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Whispering Muses

Happy Thursday All,

Who or what is your muse and inspiration?

To be honest, I don't know if I have the same muse for everything I write. I haven't figured that out, yet. I know for certain different things inspire me--it's not always the same thing. 

When I started Surreal I had this thought in my head:  I like the paranormal genre, I like dark brooding male characters for my heroes. I missed a character I had written years before that got lost when computer crashed and I only had bits and pieces saved on diskette. Anyway, eventually I figured out I wanted to write Fantasy and Paranormal.

But then I did something I never had done with my writing:  I listened to music while I wrote. I had to turn it on low, and I had to make sure it wasn't too distracting. That's when I  discovered my muse for Surreal. It was Chris De Burgh's music. Sure, I listened to other music, but if you look at my list in the margins, you'll notice there's several Chris De Burgh titles. Everything from Lady In Red to an instrumental or two. His music put me in the right mood for writing the story.

As for my other stories, the inspiration for each of them is unique--not the exact same things inspire the characters and plotline. At this time, I don't think Chris De Burgh's music is my muse for these novels--I'm not sure exactly what is. When I figure that out, I'll probably tell you.

So, what's your muse/inspiration?

Have A Thoughtful Thursday!

Comments

Unknown said…
Sometimes, my muse is brilliant, charming, and funny. Other times, I swear she's taken off for the South of France, laughing at me on her way out the door.

When I get that feeling, the one where the Muse has left me, I listen to old jazz standards, a LOT of Rat Pack, or that era, and wait for something brilliant to strike.

I have to say, Bethany, you DO ask the tough ones...:)
Anonymous said…
I wish my muse would stay focused!
I often get inspired by a simple comment from someone, or something that happened that I could see happening in another way.The story or concept will come so fast,it seems like someone turning a light on or sprinkling fairy dust on the seed of a story.
A personal muse was a dear friend of mine who died last year and did not get to finish her work, which had been unappreciated by her family, but she kept me writing!
May she inspire all of us from Where She Is Now.
Tonette
Anonymous said…
PS...William, Rat Pack?
Oh, man, was I ever brought up on them,esp. Frank...did my mother EVER love Frank!
(And Dino...and Sammy and...)
Tonette
Bethany said…
Will,

Somebody has to do it LOL. Frank Sinatra rocks. When one of my nephews was little all you had to do was start humming "New York New York" and he'd start dancing. It was the cutest thing. Music seems to help inspire a lot. Maybe one day my brother's compositions will inspire writers--you never know. Thanks for dropping by :-)
Bethany said…
Tonette,

Sorry to hear about your friend, but you're right, she might still be inspiring folks. Thank you for dropping by :-)
jeff7salter said…
I've had long dry spells and -- fortunately -- also many periods where I simply didn't have the time or energy to keep up with everything my muses were pouring out.
Some of my muses are people (or encounters with them) ... some are experiences (or remembering them). Some images come from who-knows-where and keep banging on my brain door until I write down what they're saying.
None of my muses have skipped to France, but they surely can hide somewhere. Something I shared with a writing friend many years ago is the following (describing a muse-less period):
"My creative window is painted shut."
Bethany said…
Jeff,

Thank you for dropping by. That's a good way of describing a dry spell. Hope you don't have too many dry-spells. Best wishes :-)
My muse has changed over the years. With my first trilogy, my television would always be tuned to satellite radio and set on classical music. Debussy and Schubert helped me through those rough days.
When I started writing book two for my second trilogy, one character jumped off the page and has spent an exceedingly amount of time with me since. So much so that when I took a break to fulfill a request for a short story for my publisher, he was quite eager to help out.
He's assisted me quite a bit since then and to the point that my editor has emailed me on more than one occasion and asked why my heroines were with their heroes one second and "Jason" the next. Yep, somehow two different heroes in two separate books had instantly changed their names to Jason and usually right in the heat of passion. Oh my!
I know there are a lot of menage authors out there that would welcome a second man just showing up and jumping in, but I'm not that kind of author. Hehehe!
Anyway, I've asked him to behave and so far he's been a good boy.
Muses can be a handful, but where would we be without them?
Great post, Bethany!
Bethany said…
Robin,

Thank you and thanks for dropping by. LOL yeah, I don't see you has an author who would just let random characters show up in the middle of the scene on purpose. Best wishes on your future releases :-)

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