I’m not much of one for personifying my process, or presenting it as being something outside of myself, out of my control. I’m not a fan of, as I once heard it called, “method writing”, which is a very accurate description. (Side note: as an actor, I was also not fond of method acting. I’m never one to question a process that delivers results, but more often than not I saw “method” being used as an excuse not to follow direction rather than a process that generated a remarkable performance.)
Were I, though, to personify my muse, it would be something of a wild-eye, chain-smoking, unshaven conspiracy theorist, complete with a Wall of Crazy of plot points, character sketches, long-term plans, connections and concepts.
See, sometimes the muse comes and whispers things that feel completely useless, in terms of actually writing. Just this weekend my brain started revving on things like Druth astronomy (and thus astrology) and playing cards and putting all the saint-day holidays in the calendar. Will any of these things come into play in any of the books I’ve completed* or are currently drafting? I don’t know. But on some level, I want that stuff worked out.
So I’ve got to get back to work. If I don’t name these other planets and constellations (with their classic Kieran names, since all astronomy has its roots in the Kieran Empire, and it remains a language of scholarship), then someone will start putting out his cigarettes on my arms. Metaphorically, that is.
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*- “Completed” is a relative state, of course. There’s the difference between a complete, polished draft that I’m shopping, and the eventual Final Finished State a book might be in.