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Annabel Ashcroft

Faerie [Aether]

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Anna's writing advice: Muses

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I wanted to talk about something that, believe it or not, does affect all people who write, and that is Muses.

'Muses', you know, it's a rather fancy word for inspiration. It's the thing that motivates one to create and that creation can be pretty much anything depending on the subject. 'Getting your muse' is what causes great works to be make, stuff that is above average. The inspiration tends to be so great that creativity just flows and it becomes very easy to make something wonderful and high quality, at least to you, hopefully to others too. ;-)

I sometimes talk about 'getting my muse' when I write and how it causes me to write something really good at 2 am in the morning, (hopefully while I am working ;p) It is really nice when it happens, getting a super idea that just flows easily or just little ideas that make coming up with MSQ recounting much easier.

Unfortunately, one cannot control WHEN ones muse 'hits', and a lot of the time it hits when one CAN'T take advantage of it, like being out somewhere or being in the middle of doing something else which can't be stopped. Some people try to write it down or record themselves talking to try to remember the idea. It sometimes works, it sometimes doesn't depending on how complex the muse was in the first place. I will just say it is VERY annoying to get a great idea and not be able to take advantage of it because of circumstances.

I would very highly suggest that if your muse visits you to take full advantage of it if you can. It is the creative part of your mind flaring up and telling you, "hey, great idea here that's not crap, make something out of it." If you do what it says, you may be VERY surprised at what you create and how good it is.

In FF14, one sees on the lodestone the results of this. A player gets visited by their 'Muse' and decides to create a story about their Catgirl and her adventures in Eorzea. Their Muse stays with them for a bit and they create 2,3, maybe 4 blogs of stuff, then it dies off. With their Muse fizzled out there is no more creation, no more inspiration or desire to keep going. It was a fun idea, but did not have staying power in their mind.

This dear readers is the biggest reason of why aspiring writers disappear. They simply get bored with no Muse to back them up and the simple love of writing cannot sustain them to continue. It is kind of sad really, because some of those people who start things are very good. There are a few that I had wished they would have continued their stories, but sadly they vanished like so many who make the attempt to write FF14 fan fiction here.

For you see readers, Muses inspire you to make good stuff or begin in the first place, but it is the general love of the act of doing the activity that allows one to CONTINUE doing said activity when it is NOT so fun to do. As with anything, writing is not all ideas flowing and inspiration pumping out a mile a minute. The trope 'staring at a blank piece of paper' is a thing, and it can be VERY hard to put words down when one is not feeling it.

So how does one GET a Muse to come? Sadly, it just happens, one can't control it. Anything you are doing can trigger it; a thought, something you see, something you experience. It can be anything and that can make it hard to take advantage of it when it hits. One can alleviate that by carrying something that allows you to record the idea somehow, like a phone to dictate or jot a note down with a note or text program. Capturing the idea sometimes does help you get it back when you are ready to take advantage of it, so it never hurts to try.


When I write something, a lot of it comes from Muses visiting me, giving me that one great idea to REALLY make that recounting of the MSQ or creating a new letter or story work. It honestly is a LOT easier writing those things when I have one great idea and just roll with it, and I am sure you can tell in the writing.

Muses are especially helpful when writing serious entries in 'Annabel's Journey', for it can be very hard to come up with continuous ideas and dialog that work well and give that nice, serious tone that I want. A good example of this in my writing is the 'Aftermath' entry, the end of the whole ARR arc. My muse was in such force when I wrote that, I wrote it for over THREE hours straight until I finished it; it turned out to be one of the best entries of 'Annabel's Journey' that I have done. Oh, I still will write serious entries when the Muse is not in effect, but they are not nearly as good as when it is. You can probably tell the difference when you read them.

Muses also are used with the more humorous entries though differently. When a muse hits for one of those, it tends to be more of the initial idea then persisting through the whole creation. I think of an amusing situation and proceed to write it up, creating the jokes along the way. I don't really consider the jokey or witty stuff inspiration so to speak; those are just things that naturally jump out of my mind as I am writing. Those come easily to me and I don't really need a 'push' to come up with them.

