Over Active Muse!

I said a few days ago that Muse was busy playing with the plots of Mercy Me and Tremorgan's story.

Well, this morning he got a little over excited and dropped another story in my lap. One that is screaming to be written.

Maybe he's been at the coffee again. Sigh. It looks like the drought is well and truly over for the moment!

So what's the new story you ask?

Well this blog isn't called TheDragon'sPen for nothing. I love dragons, there is something about the mystical magnificence, the power, grace and wisdom married to the beast-nature that makes it such a fabulous creature of myth.

The story is fantasy (surprise, surprise) and has to do with dragons and magic and ... stuff.

I don't want to give away to much yet, but it's going to be awesome.
Most likely it'll be another YA novel.

I will be finishing Mercy Me first. Then, and only then, I'll begin this dragon novel and work on restructuring Tremorgan's Gift.

The Inspiration of Two

First off, I would like to say a big thanks to those readers who have emailed me recently saying how much you liked the blog (though it has been quiet here lately). It has been really encouraging and, as you can see, has succeeded in getting me back in the bloggers seat. So THANKS!

My health has been up and down over the last few months which has markedly slowed the progress of Mercy Me. I am making progress though. I have now mapped the last half of the novel giving me a definite direction or plotted path to follow which should help things move ahead fairly quickly once I get back into it.

I'm so loving writing Mercy Me and I can't wait to get back into it, but assignments and health issues are seriously cramping my style. It's hugely frustrating.

So far feed back on the Steampunk novel is really encouraging. While I haven't actually been writing the novel my Muse has been busy at work, shaping the plot and build scenes in my head. I've mapped out the final half of the novel and I'm excited to announce that I just have to write the thing now. But of course, that's the hard part!

My Muse has also been dabbling with issues in my YA fantasy novel. I'm seriously contemplating breaking down the planned plots of the first two books and putting them together in one brilliant stand alone novel. It looks wonderful in my head, hopefully it'll be just as great on paper.

I'm making notes of my ideas and the strongest short scenes I have so I can free up some creative room in my head. After my initial attack on the Tremorgan's story (the YA fantasy I wrote last year), I'm determined not to touch until I've finished Mercy's (steampunk novel), but at the way things are going resisting the temptation to dabble may take more self control than I possess!

So that is where I'm at. My head is buzzing with ideas and story lines. Now I just need to find the time to write!! Anyone have a gadget to slow time???

Post Op Inspiration

I've had my operation and I'm slowly regaining my strength, though given the nasty twinges in my side I might have over done things over the last few days. Naughty me! So I'm more or less keeping to my comfy chair today and it seemed the perfect opportunity to blog again.

My muse has crawled out of whatever corner he's been hiding in while I was feeling rotten. He's back, sporting a waistcoat, cravat and a top hat at a jaunty angle. He leans on his dragonheaded cane. Every so often takes out his sliver pocket watch, flicks the lid with a kidskin encased finger and raises an eyebrow in my direction. His expression clearly says "haven't you started writing yet?"

No, I haven't but I will ... very soon.

I'm feeling all inspired. My hubby makes music and has been working on a piece for a Steampunk movie. The piece he has put together is great. Listening to it over and over got my creative juices flowing again.

Did you know there is a sub genre of Steampunk called Clockpunk? I didn't, but it totally fits with my story Mercy Me. The novel is Steampunk with a lot of windup gearwork etc and is a more Gothic or Regency-esk rather than Steampunk's traditional Victorian type setting. I guess I want the best of both worlds. :D And now that I know Clockpunk exists I feel like I can legitimately go where the winds of inspiration take me.

I spent some time this morning trolling the internet looking at Clockpunk images and feeding the muse with ideas. I'm very excited, inspired and looking forward to getting back to writing some more of Mercy's story.

Sometimes Writing is like Digging for Gold with your Bare Hands!

The muse is back and has kicked into high gear.

I had the weirdest dreams last night and in the lazy hours of this morning (translation: I was being super lazy in bed when I should have been up and acting like a responsible parent) my muse was hard at work filling my head with wonderful scenes for book two.

He also got me inspired to write new ones for book one - as if the book is not long enough already!

So once I'd got up and made myself presentable to the world at large I made some notes in my trusty notebook and sat down to write.

I tried to write the strongest scene, a romantic one between Tremorgan and .... (I can't tell you his name that would be giving away too much!) Tried was the operative word here!

I don't know if it was because I haven't written for so long, or because I'm tired, or the fact that the kids, in true holiday fashion, were arguing and grumping around me (or all of the above) but each word was like digging for gold with my bare hands!

Honestly, it look me about twenty minutes to get down the first few sentences - and they aren't even all that good. Here they are:

Turning my back on them, I clambered over Mace's slumbering form. His marble skin was icy under its dusting of snow.

He opened an eye as I leapt off his knee. “Everything all right, little princess?”

See? Not at all earth shattering.

As the afternoon progressed the words came more easily, which was a relief!

All in all I've managed to finish two scenes today, 1700 words worth. It might be all dross and no gold but at least I'm writing again and the Muse is hard at work once more filling my imagination with ideas.

