A Chocolate Eating Writer's Muse

We're still deep in winter here in Kentucky although we had a beautiful sunshiny day on Friday with the temps rising to near sixty. All of us started dreaming of spring to come. That's the way it is here in this border state between north and south. Days and sometimes weeks of warmer weather can come to call, but then winter always returns. Sometimes even in the spring when the cold should be gone and the flowers and trees are ready to burst into bloom, winter will sneak back a nasty finger of cold that freezes the blooms and steals our summer fruit. In January we don't have to worry about that. We just have to hope for snow instead of ice.

I'm several chapters into my new story and trying to keep to my page allotment each day. As always the way I thought I saw everything going so clearly is meandering into some alleyways I didn't notice at all. But I'm trying to trust my characters and my muse.

Bobbi's comment on my last entry got me to thinking about the writer's muse. Here is a Ray Bradbury quote about the Muse. "What is The Subconscious to every other man, in its creative aspect becomes, for writers, The Muse."

I've had people ask me if I waited for my muse before I started writing. Or wanted to know how I corralled the slippery little sucker. Actually I've never given my muse a lot of consideration. Maybe not enough. I've always wanted to write so much that I may have taken it for granted that if I sat down and started writing a story would come. Gee, I hope my muse isn't listening and goes off to hide in a closet to pout where I'll never be able to find her again. I wish I hadn't thought about that! :o(

In Stephen King's book On Writing, he describes his muse as a cigar-smoking guy with wings. But he warns us our muse is not going to come fluttering down into our rooms and sprinkle creative fairy dust all over our computers. King is of the opinion that the writer has to do all the work while the muse just sits around and pretends to ignore you. His all the while smoking those cigars. I don't think I want my muse to smoke cigars. I'll let her eat chocolates. But then King adds that the muse has the inspiration, the bag of magic a writer needs.

And it does sometimes feel like magic when you've sat in front of the computer screen and fed in words on top of words that maybe didn't seem like anywhere close to the right words, but then somehow the story comes. Perhaps a character jumps into the story out of nowhere or you suddenly see what really happened instead of what you thought might happen. Not because you waited for your muse to show up, but because you chased her down. And maybe bought her a new box of those imaginary inspirational chocolates.

I'm ready to do a new give-away. Any of you have one of my books you'd like to have in the give-away more than any of the others, let me know. I'll probably add an autographed copy of a different author's book, too. I'll let you know which books on Wednesday. Before I head up to WV to babysit the twins for a few days. They're five and a half months old already. I'll get my baby holding tank filled up to the brim with two babies to spoil.

Hope winter is being kind to you all. And spring is coming.

A Writer Needs to Feed Her Imagination

I talked to a fun bookclub on Monday night by phone. I'm not great at hearing on speaker phones, but I could tell those ladies of the South Zumbra Church Book Club were having a good time. And not just because they were talking to me although I'm sure that put a little extra zing in the meeting - getting to quiz the author of the book they'd read. Actually they picked my book to read because the mother of the beautiful model on the cover is a member of the club and she picked the book. I told her one thing for sure - they couldn't knock the cover. It's perfect for the story. I asked them how they picked their books and they had a dozen different ways. They'd just read Gone with the Wind not long ago and I thought that sounded like a great idea. To revisit some old favorite books. I read Gone with the Wind in one long Thanksgiving weekend when I was 13 or 14.

Is there any better way to read a book than to just lie down on your bed or sit in your favorite reading chair and wallow in the words until you've read every last one? I can't do that very often these days. Too many chores and responsibilities and books of my own I want to write. But I do think it's vital for a writer to read. That's the advice I always give young people, but you know it's good advice for any writer. I've been reading Stephen King's book On Writing. He says nobody can be a good writer without being a voracious reader. He carries a book everywhere he goes and reads in minutes snatched out of a busy schedule. I need to do that. Steal a moment here and there to read more books. A writer needs to feed her imagination and what better way than to read and read some more. Reading brings new ideas your way, and King made the point that all the books don't have to be great. That reading a bad book can bolster your confidence. That nearly every aspiring writer has at one time or another read a book and said "I can write a better book than that." And then he adds that reading a really great book can inspire us to think I want to write a book that good. So it's a no lose situation.

Of course I have to admit I don't stick it out through a book I think is really bad. I close it up and find another one. There are just too many books out there to wade through a book I'm not enjoying. Unless of course it's a research book, then I wade on in. So just a thought or two on reading. What do you think? Do you think you have to read to become a better writer? Do you ever give up on a book and start another one?

Okay here are the quotes I promised last Wednesday.

"You know you're old when you've lost all your marvels." --Merry Browne (Could she have any better first name for that quote? And I don't want to ever lose all my marvels.)

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." --Beverly Sills

I hope you are going to lots of places worth going and that even if you can't take any shortcuts that you will enjoy the road and discover plenty of marvels along the way.

One last note - I'll be up in New Albany, Indiana for a booksigning at the Heaven Help Us Bookstore on Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. If you're in the area, come on over and say hi. They're celebrating five years of serving the Christian community in that area.

Oh yeah - another really last note - If you want a chance to win my book, The Outsider, go visit Rose McCauley's blog, http://www.rosemccauley.blogspot.com. She does a book give-away every month and this month it's mine. What better way to get a book than free!!