For example, the whole 'Modern Girl' series is totally the result of me seeing myself in a more modern glamour and my Muse firing off saying, "College Sorority girl dealing with FF14 crap in the REAL world". Thus the whole thing with Selene and the book was born. All the banter between the two and situations Annabel finds herself in are just my natural self coming up with nutty things as I am writing in real time and making it up on the fly.

One COULD say that it is my Muse working in the background, and one may be right; but I chalk it up to just my love of writing comedy and silly situations and dialog. After all, I DO love my conversations. LOL

"So WHY hasn't there BEEN any new 'Modern Girl' in over TWO months you lazy Blond ditz"; the Annabel haters, (but secret lovers of my writing) are asking.

Weelll.....honestly, I have just become a little disheartened about the whole writing thing, and that is kind of killed my love of doing it. I could go into details but I won't. Let's just say it is a combination of a lack of desire and a lack of others interested in reading what I put out. In fact, the 5.3 story is still sitting unfinished due to me not wanting to work on it, and I know I need to get it done before 5.4. Problem is that I did it serious style this time, and my muse is just not there to help me complete it. I may just 'half-ass' it to get it done, we will see.

But yes, as for 'Modern Girl', I really have no excuse because I LOVE writing that. It is just laziness. With winter coming up and the yard almost prepared for the winter, I will have a lot more free time once it is completed for the next few months, so maybe I can start it up in earnest again, we'll see.

Well, I hope this helped you some understand the whole 'Muse' thing and why it sometimes is very easy to create. May they visit you often and help you in whatever creative activity you pursue.

Kommentare (6)

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Dieser Charakter wurde gelöscht.

Muses come to me a lot when I'm not writing, but then they seem to slow down when I pick it up again. Sometimes they come when I shut out various stimuli, such as shows, movies, reading, games, chatting with friends, and my muses start to flood back in to fill that void. My mind likes to keep itself busy when I'm not doing anything, like at night when I need to sleep... x_X

Bear Ironfist

Faerie [Aether]

My interests jump so much, it's hard to finish a piece. There is also the problem of having a muse, but then having to coherently transcribe your thoughts into an actual story.

Lalli Physalis

Sargatanas [Aether]

I'm super rarely visited by inspiration and usually when I do I'm like, smack in the middle of placing a book order at work or 1h into a bike ride or something.

What actually gets me to write my blog is... cross-procrastination (AKA writing this to avoid working on my other projects) and, no lies, validation. I started posting my writing online after a silly fanfiction I wrote as a joke for a friend got some likes, and then I never stopped because it showed me people could like my stuff.

Lalli Physalis

Sargatanas [Aether]

Just to elaborate on that a bit - it's not bad or lazy to lose motivation when you don't get any feedback. In the fanfic world, commenting/liking is often called "feeding the writer" (AKA motivating them to keep writing). Lack of engagement can cause you to lose interest in a project. Or vice versa, it's a bit of a chicken or egg thing.

But as a certain Blonde often tells me: the main thing is not giving up! If you push through the times when the Muses ghost you, eventually they'll visit again.

Annabel Ashcroft

Faerie [Aether]

LOL, that is soooo true Hon and I KNOW it. In fact, I have been starting to feel the urge again to get my ass going and write, so I will.

But you are also right about 'feeding the writer' your likes and comments really DO 'feed' me and show that people DO like my efforts at this. That in turn REALLY motivates me to do new stuff, maybe even more so than my desire to do it myself.

But I also know that many of my former old fans are no longer on here, and the new people have no interest.

Esper Eidolon

Diabolos [Crystal]

Not sure I have ever really written to appease my satisfaction of a muse.

I do however write to aspire to get to the end of a story. The feeling of finishing is just as fun to me but I always try to make a good story people would love to read and maybe read again ^^
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