Anyone who’s hung aroud here knows that my Muse is something of a terror. Her nickname is Iffy and she runs with scissors. She also likes scrolling through photos of sexy men and drinks far too much caffeine for my own good. She is flighty, stubborn, and has been known to throw a temper tantrum or three.. When I read this little jewel from the Universe, I immediately thought of her.

Funny, Silver, most folks “there” are waiting for a sign of sorts from folks “here,” before they make a move, take action, or commit.

Same “here.”

Let this be your sign,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. Good thing we have eternity, huh, Silver?

I’m pretty sure y’all are giving me the fish eye about now. Bear with me. Writers talk about our muses. We talk about writer’s block. We talk about staring at blank pages because our creativity played Elvis and left the building. Who, exactly, is out “there” waiting? And who is “here” has the info “they” are waiting on? Well…writers and muses, obviously. See, that’s our crutch. Don’t get me wrong. Yes, there are times when creativity hits rock bottom for a variety of reasons. Been there, done that. But just sitting around waiting for the ol’ Muse to get off the bench and get back in the game is kinda fruitless. No new words on that path.

Now, I’m going to take this a step further, but keep that whole creativity/inspiration idea in the back of your mind. There and here. Those there are our characters. As much as they like to pretend they are, they are not autonomous. They live in our imaginations. They’re just sitting around waiting for us to give them marching orders. We tell them where to go, when to go, and who to go with. Easy peasy. Right? Not always, but it should be.

And yeah, sometimes it feels like an enternity when we’re fighting for ideas, to write ourselves out of that corner, to move the story along, to make our characters interesting and multi-dimensional, to put emotional impact into our words. Dang. Writing is hard! But it isn’t. Usually. When I get desperate–or I’m bored–I’ll find a flash fiction challenge. A whole bunch of my writing the past two years has been due to flash fiction. It’s a way to get a prompt, which should prompt an idea, which should lead to words coming from the keyboard. Luckily, I’m a puzzler so those disparate scenes eventually all find their place in the story. This method is not for everyone but it works for me. For “normal” writers, twist that prompt into your next scene. Start a conversation between two of your characters. Make them do something that encompasses the prompt. Even if you toss those words into the cut-scene file, you’re writing. And isn’t that the whole point? So whether you are there or here, don’t waste your eternity.

Sorry, readers. Today’s “class” was aimed at writers. But since you love to read, hopefully, my words will inspire someone and you’ll read their book. Speaking of, what are you currently reading? I just started “The Librarian of Crooked Lane.” We’ll see how it goes.