Blog Tour
This schedule might move a bit yet but here is the tour schedule for September. I’m asking the owners of the blogs I am visiting to check the links (I’ll have checked them but mistakes happen) before the tour and let me know if there is anything wrong (date, topic, link).
September 1: Guest post on Eric’s blog (Working my Muse) about character.
September 2: Guest post on Geoffrey’s blog (Misanthropology101) about the writing life.
September 4: Guest post on Lua Fowles blog (Like a Bowl of Oranges) about the need for quiet confidence.
September 7: interview on Sonia Clark’s blog (Sonya Clark).
September 9: Guest post on Alex Willging’s blog (The Rhapsodist) about writing fantasy.
September 12: Guest post on Laura Diamond’s blog (Diamond – Yup, Like the Stone) about females in fantasy.
September 13: Guest post on Alex J Cavanugh’s blog (Alex J Cavanaugh) about visuals that help the writing process.
September 14: Guest post on Mason Canyon’s blog (Thoughts in Progress) about the origin of an idea.
September 15: Interview on Carol Kilgore’s blog (Under the Tiki Hut).
September 16: Interview on Susan Whitfield’s blog (Susan Whitfield’s blog).
September 18: Guest post on Jemi Faser’s blog (Jemi Fraser) about making fantasy unique.
September 20: Guest post on Nancy Allen’s blog (Nancy Kelly Allen – Writing Workshop) about reading.
September 22: Interview on Lee Robertson’s blog (Only Time Will Tell).
September 25: Guest post on Barb’s blog (The Creative Barbwire) about Death’s Daughter.
September 30: Guest post on Rosemary’s blog (Miss Rosemary’s Novel Ideas) about what happens after the manuscript is accepted.
And this one is not strictly in September but is definitely part of the tour:
October 3: Interview on Little Scribbler’s blog (Little Scribbler).
As you can see it is a busy month but there are still dates free if you would like to take part in the tour and host me for a day. Otherwise, I hope you come along on the tour.
The Problem of the External Muse
I’ve talked a bit about inspiration previously and where ideas come from but I usually avoid talking about my muse (I’m not saying I don’t use this turn of phrase but it isn’t my favourite way to put things). The reason for this is that by calling it a muse and personifying the idea of inspiration it makes it sound like it is something external to the writer and not part of them.
I don’t usually like this idea.
For me inspiration is definitely an internal process and the ideas from within. Certainly my mind draws in things it has seen and heard and smelled and used these in combination to form what might become a story idea but that process definitely takes place within. No mythic being bestows the ideas upon me, fully formed or otherwise. And because it is an internal and slow process of bits and pieces being slotted together, the ideas become very much apart of the writer. You’ve raised the idea from just a tiny spark or notion to a fully fleshed out plot line that might eventually get written down.
Maybe the problem is that by externalising the idea it feels like it is cheapening the process. That somehow writers just get ideas. That nothing goes on, they sit around with empty heads and wait for a magic muse to hit them with some fairy dust.
Then again, at other times it does feel like something else is happening. The ideas move seemingly overnight (which probably means my subconscious is at work) but suddenly something that seemed unworkable has fallen into place. A line of dialogue that isn’t working can suddenly be heard clearly. That little voice in the back of your mind nudges you in just the right direction at just the right moment.
If my muse exists she’s probably going to clobber me after writing this. And yes, she would be female.
I think that if it is about the muse then we shouldn’t be waiting for her, we should definitely be out there hunting her down and demanding information right now. Hopefully with more success than Elmer Fudd ever had hunting rabbits.
What do the other writers think? Muses or not. Cheapening the process or giving writers a way to talk about something they sometimes don’t fully understand – their creative processes?
Cassandra Jade in the Realm 