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Marissa Turner » muse

Entries Tagged as 'muse'

Music for the muse

I’ve always loved music while I’m writing, but lately it’s been hard to concentrate on the writing because I find myself typing out the lyrics to whatever song is playing.  So, I switched to podcasts playing while I write.  (I know, I could always just turn the television on, but it seems a waste to run two electronic devices when I’m only using one).  And even then I was typing out what I was hearing.

So, no more music.  And my writing productivity went straight down hill once the music stopped.  This does not make me a happy writer.

So, I thought I’d try something else: music from overseas.  Rammstein.  Tarkan.  Selena (in Spanish, not her English hits).  Ricky Martin (say what you want, I like his music).  Stromae.  Timoteij.   

It’s mainly pop music, which doesn’t seem to match the blood and fur and fangs, but it’s working for me.  And, since I truly have no idea what they’re singing (I should remedy that…) I can’t type it out when I should be making word count.

And that is what my mother would call “thinking outside the box”

“Don’t you mess with a little girl’s dream”

“‘Cause she’s liable to grow up mean.”  I love Poe.  So, I’m rocking out to Poe and The Clash (figure out that love affair) and printing out GENTRY.  That’s right, I FINALLY got the edits put in last night and am now waiting for my printer to feed everything through.  And then it’s gonna sit until Sunday.  While my husband watches the Steeler game, I’m going to be curled up with GENTRY and the Red Pen of Death.

I have the butterfly feeling in my stomach about this.  I’m going to start submitting Clio and the gang to agents next month.  I gave myself one more month to polish and clean it up, before throwing her out to the wolves (so to speak).  I want it to soar, but I have enough of a reality check to know that first time queries ever get picked up by the first agent you send it to, and it doesn’t hit the NYT #1 on it’s virgin run.  I’m not expecting to take the NYT #10 slot, ever. 

But I’d like to be able to make a living off my writing, not a rich one, but one that I won’t worry about me or Thunder Butt starving next month. 

And now the butterflies are procreating in my belly.  Great visual.

Muse 1, Marissa 0

Me: Okay, I’m here!  Come on baby, don’t make me beg!

Muse: You’ve backed out of numerous dates we’ve had since the start of the month.  And now you wanna get down and dirty?

Me: I’m sorry!  I’ve had homework! 

Muse: Homework, schmowork.  You can get aside time for that thing you do with the yarn, you can set aside time for me.

Me: I had to study!  Do you know how many bones are in the human body?  I had to learn the damn things!  And I think I freaked out my Medical Terminology instructor…

Muse: Big shock there, you freaking someone out.  How’d you do it?

Me: I referred to the foramen magnum as the ’sweet spot’…

Muse: The what as the what?

Me: That little opening at the base of your skull?  You know, where your spinal cord is before it gets into the vertebrae?

Muse: Oh! That sweet spot!  Well, it is.

Me: Only for assassins and those who want to kill quietly.  Normal civilians don’t take too kindly to someone knowing that.

Muse: *silence*

Me: Muse?  You still there?  Muse?

*pause*

Me: Dammit!  Now I know how Molly Ringwald felt in Sixteen Candles. 

Blocking the Muse

Everyone who writes has a muse. Be it the ugly squirrel who stares at you through the window or an imaginary friend who looks like the King of Sparta, we’ve all got one.

And we also have times where the Muse just doesn’t give a damn that we need to work on our writing, they want to do something else. I’m pretty sure mine is off getting a mani-pedi and a facial. Because she’s not here helping me get this book out of my head.

Then there’s the things that block the muse. Aerobics class, bills, errands, noisy people, and a dog who has this odd fetish for licking toes and the legs of computer chairs. I don’t ask.

Today is a day of all the roadblocks and the damn Muse being gone. (I’m sorry baby, I don’t mean it, come back and we can make sweet words together)

I did get one thing accomplished, knitting wise. But that’s not helping me write a book now is it?