grrlwriter posted on January 26, 2012 15:36
My muse worked overtime yesterday. I’m also fairly certain that my muse did a speedball before showing up at his desk. Maybe two.
Idea. BAM! Idea. BAM! Idea, idea, idea…WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM!
Then my Muse lights up a cigarette, pours himself another fifth of scotch and gives a little bow before exiting stage left, and leaving me to sort them out for myself. My Muse is the inspiration, and he gets to party, come up with the ideas, and leave me to the grunt work.It seems silly to complain about too many ideas, and I’m not complaining at all. It’s when you realize that you’re elbow deep in projects, racing to the finish line on several of them, you don’t need more tempting, luscious ideas that start to whimper and look cute and beg for your attention. Especially when your attention is already feeling divided.
See this litter of teacup pigs? Yes, that's what my Muse left me with.
Right now I’m working with some fairly strict and sort of self-imposed deadlines. The deadline to Viable Paradise is very real, and I know that the sooner I apply the better. I’m also just ready to clear my plate, especially of some of the projects that have been on there for far too long now, but they’re projects I’m still passionate about finishing.
I used to have a very irrational fear of actually finishing a writing project, and I’ve done a complete 180. Finishing a project means you have no excuse not to start putting yourself out there, and that is downright scary. Finishing projects means that you’ve taken the leap from being a wannabe author to being an author, and that once you’ve done it once you can do it again.
I’m not totally sure what’s changed – maybe I’m older and wiser (HAH!), or maybe I’m just more aware of how I work as a writer.Maybe more than that, I’m just ready to step up and go for what I want instead of waiting on the sidelines and talking about what I want.In other crazy speedballin’ Muse news, I made a little stop-motion video.Yup. In the middle of deadlines real and imaginary, I made a short movie.
Most. Fun. Ever.
I finished it last night around 1:00 a.m. and before I went to sleep had it posted to YouTube. You can watch it here.It’s an exercise I recommend for anyone writing a script, as you start to learn that you can say what you want to say just by using images and music
Sometimes you don’t need words at all.Sometimes, you need to bust out your sketchbook and crayons and remember what it was like to be a kid again and make something just for the pure joy of making it.