{"id":966,"date":"2018-06-06T09:46:30","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T13:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=966"},"modified":"2018-06-06T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T13:46:30","slug":"the-on-again-off-again-muse-or-how-i-keep-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/06\/the-on-again-off-again-muse-or-how-i-keep-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"The On-Again-Off-Again Muse or How I Keep Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 9, 2018, Writeforfun wrote, A few years ago, by the time I was into my second book, I got to the point where I was writing at least three hours, every single day (which seems like a LOT to me!). I look back and don\u2019t know how I was doing it! Nowadays I just don\u2019t feel nearly as inspired or motivated. Lately I\u2019ve been writing a few words every couple weeks, if not months. It\u2019s sad, I enjoyed it when I was writing more, but the inspiration just isn\u2019t coming like that any more.<\/em><\/p>\n

I noted that this wasn\u2019t a question, but I added it to my list anyway, because I think getting down to writing is something lots of us struggle with.<\/p>\n

Three hours does seem like a lot to me. Great while it lasted. And maybe it\u2019s returned by now.<\/p>\n

Let me start with my most pessimistic response and move upward. Kids who love to write don\u2019t always continue to write stories. Many young people who love to write are artistic overall and wind up swearing their allegiance to another art form, like painting or playing the flute. The writing fades, often painlessly. Some adults and other young people who love to write may become discouraged by rejection or criticism, and their enthusiasm wanes. This probably isn\u2019t painless.<\/p>\n

On a subconscious level, I think, some bump up against how fiendishly hard writing is and don\u2019t find it in themselves to keep going. They allow themselves to be distracted by other tasks that seem more pressing. The budding story is visited less and less often.<\/p>\n

A friend once pointed something out to me that I\u2019d never considered: There are two kinds of art. One is interpretive, like playing the piano from sheet music, and the other is originating, like writing a story or composing music. When we write a story, we do have tools: our training, experience, every book we\u2019ve ever read. But the page is blank and we have to make it all up. In my opinion, that\u2019s much harder\u2013not that interpretation is easy!<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean that leaving writing means we won\u2019t ever come back. Life may teach us to cope with criticism and rejection. Or we may reread an old story fragment, love it as we couldn\u2019t when it was newly minted, and be filled with fresh ideas. The capricious muse may pay us a visit and decide to stay.<\/p>\n

And, usually, people who stop writing fiction are still skilled writers. They can draft an academic paper, an email, even a text message with more ease and flair than the average person. This stands them in good stead forever.<\/p>\n

Some writers write only when they feel inspired. Some of them have careers as writers. Many of them, when inspiration comes, dive in and don\u2019t surface until the magic is spent, often when a work is complete. Eating and sleeping have to wait. If you and Writeforfun fall into this category, I wouldn\u2019t worry about a drought. The rain will come.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t fall into the inspirational group, so I have to work at making myself write. I use several strategies that you on the blog can adapt, if you don\u2019t use them already.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Some writers have a daily page goal, which may work for you. The goal can be one paragraph or one page or five pages, whatever you decide. I don\u2019t do it that way, or I\u2019d face a lot of twenty-four hour stretches at my laptop and still fail. Instead, I have a time goal: two-and-a-quarter hours or more per writing day. (Some days I\u2019m doing other things, like visiting friends.) I keep track of my times, starting at the beginning of the day. Whenever I stop, like to put dishes in the dishwasher or read an irresistible email, I write down the stop time and the restart time. If I reach my goal and the day isn\u2019t over, I keep writing. As I go, I keep a running tally of the total.<\/p>\n

\u2219 On days when, for no good reason, I don\u2019t meet my goal, usually because I allowed myself to be distracted, I forgive myself. Always. Forgiveness guaranteed. Because if I don\u2019t, it\u2019s much harder to start the next day. This is a super important part of the process that keeps me writing\u2013forgiveness. I urge you to adopt it, too.<\/p>\n

\u2219 I ignore my brain when it tells me that what I\u2019m writing stinks. This is also super important. Nothing can paralyze my fingers as effectively as a negative voice in my mind. I have to brush the voice aside or I can\u2019t go on. But I encourage myself to be aware of specific problems in my story. Right now, in my WIP about the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, I sometimes get so caught up in events that I forget their impact on my MC, the person my readers will care about. As a result, the tension suffers. At the top of my manuscript, I note this as something to think about in revision\u00a0 and keep going. I keep reminding myself that what I have so far is only the first draft and that I love to revise.<\/p>\n

\u2219 I imagine an approving reader. If this story is something I think my editor will really go for, it\u2019s her. At other times it may be the writers in my poetry critique group, who are young enough to have grown up on my fiction. Sometimes it\u2019s the child reader I used to be. Anyone or anything\u2013a teddy bear\u2013will do. The approving reader stokes my enthusiasm and generates new ideas to please her.<\/p>\n

\u2219 By now I can comfort myself with the knowledge that I will finish my story, unless some real-life disaster strikes. I\u2019ve made my way through the toughest of books (Stolen Magic<\/em>) and gotten to The End. If you don\u2019t have a lot of experience, remember that experience is what you\u2019re building. Every story is evidence that you can hang in there. And every story that you don\u2019t finish is just a stop on the way toward finishing.<\/p>\n

\u2219 And there are Notes and Lists, which I\u2019ve talked about in many posts to help me get to the end. Both are where I work out the knots in my story. In Notes and Lists, the stakes are low, really nothing. No one will see them. I can write anything! I can shake out my brain and see what emerges.<\/p>\n

Just saying, the stakes are truly low in writing in general. If, for once, I fail to finish a story, no one will die. I can start another. I can congratulate myself on not putting more time into a project that just won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

These are the strategies that keep me writing. And here are three prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Your MC is called a Creator. She makes wire figures, touches them with her left pinky, and they become anatomically correct foot-tall people. She types out three qualities that each of her creations will have and places the paper with the qualities on their tongue. As soon as they close their mouths, the paper dissolves and they come to life, incorporating the qualities. Have your MC create three such characters. Put them in a story along with their Creator, who meddles, just as we meddle in the lives of our characters.<\/p>\n

\u2219 For possibly a dark story, imagine that the evil queen in \u201cSnow White\u201d has a child of her own\u2013son or daughter, you decide\u2013put the two in a story with or without Snow White. What kind of parent will she be? What will happen?<\/p>\n

\u2219 \u201cPinocchio\u201d is about creator, creation, and lying, which is what writers do. Imagine that Pinocchio wants desperately to be a real boy and he realizes that real boyness means having the power to lie. He won\u2019t be real unless he can lie. Retell the story with that element.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 9, 2018, Writeforfun wrote, A few years ago, by the time I was into my second book, I got to the point where I was writing at least three hours, every single day (which seems like a LOT to me!). I look back and don\u2019t know how I was doing it! Nowadays I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}