Unpacking the Muse

While I haven't been doing any writing since my failed NaNoWriMo attempt at the beginning of November I have been reading. In fact I've done a lot of reading ... and quite an eclectic and varied diet of books it has been too.

I've feasted on adult fantasy, reading the first three of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series (I know. I was terribly slow to discover these) and Juliet Marillier's Sevenwater's trilogy.

I'd put off reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code for years because of all the hype and finally pulled it off the shelf last week. I couldn't put it down. I have to admit I really enjoyed it, in a disturbing sort of a way.

I devoured Gail Carson Levine's Fairest and Sherryl Jordan's The Hunt for the Last Dragon. I love fairy tales and modern re-tellings. I've read a few others too but I can't remember what they are off the top of my head.

Now I'm wading my way through Michael Grant's Gone, which reminds me forceably of the TV series Heroes with which I have a complicated love-hate-love relationship.

With all this reading under my belt I'm feeling recharged and ready to get writing and editing again. I've dug out my editor's hat from the back of the cupboard. It's a bit dusty and bent and some of it's feathers are coming unstuck but despite that it still seems to be in working order.

The Muse has finally crawled out of the box he has been hiding in, looking pasty and in need of some serious vitamin D therapy.

On the plus side he seems keen to get back to work and help Mistress Editor to clean up, trim down and generally beautify Tremorgan's Gift. He flexed his creative muscles a wee bit the other night when I began converting chapters 1 and 2 into first person POV. He's a bit rusty but with a bit of exercise I think he'll be quickly back in top form.

A Trail of White Pebbles

As many of you know the MS of my fantasy novel is with beta readers. In the meantime I've been slowly and quietly chipping away at a short story due in next week for another competition, though I'm not holding my breath about it being placed.

What I've really been hoping for over the last few weeks is that my Muse would drop a few idea gems for the sequel to Tremorgan's Gift. Unfortunately he didn't seem too keen to come to the party and co-operate. Maybe he was determined to have the holiday I promised, in spite of my growing restlessness.

Well, the Muse seems to be back. Half unpacked travel bags are strewn through the hall ways of my mind, half formed ideas are everywhere.

My Muse can be a very lazy and disorganised creature! Last night, frustrated by his mess I sat down with my lap top and started tapping out Plot Points.

Things that I knew had to happen, crisis points, relationship conflicts and resolutions, and scenes that I'd only glimpsed fragments of. When I'd finished I had two pages of bullet points!! Awesome. Thank you Musie.

At the moment I feel a bit like Hansel and Gretel when they escaped from the witch.

I want to get home safe. In theory I know where I'm going but the empty page is shrouded in gloom. It's as if I'm lost deep in the forest in the dead of night, the story is there, I just can't see it clearly. The only clues I have to keep me on the path are these shiny white pebbles gleaming in the moonlight.

It's all a bit daunting but I'm excited too. This is a new journey! A new adventure with characters I already know and love, though I'm sure they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. I know I have... ;)

Inspiring the Muse

Caution: Un-writerly types BEWARE.
This blog is about Muse. It may lead you think I am completely insane or cause your head to explode. I take no responsibility for either outcome. You have been warned.

Muse. What is it?
My answer to this question is that Muse is the inspiration and the magic that transforms an image, or a song, an idea or a word ... an anything into a concrete something else. Ie: a story plot, scene, character.

According to the online dictionary a Muse is: the spirit that is thought to inspire a poet or other artist; source of genius or inspiration.

Some people say their Muse has a form, a personality. They look to animals or mythical creatures - the unicorn seems to be especially popular - to bring their Muse to life. I don't know if I'd ever want to confine my Muse in that way, its like putting it in a box. Perhaps it's because it seems to me that my Muse changes or alters somewhat depending on the story it brings me.

What about you? Does your Muse have a form? A personality?

I find myself intrigued by the different ways a Muse can be inspired. Not every Muse finds inspiration in the same places or in the same way. Some people find music especially inspiring. Others are visually stimulated. Some find it in the things that happen around them, in what people do and say.

I'm very much a visual person when it comes to finding inspiration for my stories. Art. Photos. Movies. I find inspiration in all these things, especially in pictures.

Sometimes I'll see something and it'll just hit me. An experience not unlike being shot by Cupid's arrow. Other times, I might be writing about a forest or a wood and need some inspiration, so I'll troll though hundreds of pictures to find the one that captures the kind mood I want to invoke in my reader. (I love google!)

When I find it the Muse kicks in. I can see and smell and hear and feel that place. I'm there. It's real. And that's just what I need to insure I take my reader there too.

This is one that inspired one of my forest scenes:


I find this method especially helpful when building characters. I know who they are in my head and what they look like, more or less, but I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. I cannot give my characters shape apart from the words I use to conjure them and yet I can find something of them in the art of others.

This also works well when I've been away from my work for a while and I need to get in touch with my characters again, fast. A picture can pull me out of reality and back into that other place and time in a snap.

What about you? What gets your Muse going? Where do you find your inspiration?