MY MUSES HAVE STOPPED PLAYING GAMES

Having your creative muses come to help you out is great, especially when you need them the most. However, from time to time they get also become a nuisance.

This was the case with the recent visit of my muses. They came and gave me the inspiration I needed to move on with the final completion of my manuscript. As I sat down to resume creating the words on the screen in front of me, they began to tease me with quick bursts of new ideas. This happen several times, and several times I tried to resist their presence, but as I said in a previous post, “If they come, you must listen.”

The good news they left Friday night, leaving me with ideas for two more novels, both paranormals, one adult contemporary/paranornal and another YA paranormal.  The idea for the adult PNR was so vivid, that yesterday I typed the first five pages/1,100 words.

With their presence gone, and the beginning of my next WIP already done, I finally got back to the present and typed the rest of chapter 35 [four and a half pages]. Hopefully, at this rate, and no further distractions, I should be typing that elusive final period by Wednesday

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WHEN THE MUSES INSIDE YOU HEAD SPEAK – YOU LISTEN

How many of us have lost ideas of what to write next simply because we didn’t listen to the voices [the muses] inside our heads? I’ve learned my lesson well, because it has happen to me more than once as I wrote the manuscript I’m currently working on.

I was too busy in the writing of now for my manuscript to listen too these ideas formulating inside my head. I felt they would come back when I would be looking, however, much to my chagrin, I’ve proven to myself I had been wrong. I wound up racking my brain to come up with ideas again, but they were lost, never to be found again.

Soon after my post last week, I had the best of intentions to stay focused so I would have typed that final elusive period by now. However, when my muses began to give me ideas of what to write as my next writing endeavor, I listen. And now, a week later, I have not one but two ideas, which I’ve already typed out, waiting to start writing them.

Right now, the muses have left my head and I’m resting to clear my mind from their presence. My plan is to wake up tomorrow. bright and alert, and eager to begin writing the final pages of my manuscript, and with no more mental interruptions from these muses; my final period should make its presence known on Sunday.

So my advice to you, my followers is, When the muses inside your head speak — you better listen, if not, the ideas which you might have gotten will be like water under the bridge, long gone and never to return again.

LISTENING TO THAT VOICE INSIDE MY HEAD

Robert Burns wrote in his poem, “To a Mouse”
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren’t alone]                                                                                          In proving foresight may be vain:                                                                                                                            The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men                                                                                                                 Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]                                                                                                                                 An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,                                                                                                                    For promised joy.

This is precisely where I am regarding the completion of the manuscript for my novel. It hasn’t matter what I’ve planned to do, something has continuously crept up to curtail my plans for the past several days since my last post. Here I sat thinking of how I should begin chapter thirty-five of my novel, after having reviewed the corrections/suggestions made by my editor for the previous chapter, and having a steady flow of continuous interruptions.

Today I heard a voice, as I’ve heard for the past several days, inside my head telling to go back to the previous chapter. Why should I go back to something I know I’ve totally reviewed? Could it be that I had missed something, something I had taken for granted as being correct? How many of you have had the same experience? Most of the time I’ve ignored this, and I’ve found myself being correct in the stand I took. But this afternoon, as I resisted in going back to the previous chapter, the voice inside my head urging me to take this course of action became exceptionally strong. I figured it would be better to give in now, than to resist any more.

I cleared my head of everything except the task I was about to undertake. I printed out a copy of the chapter in question, and began a slow, slow read. Reading this with a cleared mind and a “new” set of eyes, I found not one, not two, three or four changes which needed to be made; I found I had about twenty faux pas. Once I had completed this somewhat arduous task, and had saved the changes, I took a break to clear my head once again.

This evening after eating dinner and watch an episode of “Eureka” on NetFlix online, I printed out the chapter again [there’s something after holding the printed word in your hands as opposed to reading on a screen] and read it again. This time the inner voice in my head seemed to be at peace knowing that everything is the way it should be.

Once I sat down the words which had been trapped in my head began to flow into my fingertips, it took me about twenty minutes to think of what to type next and to have another double-spaced page completed. This might not sound like a lot to have typed, however if you consider I anticipate needing about fifteen to twenty more pages to reach the typing of the final period in my novel. I’ll only need about ten more hours to reach the end of this long, long tunnel I’ve been traveling through to reach this end. Which makes reaching my self-imposed deadline of this weekend a definite reality.

So if anyone has any doubts in listening to that voice inside your head telling you to follow a different path in your writing endeavor than you had in mind. Take it from me and listen to that voice, you’ll be happier in the end if you do.

I’M DEFINITELY HAPPIER NOW THAT I DECIDED TO FINALLY LISTEN TO THAT VOICE INSIDE MY HEAD.