Muses? (SPECIAL POST!)

First off--OMG IT'S MY 100TH POST ON WWW!!

Secondly, this post is in response to Jackson Pearce's post on muses on 2-24-2010.  *Hence why I'm posting today.*  To read her post click HERE

Although I do use the phrase "The writing muses hate me" or "The writing muses just aren't with me today", a muse, in my opinion is a very superficial thing.  The muse can be as real as that alarm clock buzzing at 5:30am or as imaginary as your friend as a child (or, you know, teenager...).  You interpret your muse as you want to.

I credit each writer to his or her own creativity (unless you've totally stolen someone's story), and it does bother me a bit when people thank their muses.  Who are they thanking?  Themselves for thinking of the idea?  God for planting the tiny seed in their brains when they were born?  Everyone in the world who someone influenced the idea?  But just because I credit the author, it doesn't mean that the author credits themselves. 

I know that it might be hard to imagine someone not wanting to take credit for his or her own work, but maybe the story really happened to someone.  Or the core of the story anyway.  Say your cousin went to war and you're basing you novel off of his or her experiences and adding more to it.  I can understand why you wouldn't take credit for that.  You're giving the credit to your cousin because he or she went through the experiences and they were real to them.  However, they're not to you.  Your cousin deserves credit for that.  But you still wrote it.

Or let's say you have this amazing dream of two people sitting in a meadow, one of them who's a total hottie and he's sparkling.  And he's telling her how hard it is for him not to basically eat her and drink her blood.  Who would you thank for this?  Yourself?  God?  Anybody who influenced it?  Well, you dreamt it.  You don't know who influenced it.  God seems pretty reasonable too--but I thank God for everything. 

But you still wrote the book.  (And yes, sometime you just have a God-given ability that you couldn't have just simply learned.  It was a gift.  USE IT!)

Now, let's say that your muse is a band.  Or a person.  Or whatever.  For example, I love listening to Robert Pattinson's music when I write because of how deep and emotional the songs are.  He's one of my 'muses'.  3 Story Fall (a band that broke up before they got far) was, and still is, one of my muses.  One of their songs in particular fits my story really well, so when I was down when writing draft one, I would go and listen to it.  Leanna Renee Hieber and Stephenie Meyer are two more muses because they're just down-right inspiring.  Jackson Pearce is another one of my muses because she's kind of given me a better image of how to go through the writing process from outlining to publishing.  Plus her books are just amazing. *Plural because, even though her second book isn't out yet (SISTERS RED), the cover is amazing, and I am judging this book by its cover.*

Music is a huge muse, for a lot of people--so don't be afraid to use it.  Piano melodies are really nice for me--especially River Flows in You.  People can be muses.  Movies, occasionally can be.  Pride and Prejudice (2005) is a muse to me and helps me write better sometimes if I watch it because I am reminded of the simple essence of love rather than what's in movies these days.  But be careful with movies--it's easy to steal ideas and not even know you're doing it.

If you'd like more of my opinion on the subject, comment and I'll post more.  This is just my two cents.

With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired