Writer's Fallout Shelter

A couple of weeks ago Lori Basiwicz asked:

"I've been reading advice from prospective writers recently that states you shouldn't "force" writing. Basically, what I'm hearing them say is to wait for the muse. This advice goes completely against my personal experience that states if you want to finish and move forward, you apply yourself, muse or no muse. My personal experience is that, once I get started, whether I was in the mood to write or not, the story comes once I start, actually, you know, writing.

But, I often bring such contradictions to the Fallout Shelter, because you guys are good about offering different perspectives on situations. So now I'm wondering. Where do you stand on the whole issue of writing, regardless of the mood, regardless of the mood? Do you "force" yourself to write or do you wait for the story to overtake you then sit down to write it out?"


First, I apologize for my absence 'round these parts lately. I was expecting a nice slow year and go hit upside the head by multiple commitments starting in April. Things should be slowing down soon, though. At least, I hope so!

Now then, concerning the ever-illusive Muse.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but my own muse is a bit of a pest. She sneaks in at worst possible moment and unloads a billion or so really great ideas, then vanishes the moment I try to put them down on paper. Mostly, writing is a chore, but it is a chore I cannot ever cease doing. One day without writing and I start to emotionally fade from whatever reality has captured my attention. Two days without writing and I cannot finish sentences I start during normal daily conversation. A week or ten days without writing down something somewhere and I am complete toast, useless to myself and everyone around me. More than ten days and I start to become a tad delusional, confusing my internal reality with the one around me and constantly trying to impose the internal on the external.

So I try to find time to write something every day, every other day at the most. The vast majority of things I record are rubbish and quickly find their way into the delete bin (which I empty every day on the off chance one of them will try to pretend to be a real idea and reassert itself). Every now and then, however, a minor miracle happens. I sit down to write and my muse comes and perches quietly on my shoulder. She whispers dreams and visions and my hands fly across the keys. Everything needs revising, of course, but in those rare moments when dreams flow straight from muse to mind to hand, I remember why I started writing in the first place.

When the pieces all come together and my muse is there to guide the flow, a kind of mystic haze overcomes me and the real world vanishes like smoke. Those are the moments that make the drudgery worthwhile.


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Lattahs!
akurgal
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