Chaining Your Muse
Contributor
Written by
Alma Alexander
November 2009
Contributor
Written by
Alma Alexander
November 2009
Somebody is advertising a product absolutely guaranteed to kill writer's block. You'll get chains that will keep your muse bound in your basement to do your bidding. Words, muse. I want words. Deliver. And it can be yours for just a Tiny! Small! Fee! For heaven's sake. Writers' block isn't a disease that needs a cure. It may come and linger temporarily in all of us, like a summer cold, but the cure is passion, and dedication, and determination, and stubbornness, and need, and love. For myself, I write because I have to, because it's such a fundamental part of who I am. For those who dabble because it's fun, and then run smack dab against this particular brick wall, I have one piece of advice - when it stops being fun, quit, and go do something else. Chained muses eventually die, wrung dry, abandoned, ignored, forgotten. Getting a new one, if you go this route, is going to cost you far more than you ever bargained for, if you can do it at all, and THAT is a guarantee. The only way that a muse will help you is if you allow her to do it because she wants to, because she loves you, because it is a gift. You cannot coerce that, and keep it alive. Writing is harder for some than for others - but more than that, writing is hard for ALL of the people some of the time. Trust me on that. Sometimes the muse goes on vacation. If you have the passion and the love and the need, you have to trust that she will return, when she is ready. Don't spend hard-earned gold on the chains to keep her from leaving.

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Comments
  • Alma Alexander

    You're absolutely right, of course. Wonderfully unexpected things tend to wander in when you keep an open mind - and that doesn't necessarily mean cranking out all words, all the time. Sometimes it's necessary to dream first.

  • Margy Rydzynski

    I'd always had my best inspirations when I wasn't trying too hard. Showers are wonderful for that. So are long walks. The craft of fiction-writing goes beyond the actual production of written words, too. If my characters and situations are alive in my head, the writing goes nowhere.