The Words of a Muse

She's Not Paying Attention

noreply@blogger.com (B Mari Landgrebe) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Since the beginning of December I've been trying to get my Writer to see what I've been trying to show her. She won't listen to me, her Muse for goodness sake, but she'll listen to everyone else's advice on what she should do now Origins Book 1 is completed. She keeps trying to follow all this advice, keeps asking me if each one is what I want when all she has to do is what I'm trying to tell her.

The Main Character is still slightly weak, there isn't enough conflict, I can show her how to make Origins better.

It's that easy.

But nooooo.

She has to go and try to work on Night Run, not think about Origins for 6 weeks. She's doing this because the big names in books tell her to. Well I don't give a cheeseball what Stephen King advises, I am not his Muse and last time I checked Brittany was my Writer, not him. Every writer is different, and while some have aspects of their process that are similar, there is no reason Brittany needs to emulate her favorite authors. She's a great one on her own, she doesn't need to be a copy cat. If she does turn out to do some of the same things as those authors she looks up to, then great, but I refuse to work within the confines of another Muse's workshop guidelines.

What? You thought Muses were all the same? We have many different ways of doing things, just like our Writers, so please don't pigeonhole me, thank you very much.

I wanted her to read through Origins as soon as she'd recovered from NaNoWriMo, but she balked from the prospect. I was expecting that, because it is very daunting to try to edit and revise a 90K+ novel, so I went easy on her. She took advantage of my kindness and started playing with all kinds of hobbies - knitting, painting, cooking, watching tv while doodling with the idea for Night Run.

I don't want to write Night Run yet! It's contemporary fiction, with modern day beliefs, rules, etc. No mythological beings, no magic, just straight up fake in the real world. So why the hell is Brittany trying to get herself completely out of Origins before finishing the work on the first book, let alone the series? It may work for other writers, other muses, but not us. And instead she just keeps banging her head against her books, her keyboard, her notes, her wall and other firm surfaces because I refuse to work on something else when Origins still needs work, especially when it's not even the same genre.

Now I have to get her back into the world we'd created in Origins, get her to finish the revisions and plot out the rest of the series. I think she's up for it now. I think she's given up trying to force me to do things she doesn't want to do either.

I think she's finally ready to go with the flow.

Today, My Writer Was Stupid

noreply@blogger.com (B Mari Landgrebe) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:51:00 +0000

My Writer was telling her little Twitter Friends she was leaving them for a bit to get started on revisions, but she just haaaad to read the last few tweets when the page refreshed.

Now she's having a mini panic attack.

All about the novels Point Of View. Well, of course this is extremely important, but I let her go the way she wanted. I'd been hoping a revelation on the POV would gradually come up as she worked on revising, but nooooooo. It just had to smack her in the face when she wasn't supposed to be looking at Twitter to begin with. So now she's frozen in the middle of deciding if she should stay with the immediate 3rd person POV she started writing in, or rewrite in 1st person POV.

I can sort of understand her conundrum. The novel is a YA Epic Fantasy, which is normally done, and often flows better, in 3rd person. But with the gorgeous Paranormal twist, 1st person is also very suitable. With the cross of two such genres, she's having to figure out which is more prevalent - the epic fantasy or the paranormal twist. What has more weight in the flow of the story?

I can tell she thinks 1st could work better. It keeps the reader more intensely focused on what the Main Character is experiencing. But I know she isn't sure about switching. She's done 1st a few times, once in a short story on her blog, but found it slightly uncomfortable. The "I, me, we" felt awkward, and in her readings of 1st person she sometimes didn't want to be so close to the protagonist. Other times it didn't feel right, the main characters' actions not coinciding in any way with what she would have done, and therefore taking her out of the story.

But she's comfortable in her immediate 3rd person. She's been using it since she settled on the MC and through the first version and the rewrite. It allows enough distance to further the feel of epic fantasy, but staying so close to the MC, even thinking and feeling from only his POV deepens the bond of reader and protagonist. I think she thinks it allows her distance as the writer but keeps the reader close. In her eyes, the narrative in this story is essentially 1st person but with 3rd person wording.

As I was writing this, I thought I knew which she should go with. Now I'm not so sure. Both POV's have strengths and weaknesses, by themselves and with her raw talents. All she can really do now is try them both out. Oh, goodness.

