Apology Letter to my Muse

Year of Living Authentically: Does the Muse exist and does she hate me?

First off, HAPPY FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO ME AT SUPERNATURAL UNDERGROUND! Yes, it was four years ago today that these wonderful women took me under their paranormal wings and let me blog with them. Still feel blessed for all they have taught me.


Now. Back to Business.


Dear Muse, 

First off, I know that you exist. I can feel you dancing around in my brain and pushing me to create stories that answer questions and explore feelings and bring forth goodness and safe places of escape into the world.

But about last weekend.

I know that last weekend I did something crazy and that is why you are not speaking to me now. I know that I spent three days hold-up in a writing retreat. I know that you were with me until the end, and by the end, we were both spent. There was far too much coffee and far too little sleep. There was good times and bad times, and then there was wine.

You let me marinate in the world I was creating,  just living there, the two of us. Let me figure out the questions, the who's, what's and where's. Let me dance with joy when we figured out the missing piece that locked everything into place. And then, we wrote like a zephyr to catch all that magic created between us, all the answers to those questions, all the incidents that tested our hero's limits until we were both saddle-sore and exhausted.

Current Pretty Boy Bait

And now you have gone and my brain is dry. I have nothing creative left to give and every idea seems like the wrong one without the passion you brought to the page.

So the real question is do I wait for you to come back willingly or will I have to bait you once again with pretty boys and pretty words and pretty sleep with pretty dreams.

Do I follow Maya Angelou's advice and just keep writing. Just keep working until you are tempted to join me once again, to capture the magic once again. Tempt you with the rhythm of my tapping across the keys of my computer until you are back beside me once again.

For all that writing is hard work and persistence and just looking at that sentence one more time, I miss your sly smile that makes me forget about the toil and do it for the joy. That drives my fingers a little faster and keeps me up past my bedtime.

I remain yours faithfully (but seriously now, I'm on a deadline),

Amanda Arista
www.amandaarista.com

A Clearing in the Woods

Hi everyone,

This month we're talking about what it takes to write at our best, the touchstones that awaken the muse and make magic happen. Already there are fabulous rituals listed, everything from longhand to visual imagery, music to stimulating prose. What all these things have in common, is they are way and means in which we call upon the muse.

For me, the must have ingredient for daily creativity, the way I call my muse, is to make room. I clear a space in the woods, and invite my muse to play.

For thousands of years, before the time of Hesiod, writers and artists have honored their muses above all else. These entity embody the wellspring from which our creative inspiration rises. There is an intimate connection between the writer and this 'other worldly force,' one that can be difficult to describe. But I know one thing. If we want to experience the muse, we have to make room for her.

It's like the law of attraction technique of 'making room' for any new thing we want. If it's a new sweetie, for example, before one even shows up, we empty a drawer in the dresser, have extra hangers in the closet, get another nightstand, set another place at the table. Make room, as if they were already here. Same goes for more clients, or work, or dollars in the bank. We fill in the day book, before there are any actual booking, take out a savings account, before there's more than a dollar to put into it, write ya letter of acceptance, before even applying for the new position. The idea is, if we create space for an experience, it's ours.

In my writing, I intentionally clear a space in the woods, every morning, more often than not, before dawn. My first hours of every day are devoted to the writing, before my energy is diluted with phone calls, conversations, daily demands, email, twitter, facebook . . . especially facebook! The phone is off the hook, the cats are fed, the internet is off, the coffee hot. I go to the forest in the depths of my mind, clear a space, and write.

I learned something about 'space clearing' from Stephen King. He said, Some writers in the throws of writer's block think their muses have died, but I don't think that happens often; I think what happens is that the writers themselves sow the edges of their clearing with poison bait to keep their muses away, often without knowing they are doing it (2006).

The antidote is to listen to creative inspiration. Give her soul a body to get around in. And most of all, clear a space, allowing for her presence, eliminating anything that might be seen as a block or hindrance to her joyful participation in the writing process. Three cheers for the muse!

Happy reading and writing! xxxKim

PS If any of you have writing tips or hints to share, or maybe an inspirational book to read, feel free to post in the comments. 

Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, YA and epic science fantasy novels. She also co-directs Good Vibe Astrology.

You can find out more about Kim at kimfalconer.com or on the 11th House Blog. She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month. Her latest release is Supernatural Underground: Vampires Gone Wild.   

Dancing with My Muse

It took me a few years to figure this out, but my muse loves music. Loves it. I've always known that certain music can stir my emotions and sometimes even spark scene ideas. But I had no idea it could actually help me write. I used to think music would distract me from my work. Turns out, it was just the opposite because my mind is a chatterbox, constantly talking to me, one stream-of-consciousness riff after another. Unless there's music playing. My internal chatterbox is enchanted by music and quiets at the sound of it, allowing my muse unfettered access to my brain. Plus, the right music delights and excites my muse.

I've experimented with a number of different types of music, all instrumentals. I've written to movie soundtracks (Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Last Samurai) and any number of other artists' collections. But I've discovered that my ear and my muse prefer the new age jazz of Keiko Matsui. My friend Lynne turned me on to her when she brought a Matsui CD to exercise class to listen to during cool-down. I loved it and borrowed it, but when I began to listen to it as I wrote, I had to ask our instructor (a good friend) to cool us down to something else. Once it became my writing music, I couldn't listen to it at any other time for fear it would completely foul me up.

When I sit down to write, now, I always turn on Keiko Matsui. If I stop writing for any reason--to check my email, to grab the phone, to refill my glass--I pause the track. If the music is on, I'm writing. Period. And having done this for a number of years, now, my muse is well-trained. The moment the music comes on, I'm back in the zone, my fingers flying over the keyboard. I still experiment with new music from time to time, but my muse is completely in love with Keiko Matsui. So far, I've had no success tempting her with something new. After eighteen books, I can't argue that it's working for us!