Word of the Day Challenge: Click

Years ago I was in a group of great creatives who were asked to visualize our Muse– what did your Muse look like? Sound like? Was it even human?

Once you  had that image in your head you could focus and ask,  what am I trying to write here? Who’s in this story? All those questions.

So instead of just talking in your own head, you could take it one step further and ‘see’  your Muse. It actually helped create my richer characters and it helped my with my dialogue.

 I found that when I had a face and a voice to bounce ideas off of my writing got a richer- and loads more fun. I was lucky. Me and my Muse clicked right off the bat.

So meet my Muse.

Nah. Just kidding. I went waaayyy out of the box and lucky me, because my Muse is awesome.

My  Muse inspired ideas might not be ALL top shelf ideas. But I can count on them showing up like clockwork and I don’t have to torture myself to get to them.

So to answer the question. Who did  pop into my head when I asked myself the big question-who is my Muse? Who inspires me to write, to have fun with my craft?

I closed my eyes. I took a breath. I sipped my strawberry margarita ( well, sipped might be an understatment and more then one might have been involved )

and –

Voila!

  There he was.

I didn’t over think the process, so I can’t explain the why my imagination roped this one in. Plus I don’t think it matters. Besides I probably have the same look on my face when I’m writing and really in the zone.

In case your not a Whovian, this is David Tennant as The Ghost of Christmas Present- and that character is who inspires me to write.

For a little background-

As we worked together over the years, the photo below illustrates how my Muse reacts when I’m about to kill a story or a poem because it’s not “perfect”

Ok. It’s true. Some pieces I’ve completed were less then stellar. But so what? I wrote them. I put time into them. Plus. I’ve -rewritten a few that turned out to be pretty good.

Besides, it doesn’t hurt to keep those around. It’s like when you were a kid and your parents would keep a growth chart for  you, or like mine they simply stood you against a wall and draw a mark over your head.

I like reading my early work. Some of it was not half bad at all – for a newbie.

This gives you the a taste of what it’s like having my Muse telling me that I can write, or not write but honestly. Which is the right thing to do? If I reach into that well of creativity what is the answer I’ll bring back up?

I would say, ” Look for pictures to post on Caturday. “

It works. Most of the time.

So this this is the Muse I talk to when I’m writing, who acts out the character’s parts in my head when I’m writing because this character  was fun and energetic and a little devilish too.

Plus he looked pretty cute.

Yes, I know.

There are probably deeper, more meaningful ways of approaching my writing. I could take more writing classes, I could read MORE great literature and absorb poetry like a luxury luffa sponge that you score at one of the expensive Spas that have security guards inside the door.

Or I could just sit back and ask my Muse- ” hey, are you up for a story about a serial killing Nan and the ghost of her demonic sister? What do you think, does that sound good- and he looks at me like this:

Guess what.

I’m going to start writing.

I’m not sure that this is the way this Muse thing works for everyone, but  me it works like a charm.