There is no muse.

The End.

Just kidding. But it’s true.

What we writers experience as “The Muse” is a sense of accomplish-ing. Past tense accomplishments only feel good for about five minutes, or weeks, or months. But, eventually the happy wears off. And that, my friends, is the curse of the writing bug.

A writer is never completely satisfied with HAVING WRITTEN.
He must BE WRITING, or he no longer feels like a writer.

How do we keep it going?

1. Noodle ideas every day: in the car, at the bank, while not paying attention to a boring conversationalist…wherever.

2. TRY THEM OUT ON THE PAGE.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until an idea starts working.

With avid noodling and trying out ideas, I’ve never had to wait for more than a few days to get one going that I really like.

Waa-laa, Muse!

Now, the real trick is getting the self-esteem out of the ditch enough to even TRY step 1.

Deanna

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