She is going to be hysterical when she realizes she'll likely have to do an entire rewrite in 1st person, just to get a good feel on which one to use in the end.

She Isn't Alone

noreply@blogger.com (B Mari Landgrebe) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Oh now really. This is beginning to get on my nerves. My Writer has been having far too many problems with her sleeping and her medications and whatnot, and its getting in the way of the words I'm trying to give her. There's a block in her mind, the words are traveling and getting there, but each time she goes for days without breaking it open, the day she finally does they fall upon her like a blizzard. Tuesday she wrote furiously, getting 6.9K in one span of waking hours. But the few ones before and the one after my words have only been able to trickle through a small window in that block. Yes, she has magnificently validated me by reaching the 25K NaNoWriMo before the midpoint of November, but that isn't what I want.

I want to know she wants to write every day. She tells me she does, constantly annoying me with her promises but often not actually doing so, hard as she tries. I want her to try, and to succeed, but the whining vexes me so. This up and down and this way and that is giving me whiplash, and really is not conducive to my wanting to give her words. She moans and complains a LOT on the days when her mind isn't letting me in, when I can't reach her soul and provide her the true sustenance she needs. It doesn't help her get over it. She's getting in my way, and ultimately in her own.

Above all, I want my Writer to relax. This thing she has about having set routines doesn't help her get the words, nor me to find them sometimes. Yes, we had a steady stream of words for some time, but we've only just begun this Journey of Words. There will be hard times along this road, and we can't keep looking for the easy way. It's not the way the Characters went, and it isn't even there.

Sometimes she says she feels so alone on this path.

Sometimes I want her to reach out for my hand, as I do for her.

The Woes of my Writer

noreply@blogger.com (B Mari Landgrebe) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:53:00 +0000

I have been shut out for the last three days. My writer had a lot of bad things happen for her, one that completely blocked the words I was trying to give her. I wanted to beat her over the head with them, but the Characters stopped me. Even the bad guys.

I'm a muse. I may be fickle, jealous, and flighty, but when it comes to writing I forget my Writer has as many emotions as the Characters whom I work with do. But they got me to see how bad off she was, and if I gave her words she'd only take them to kill everyone within five pages. The Characters would not be happy, but it would be me they would haunt, so I let it go.

Thankfully today my Writer is sitting down and reading through the last scene she'd let me give her. I can see how tentative she is, cautious about putting her fingers to the keyboard. Main Character says she's afraid if she starts writing again something or someone will come up and rip her from the words again. Best Friend of Main Character says its been as long for her as its been for all of us, but its harder for her because those things happened directly to her.

Oh look! She's added a word. Time to give her more. I'll be gentle today.

Tomorrow I won't be.

Lets Kick This Chick Into Gear

noreply@blogger.com (B Mari Landgrebe) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:19:00 +0000

NaNoWriMo has started, and I've finally gotten a chance to sneak in. Sorry I'm late in posting this, but my Writer wanted to do other, non writerly stuff. I didn't approve, but she didn't listen.

In October she wasn't listening to me at ALL. She'd tinker with a piece of dialogue or play with the characters, but she wouldn't pay attention when I was trying to tell her the next scene was. She tweeted, blogged, chatted and ignored me. So I finally decided to wait and let her get nervous and then sneak up on her. Hehehehe boy was she in for a surprise.

My Writer started getting worried about not finishing the first in a series before NaNo started. Finally she found out she could do NaNoRebel and finish it, and I was pleased to see she also wanted to start the sequel during NaNo too. But I waited to give her the words. She made me wait, so I was going to let her squirm a bit.

At midnight on November 1st I sent my Writer a gush of words, and thank goodness she caught most of them. She did lose a few by stupidly quitting Writer or Die without copying, but she got them back in the end. Since then I've been able to give her a steady stream of words and she's been doing pretty well. It doesn't hurt she's rewritten this story a few times, but I'm proud of her.

What I'm not so happy about is how she gets into all kinds of commitments and social networks. There are days like today when she not only needs to catch up on words but also catch up on her other things, like a blog for a guest post on her friends site, one on hers, and give me time on this one she let me have. I can understand why she likes them and wants to do them, but sometimes I wish I could lock her up and do the writing myself. But I can't, because I need her to type the words I have.

Speaking of which, I should get her back to the words. Hey, just because I'm a Muse doesn't mean I don't get breaks.