Monday, March 14, 2016

Three Maneuvers That's Helping the Muse

Slowly, slowly, slowly, but somewhat surely, my muse is starting to spark. I think it's a combination of three things.

One: I gave it a rest. It's true I don't have great amounts of time for writing fiction, but I do spend the majority of my day writing and editing. Even the most active brain (mine, which continues to fire at night while my body struggles to sleep) needs time to recuperate. Since 2008, I've written, edited, and published three novels and a cookbook, as well as outlined a long experimental novel consisting of five unfinished novels. Since 2014, I've written three of them. See what I mean? That's enough to shut down even the most enthusiastic muse.

Two: Last week, I began spending some time with my newest characters. Relationships take time to grow, even imaginary ones, and I can't properly tell their tale if I don't know them.

Three: I set aside the character Q&As this weekend in favor of slow, serene walks, time spent with extended family, and the rereading of various parts of Before the Blood already written. This gave me encouragement for the next journey and pure enjoyment in what's already accomplished.

I'll incontinue in this mode for a couple of weeks. On Saturday I'm working the spaghetti dinner at our church and next weekend I'm on call. By the time I get to that third weekend, I anticipate my muse will be bursting with ideas and nudging me to the computer.

Happy Monday, vampire vans. ;)

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