My Muse

Yesterday, I rambled on about my writer’s block and today, I’m happy to report that I’m cured!  How did this happen so quickly, you ask?   Well, for one, I had a good night’s sleep.  And two, and most importantly, I found my muse again.

Where was this mystical entity hiding???  On my couch, it turns out.

Yep.  My husband is my muse. (For today, at least.)  He was my sounding board.  I was having issues with the logic of the sequence of events – the plot – leading up to the end of the book.  People keep telling me that it’s okay to take liberties because it’s fiction, but the power of my story comes for the possibility of it being real.  How can I ask my readers to stick with my character and her escapades if they’re too unrealistic or disjointed, or simply illogical?   I want to base the story in fact, or at the very least, science-based theory.  No matter what genre you’re writing, the plot has to flow and make sense, right?  And, if my character is, say, trying to escape something, then I want to know that my escape plan is probable.

So, in the end, I turned to my husband to talk about my concerns and we brainstormed together.  I researched some of our ideas, reported back to him, and we continued to nail down the details.  As we always tell people about our relationship, I am all heart and he is all logic.  Together, we’re a perfect team.  He doesn’t really get my love of books (he’s all about planes and anything on the Discovery Channel) and doesn’t always understand how all-consuming writing can become.  But, man, I’m lucky he’s a great listener.

Thanks, honey.  You’re the BEST.

(Now you can go back to watching Deadliest Catch.)