Yes I do imagine my muse to be a tiny Woodstock-sounding thing, buzzing about my shoulders, and she won’t shut up. Just before NJRW’s February writing challenge, she ripped me away from a speculative WIP to write my first contemporary YA since high school. I won’t give specifics now, but I’m feeling very good about this one and thus owe a lot to that buzz in my ear.
Usually, I will take months to plan a book, but with the writing challenge so close and the muse so insistent (swatting the air over my shoulder), I decided to take the plunge and just write. With only two days of intense planning under my belt, I wrote, mapping out scenes as I came upon them and then drafting in earnest. This was how this book wanted to be written and written fast.
My last WIP, in contrast, felt like a long push uphill. For this paranormal romance, I spent a long time mapping out characters, plotting, re-plotting, creating scene cards, etc., so when it came to the actual writing I felt constrained by that structure. I had to tear everything down more than once and even started the manuscript over, dumping 15,000 words in the process. Currently, I feel very good about this quirky paranormal, but it was a long haul.
Lesson learned? Some books will be a push no matter what, but it helps to leave more breathing room than I’ve been as of late. My characters will always find a way to undermine my best-laid plans because they want to drive the plot, and more power to ’em.
How insistent is your muse? Is she monotone or melodic–does she push you in the same manner through every book?
Michelle Joyce Bond
michellejoycebond.com 
So far my muse has been fairly monotone. I have a consistent pattern I like to follow. But I never say never. Who knows when she might lead me down a different writing path someday?…
Your muse definitely sounds less finicky than mine. Jelly. 🙂
Mine must be left-brained like me. She’s very pragmatic. 😉
Glad to hear she’s working with a doctor. 🙂
Haha, she might not be.
I blog about my Muse all the time. She pushes me outside my comfort zones. It’s always been to my benefit… Eventually.
I love the title and your picture. 🙂
Thanks. 🙂
My muse is an evil little imp that dangles ideas above my nose when I really need to be working on more important things or when I’m too tired to write.
Mine loves to do that, too–it’s why I sometimes wind up passing out on notebooks, lol.
Fascinating take but I can see how a writers muse can be unsettling when it comes to structure as for my own I am not struggling so much
Glad to hear she’s behaving. 🙂
Hamlet as far as reads go and movie wise it’s hard to call the list is too big, I have been a Stephen chow fan tho
My muse is very bossy and insists I write whichever story she sticks in my head at the moment. I don’t write well with a lot of structure. I’m a pantser, so I have a loose idea of where the story should go and let the characters take it where they will.
I evolved into a partial pantser during this last MS. Too much structure was just that–too much. I don’t think I could let go of structure altogether though. I envy those who can. 🙂
It’s funny how the muse works. I don’t think I’ve written any of my stories or books the same way. It always seems a slightly different process.
Definitely! Also–though she pushes me to write differently with each book, I feel she always has the same quirky voice. 🙂