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| 2006-10-26 00:06 |
| Paging the Muse, wet clean up on aisle 42 |
| Public |
| process, writing |
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Lee Battersby, on the relationship between the Muse and hard work in the matter of writing.
He talks about momentum and burst, and the role of the Muse in writing. I spent years flirting with the Muse. Didn't sell anything in those years, spent a lot of time being frustrated, got to enjoy the dramatic life of the aspiring writer.
Eventually I punted that for a lot of hard work. In December of 2000 (as I have said before) I made a conscious decision to write a story a week. Been working ever since at a much higher pace then I ever did before. Guess what? I started selling. Grew a career.
A funny thing happened in the course of all that hard work. The Muse found me.
It's like the old joke, where God tells Moishe, "Buy a lottery ticket!" The Muse tells writers, "Write some, damn it."
Because I only get that calling-down-fire-from-the-gods feeling when I am writing, never when I'm waiting to write or thinking about writing or wishing I was writing. And I've written a lot of dreck along the way. But every time I sit down at my keyboard, I'm buying a ticket in the Muse lottery.
The Muse and hard work are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I submit, they can be one and the same. It's certainly worth a shot, innit? Meanwhile, you've got more stories written while waiting for her to fly by the window.
Quit looking for the magic, people, and do the work.
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I dunno, the muse has been known to knock on my window when I'm idling at a red light, and give me direction out of the blue, when things aren't otherwise gelling. Work, yes, work is the creation. But inspiration is what kicks us into high gear.
(actually, my Muse is a tall guy with a funny accent, who can say something random and set my neurons to firing in massive creative bursts. What, and you thought I kept him around for his fashion sense?)
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anghara |
| 2006-10-26 03:20 (UTC) |
| (no subject) |
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Quit looking for the magic, people, and do the work.
When it comes to writing, as far as I am concerned, the work IS the magic.
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I agree, as I agree that the work should be constant. I think 'constant' is a more flexible interpretation than 'daily'. A daily workload certainly works for me. But not everybody works well with a daily workload: Martin has been living in London over the last year (he, like me, is a Western Australian native) and beats himself up over the fact that he's in a wonderful foreign city and he doesn't clsoe the door on it and write every day (If I was spending a year in exotica, I'd be exploring!). Deb produces some amazing stories, but infrequently, and again, beats herself up about it rather than see the quality in what she does produce.
Personally, when I don't get down at least something every day, I see shit in my mirror, because I produce my best work when it's an every day thing. When Martin and Deb have tried, the regularity of the task became a daily noose they were putting their necks into, but they're conditioned to feel like they have to write every day, and for what they want to achieve, I don't know that it's necesary. It may be that it's the difference between the driven "career" writer and the (for want of a better word) hobbyist, I don't know. Certainly, I'm not at the stage of my career where I feel like I've made the necessary breakouts, and I do want that full;-time career, so the workload is one I want.
But the idea of a muse, to me, is sheer BS. A muse is nothing more or less than the ability to pay attention to what's hapepning around you, and then turn it into soemthing. writers who rely on a capital-M 'Muse' to guide their efforts are whistling at fairies.
Cheers,
Lee, in his LJ mask and cape :)
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All I'm saying is, the next book I write, I'm writing in my own time. Constantly, yeah, perhaps even with realistic daily goals like Lee is at the moment, but not under such insane constraints as I put myself under this year. And next time, with any luck, it'll be something I'm actually inspired by, instead of contractually obligated by. :)
(Lee, how the hell did we end up getting mentioned on someone like Jay's journal???)
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| jaylake |
| 2006-10-26 11:50 (UTC) |
| (no subject) |
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Certainly, "on your time" is the way to do it. Whatever that means for you. I'm not actually advocating daily writing per se, even though that's my current practice. I'm advocating consistent writing, which is my general practice.
(You're here because you're too cool not to be.)
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You're here because you're too cool not to be.
And tomorrow I'll be behind the bike racks, smoking :)
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| jaylake |
| 2006-10-26 11:45 (UTC) |
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Hey, Lee. And I actually don't write daily when I'm not working on a novel -- more like, 3, 4 days a week. It's the regularity of practice that drives my writing.
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It's the regularity of practice that drives my writing.
Yep, that's the key for me too. I developed the 'every day' habit in 2002/2003, when it was just me and my baby daughter: I worked 3 days a week, and put her in day care for 5, so I had 2 days of writing and housework, and because she was an infant and in bed very early in the evening, I was able to write a couple of hours and still be in bed early enough to deal with the midnight feeds. When I met my wife and her kids, and we embarked on our family life together, the writing routine became interrupted, and it's only now that I've worked out what it is I need from the writing process, and have re-instituted something close to the pattern that saw me at my (writing) best.
Regularity helps you establish a rhythm, and I'm a strong believer in the idea of a writing rhythm. Even if you're one of those people who get a couple of hours on a Sunday, establishing that as a pattern is important.
I certainly wish Martin would write more, and more regularly, but then, I like his writing, and I'm selfish that way :)
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| mckitterick |
| 2006-10-26 07:19 (UTC) |
| (no subject) |
| evolution-robot |
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every time I sit down at my keyboard, I'm buying a ticket in the Muse lottery
- Perfect.
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| jaylake |
| 2006-10-26 11:54 (UTC) |
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Well, yes. But not in the sense that people looking for the secret handshake mean it...
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not in the sense that people looking for the secret handshake mean it...
Oh Jay, I thought you knew better than that. There's no secret handshake to writing success.
It's a gold ring :)
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| jkling |
| 2006-10-26 23:42 (UTC) |
| (no subject) |
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Maybe waiting for the muse is a little like warming up in exercise? The first few minutes on a treadmill, I'm not going very fast, but after awhile I'm ready to go and hit my stride.
I do think it's true that inspiration is best found through the work. It's tempting to wait for it to hit, but that seems to waste a lot of time. Lately I've settled on 500 words a day, which seems to be a good manageable pace for me.
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