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applepie

Abandoned by my Muse

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applepie
, 07-03-2007 at 02:10 AM (998 Views)
I don't know what happened to the nice steady stream of thoughts and ideas I had going for some short stories. I had a couple of weeks of nothing but good ideas and now it is like my thoughts scattered and I don't know where to pick up again. I do believe that my muse has abandoned me, yet again, to the disorder that is my life. I had worked out a very nice routine for my days, and now it has been thrown to the wind. My husband went from the graveyard shift back to days for maybe a week or so and now he has been moved to nights. What this means for me is that I have no help during the day because he isn't waking up until it is about nap time for both kids and he is leaving either right before they get up or shortly after.
The change has killed any creative ideas I've had floating around in my head. This always seems to happen when things are getting good and it is making me want to scream:flare: :flare: Does anyone have any good ideas on how to keep your inspiration admist all of the chaos? My thoughts scatter too easily and now my attention is focused on school and adjusting my household to yet another schedule. I have the basic idea of where I want to go with my short story. I've decided on a third person story using the characters from Jump Awry. The story was never completed, and I began to find too many holes so instead of even rewriting it I am going to start a collection of stories that detail different adventures of Ara. The main block for me at the moment is the initial tale. I have a basic foundation of how Ara finds herself alone in an unfamiliar part of space, but I don't have all of the details quite worked out. Should I even include a "lost love" back at home? I'm not sure since it is a little too much angst for me, but if there is no specific person she is trying to find what if anything is drawing her home??? Does she enjoy the adventure that she has found? If so, why bother trying to get back home at all? If Ara wants to go home, then I need a better reason that just because... I find myself with the problem of a main character who has mutated into something I didn't plan, but now I'm not sure of the personality. Before, Ara was independent and adventure seeking, but she had love tempering that and drawing her back to where she started. Even though she sought to do new things she had a life to return to. With the elimination of that, and even the possibility that she will find new friends and love along the way I have started to see that maybe there isn't any desire to go home. I know Ara isn't me, and I don't want to model her after myself, but my clear image of who she is has seemingly vanished into thin air. So, now I sit here blogging about my complete lack of focus and trying to redefine the character and the story:crash:
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  1. Countess's Avatar
    As the master of the unfinished story, I'm afraid I don't have any advice for you, other than 1) find a friend, etc with some sort of background (the friend who helped me finish Jules is an actor and was INDESPENSIBLE to its completion) who can read over the material and give you suggestions. Secondly, get the basics down. The two things I do well are dialogue and internal landscape description (character development). I absolutely DESPISE describing the environment (who really gives a damn if the coffee table is cherry wood or black PVC? I don't) and people, unless they are beautiful men, and then I take great pleasure in it. All of this to say that my new writing approach is to do what I do best - capture the conversation and the look. I can add the stupid stuff that doesn't matter later. 2) SO - perhaps do what you do best? You can go back and add the crappy stuff later. Finally 3) Just do it, as painful as it seems. Even if your muse is gone, get what you have on paper. Even if you sould like a kindergardener.

    Good luck!!!!!!!!!!
  2. earthboar's Avatar
    We are not masters of the muse, but riders on its wave. Don't worry about its ebb and flow. When it ebbs, that is a good time to try other things, like reading an interesting book, or studying the writings of other people, as a kind of cross pollination. Insert chaos and random irreverence into your notes to shake things up a bit. Perhaps when we adhere too closely to formula, we begin to overanalyse the trees, while missing the forest, and the sky, and that lake over there...

    Treat the muse as if she were your mate. Lovers don't make love very well on demand and on a strict schedule; its luster diminishes. The muse is a thing of faith. Look too closely, and she disappears. She is a wild mustang, without reins or saddle. Leave the coral gates open, set out a bucket of grain, and trust she will return in her own time.