Monday, January 27 - "HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the gang at Here Be Magic. Wednesday, January 29- "FINESSING THE MUSE: MORNING PAGES" - Is there any magic to writing first thing in the morning? Author PG Forte explores the method on Here Be Magic. Thursday, January 30- "A BOTTLE OF LOVE" - A Paranormal Flash Fiction by Linda Mooney. Read the complete short story right here!
Love scifi romance? The entire HEARTFAST series by Linda Mooney is just #99cents each during the month of February! #scifi #Romance https://lindamooney.com/HeartFast.htm
“Today I have nothing to say,” I typed after staring at the screen for
what seemed like hours. (Read this post with the following background music is highly suggested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwZW96V9Tk) I tried to think of something witty, compelling. After
all I’m a writer right? I started over again, itching to pull the paper out
of the typewriter roller, crush it and throw it in the basket. But that too wasn't going to happen. I use a computer. I heaved a heavy sigh, and once
again looked at the blank screen. The muse is gone!
There are lots of reasons why we reach a barrier: we censor our work,
stress in our ‘other’ life, rejections, low self esteem, I could go on but you
get the picture. The must is gone!
Here are some tips I found in various posts and workshops to help when... the muse is gone:
Train your muse. Develop and follow a writing schedule
even if you write only a few hundred words. If you are consistent and sit
down to write on a schedule, your mind will react accordingly.
Don’t be hard on your muse/self. Just write.
Save the critique for later when you edit.
Don't scare your muse away. Don’t panic. Panicking will only make it worse. The less you think about what you’re doing the better your
writing will be. Let it flow.
Give your muse a break. Take some time off especially if you
have just finished one project. Give yourself time to recharge your
batteries and gather new experiences.
Set reasonable deadlines and goals for
your muse/self. You may also want to find a writing group for support. It’s good
to touch base with other writers and understand you are not alone.
Commiserating puts things in perspective.
Be upfront with your muse. Take a good look at any long standing
issues that stop you from writing. Writing can be cathartic. Write about
your anxieties and work them out, preferably with another writer.
Have your muse multitask. Work on more than one project.
Sometimes a second project can spur ideas for the first.
Have fun with your muse. Try a writing exercise. Just for fun. Finish
this sentence: Like a butterfly, she magically …
Take your muse for a walk or to Starbucks. Get away from your desk for awhile. You
need to stretch your legs, get the blood going. Go to the gym, browse your
favorite book store, or go for a walk. When you come back to your desk you
will feel renewed.
Reconnect with your muse. Remember why you started writing and
don’t give up. Think about the excitement, how much fun you had getting
the words down. Recapture the spirit that is the muse.
Personally, I went for a walk and reconnected with some friends. The weight
lifted but I have one more thing to do before I invite the muse back to my
desk. I found this great romance novel. A few chapters should get me in the
mood to write!
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by Greek mythology. Now that I’m an adult, I’m also a fan of Greek yogurt, the architecture of Greek Orthodox churches, sandals, olive oil, and the movie Grease. Sadly, I’m not allowed to move to Greece, because I’m not crazy about olives. Or fish. But spanakopita is pretty awesome, so there’s that.
My new series, the Mt. Olympus Employment Agency takes all the Greek mythology I’ve been absorbing since before I thought boys were interesting and spits it back out into something weird, crazy, and perfectly ordinary, all at the same time.
No, that’s not true. I never thought boys weren’t interesting. Let’s just say, I’ve been absorbing mythology for a long time.
I love the magical creatures myths bring. I love the faraway places and exotic cultural habits. But most of all, I love how Greek gods act so human. The only difference between them and us is their power. They cavort with humans in nearly every story, usually to the detriment of the poor humans who became involved—willing or not—with a god.
I’ve taken this idea of the power the gods have over humans and modernized it. As humans, someone is always in power over us. When we’re children, it’s parents and teachers. Then we grow up, and the government and our employers hold the power. Someone will always be there to tell us what to do and how to do it.
In my Mt. Olympus series, the gods are our employers. In the first three books of the series, we’re following Wynter Greene, who’s being forced—as a result of her own poor life choices—to work at Mt. Olympus in the Muse department. It’s not an easy job. But behind the scenes, someone is constantly screwing with her. Even in my modern, shiny world, the gods won’t leave humans to live their lives undisturbed.
Now that we’re in book two, she’s tootling around the Underworld in a golf cart running errands for Hades. And the gods are still messing with her life.
Because that’s what the gods do. And why not? They’ve been around for thousands of years with little changing from day to day. You can only eat so much ambrosia, and there’s no vacation from making the sun and moon rise and set ever single day. What else is there to do?
Humans are endlessly amusing.
