem to miss the obvious, these are your muses.
When
things annoy you, excite you, or make you laugh, those are the things
to investigate in narrative form. That part of your brain that you don’t
really understand, that decides what you approve of or what you don’t,
that’s where your muse lives.
Sure,
your muse can be an opinionated idiot who says dumb things, and gets
you into all sorts of trouble if you go round spouting these things in
real life, but when you’re writing, there’s no better friend to have
sitting on your shoulder.
If you found this post interesting, please give it a retweet. Cheers.
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This post first appeared back in March 2012. New post soon(ish).
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