When do you write?

With the baby, my life schedule has changed quite a bit. The first few weeks, it was weird, living on a 24 hour schedule - it didn't seem to matter if it was day or night, but we were up every couple hours to feed the baby. Then she started sleeping a bit more and it started to normalize back to day and night... But it's all gotten me thinking.

When do you write?

When are you most creative? When do your mental wheels kick into gear and get moving?

Now, I'm not talking about the sitting-down-and-writing-because-it's-a-job-damnit writing, because you have to do that, no matter if inspiration strikes or not, but when do you feel most inspired. It doesn't even have to be when you write, it could be when you come up with your best ideas, the greatest plot twists, the genius title.

For me, I've always been a night owl. I'm at my best late at night, when the world is quiet. But weirdly, I wrote my first book by getting up early and writing first thing in the morning. It seemed like the words just seemed to flow best then. So I think I brainstorm best at night, laying in bed in the dark, but I write best earlier in the day.

What about you? What part of the day causes you to leap into mental action?

I know a lot of you have jobs that you have to work around - you carve out precious time for writing. Do you pick the time of day that works best for your creativity or your schedule?

Once I go back to work, I'm going to have even more to juggle besides writing, baby, and family life. Guess I'll have to start getting into practice squeezing those words in somehow...

And like Julie says - set an alarm for the kid - it's awkward to get caught up in a scene and forget about them :)

Skye
p.s. I'm thinking about writing a recurring series about lawyering stuff - would anyone have any questions or interest in that? It's a little awkward because of the whole not-wanting-to-offer-real-legal-advice thing, but I could chat about interesting topics...

Baby Evil Writers 101: There Is No Muse

Baby Evil Writers 101: There is no Muse

Julie Butcher

If one more person tells me they didn’t write today because the muse is gone on vacation I’m going to smack them hard.

There is no muse. Let me repeat myself, there is no muse.

The only thing there is, is to put your butt in the chair and open the document and think about the story until the words hit your fingers. There is self-control. There is hard work. There is stubbornness. There is a brilliant mind that wants to fritter away time on twitter and facebook and favorite TV shows. There is not, however, a freaking fairy that bops you on the head until they make a hole and shove a story into your brain.

Stress saps creativity. Hunger sucks main characters dry. Illness makes your story about bodily fluids which is nasty. But the straight truth is that you are your own muse and that if you don’t take care of yourself and eat and drink and sleep—you won’t write.

Quit making excuses that are the equivalent of telling a cop that you weren’t speeding, the car was going too fast because and invisible Bigfoot had his hairy appendage on the gas pedal. Listen to me, we both don’t believe you. Not one little tiny bit.

If you believe yourself about the muse thing then you are in big trouble. Also you should probably seek professional help.

I know people who were going through horrible experiences in their lives and yet still managed to write and publish a story. If you want to be paid money, then it is a job and sometimes jobs are hard WORK. If it were all fun and games then you would get no money and it would be called PLAY.

We don’t believe in a muse. We believe in work. If you want to keep fooling yourself, then go away from me. When I don’t write it is because I am stressed or lazy or sick. There is no invisible force stopping my fingers. There is only me, on the couch watching television. Sometimes there is me, working in the garden. But you know what? I know what I’m doing. I don’t blame others for me being lazy or evasive.

Suck it up people. Be honest with yourself, and get your butt in the chair.

March to the beat of your own muse

My darling husband is a musician. Not professionally, but his whole life he's played one instrument or another and he just gets music. I do not. I don't get music to the extent that I can barely clap along to the rhythm of a song, much to my husband's amusement.

So yesterday, in the car, on a road trip home, we started discussing music. We started with him trying to explain to me why 6/8 time is different from 3/4 time, which I feel was a bit like tossing me in the deep end of the pool. I mean, mathematically, they're the same thing. Why is it different musically?  Anyways, from there he tried to teach me about the difference between where the emphasis is in rock music versus jazz music (For rock, on the 2 and 4 beats, whereas jazz is the 1 and 3 beats, traditionally).

And I can understand it. Intellectually. I can't feel it, though. And I'm never going to feel it. I'm just about the least musical person I've ever met, and I'm okay with that. Sure, I'd love to be able to sit down at a piano and wow my friends, but it's never going to happen. My husband, on the other hand, just gets it. Music is an intrinsic part of him and that's great.

But it got me thinking. In Greek mythology, there were 9 muses. Each one was dedicated to a different area of creativity. And I kind of love that idea. Sure, I got the muse for writing, but the muse for music didn't even make it into my neighborhood.

My brother is a professional photographer, and a damn good one. Sometimes I look at his work and feel deeply uncreative because he can produce images of such incredible quality and all I do is write down the words floating around my head. It doesn't feel creative to me. But creativity comes in so many different forms.

So remember that when you're faced with someone else's creativity. It may make you feel inferior or like you can't do your own thing, but just keep in mind, they've got their own muse. There's no reason why their muse is any better or worse than your own muse, but just different.

Well, except for Clio. I think we can all agree that a muse who inspires history is really only of use to a timelord.

Skye