Rachel writes stories that drop average people into magical situations filled with heart and quirky humor. She believes in pixie dust, the power of love, good cheese, lucky socks and putting things off until the last minute. Her home is Disneyland, despite her current location in Kansas. Rachel has one husband, two grown kids and a crazy-catlady starter kit.
Webster’s defines inspiration as: something that makes
someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or
create : a force or influence that inspires someone.
Writers find inspiration in many different ways. You don’t have
to haunt internet social media for long to find writers who create song lists, Pinterest pages for characters or even complete back stories. The methods are about as individual as the
writers themselves.
And when inspiration seems to be absent? You will also hear
phrases such as white page or blinking curser syndrome... There is a
particular taste to the frustration of sitting in front of the computer feeling
as blank as the page before you. I’ve been there many times.
So what do writers do when they’re struggling to find the next word? Besides haunting Facebook, Twitter and Google? Does
inspiration take mass quantities of coffee? Wine? Chocolate? (These seem to be
the main food groups of writers by the way)
The answer to all of these is yes and no.
I think although social media can be distracting, it also is
an avenue to reach out to others in a way that helps us feel we’re not alone in
the crazy occupation called writing. But in the end, inspiration comes from...
work.
It comes from working through the frustration, hitting a dead end, more
frustration and barreling through that. It comes from never giving up. Inspiration (Or whatever you’d like to call
your muse) is like seismic spikes. When it hits, you run with it and it’s
thrilling, but the rest of the time there is a lot of work, a lot of one word
in front of the other, a lot of prep, grammar, formatting... a lot of “just get
words on paper because you can’t rewrite a blank page.”
There are periods in a writers life that seem stagnant, when
we feel we’ve lost that something that caused words to pour from our minds,
through our fingers and fill the page. And when it seems no one is reading our
work anyway... It’s a one two punch that knocks many of us flat.
The best way to welcome your muse back with open arms, is to
have a foundation of hard, sometimes boring, work. Then she will pepper her
magic over the words and you’ll get that aha moment and ... it’s all worth it. Yes, I realize I’m mixing metaphors all over
the place.
Where do you get your inspiration? And what words of encouragement
could you offer those of us who are feeling how steep the climb can be?
My advice is to get words on paper, even if it’s garbage...
because you really can’t edit a blank page and we all know writing is ¾ editing
anyway. And sometimes, you find a gem worth keeping when you least expect it.
I love talking to other writers. I learn so much from them while at the same time, get to impart a little of me to them as well. One of my favorite topics, as is many readers, is inspiration. Where do writers get their inspiration? Do they ever get to a point where their well runs dry and they are faced with the dreaded Writer's Block monster? *crazed lunatic pounds on an organ*
It seems as if muses come in as many shapes and sizes as there are writers. Some play guitar, go for a run, visit a museum, jump up and down on one leg while barking like a dog (a big dog), but me...I like my muse best.
She rocks. Literally.
I knew exactly what the opening scene was going to be to my first novel DRYNN the first time I ever heard Forty Six & 2 by Tool.
Since I live in two states--NY and CT--I do some serious driving, back and forth, twice a week. Some people look at me with pity at all the driving I have to do, but I loooove it; I actually get to escape from the chaos of life and do a little decompressing. It's like going on vacation every week. The best part is that I get to listen to all the music I've been missing and within that music...novels are waiting to be born.
I actually conjured an entire book by a single song, it hit me like a Howitzer round--boom in the brain! Got it, and thank God for voice memo on the iPhone--I have hours and hours, which in of itself is a treasure because I get to actually hear epiphanies happening real time and get to keep them forever. Downloadable and all. ;)
I've written two books and have a third one on the way, and each one of them has a soundtrack, pieces of music that have moved me. Donald Maass calls the core of a scene the "uranium isotope", and it is such an apt description. I hear a song, I see a scene and I just start fleshing that sucker out. What's going on? Who're the main players? How'd they get there? What's the uranium isotope of the scene--rage, anguish, elation, vengeance? We as a civilization are so blessed with the plethora of gifted musicians out there and here's the cool part. As long as there's music...I get to write. :D
And that rocks.
What's your muse?
And thanks for the glance.
-Steve Vera
P.S. Oh yeah, maybe I should say a lil' something about my book. DRYNN, Book I of the LAST OF THE SHARDYN trilogy is an epic urban fantasy. The premise? The heroes of two worlds join forces to fight the Lord of the Underworld. Dun dun dun dunnnnnnnn. THROUGH THE BLACK VEIL (Book II) comes out Nov. 25th, 2013 and is also gonna be available on Audible.com as well as carinapress.com, Amazon, Google Play, and any other place in cyberspace that has ebooks. I can't wait for the world to read it! DRYNN was just the appetizer. Okay, once again, thanks for the glance.
