RedHotRomance

Okay, so what's the magic formula for finding your muse? I've been struggling with this question over the past few weeks. I have this book I've been working on... and every day I get up, turn on the computer, bring up the document and... nothing... nothing... nothing... I'm hitting my head against the keyboard in frustration. I'm home right now. There's absolutely no reason I can't write. How do I make that blank screen, fantastic?

So to distract myself from the dilemma, I promptly get lost in the internet; e-mails, marketing, websites, and a whole bunch of lame excuses to do anything but-- write.

So what's the magic formula? I begin the search.

I try several things first: sleep in late and try to force dreaming about my book, maybe this will bring my muse... no.... but it feels really good to sleep in. Watch a TV show that might trigger my muse... no... but I'm enjoying CSI this year, really gory, and that new show Bones is a hoot... eat some food that might trigger my muse... definitely no and a bad idea considering I'm already 20 pounds to the Rubenesque, but damn I love pasta... get that blogging done I was supposed to do... no... but now I know how to log onto a blogger, I'm no longer a blog virgin... Take a walk with my hubby and brainstorm the book... no...no… he hates talking about my books and gives dumb ideas... Take a trip to Tahoe and gamble... no... and now I'm $200.00 down and angry I donated it to the casino. Ughhh, what's the answer?

Okay, finally last night I figured it out, I found my muse. How did I do it you ask? I shut off the internet access and just typed. Do it, start typing, who cares what it says, type, blah, blah, blah, then she turned the corner and saw the man and blah, blah, blah. Type with horrible grammar, "she done it with him again," type run-on sentences, "and then, and then, and then, and, and, and, that, that, that." Use as many comma’s as you want. Type until you finish the entire chapter.

Then you know what happens?

The light begins to glow and flicker. You go back to edit and guess what, that word you were searching for pops in... it's magical and the chapter begins to form into the art you'd been searching so hard for. Yes, that's what I was looking for. And you go back to do a second edit, and you know what? Chapter fifteen is looking pretty good and chapter sixteen begins to run through your head like a movie, what if I do this and this... Back to chapter fifteen one more time, oh, wow, now it's feeling like the best chapter I've ever written. You're saying to yourself, "THIS IS IT. THIS was what I was searching for." And then... okay, you're getting the idea here, enough of the dramatics. Here it is… Nora Roberts, the Queen, says it and by golly, it's the truth…

I can fix a bad page; I can't fix a blank page.
—Nora Roberts, New York Times best-selling author

Signed Rae with a completed, Chapter 15.

Next, we'll discuss minimizing interruptions after you've lassoed that muse ;)

# posted by Rae Monet : 10:03 AM