MUSING ON THE MUSE

Hmm. One of the drawbacks of having titles is
having to come up with one for each entry. Maybe
I'll wait until its finished and then think of one.

Another Sunday and a late sleep-in day. I didn't get
online until late last night/early this morning,(in
other words, the usual time)and most of the folks
dropped off for the night,leaving ladybug and myself
for a bit. In between the usual exchange of daily
news between Miz DI and myself, I fired up Word and
worked on the latest story. Writing felt awkward,a
sensation that probably means the story will not be
very good. I managed to wring three or four paragraphs
out of my soggy brain and then gave it the rest of the night off.

I came to writing late. I was a voracious reader and
it wasn't until my early thirties that I had any
thought of trying my hand at a story(the one in
my high school literary magazine doesn't count).
What motivated me was something that is common
to many writers in the beginning:I'd gone through
all the books written by one of my favorite authors
and was left wondering"What happens next?"
to some characters. For me it was Marion Zimmer
Bradley's Darkover series and I ended up writing a
short story imagining a meeting between two
characters that had repercussions in the books that
came after.

So my first real story was fanfic, but I knew that
working with already established characters meant
you have to respect them as their original author
created them. The rest of my Darkover fiction, about
for or five stories,I think,featured my own characters
trying to deal with the world of Darkover. But when
MZB had to withdraw permission for fan written
stories due to legal trouble,Jumeaux and
Contes di Cottman IV ceased publication and
I stopped writing. I occasionally run across my copies
when rummaging through my dresser and have to say I
am relieved that"Woof!"suffers a deserved
oblivion.

So my Muse atrophied for a few decades until I found
myself in #Camelot and it got nudged awake by the rp
and stories written by others about their characters.
At times,my imagination flows quickly and there have
been periods when I can write a story a night. But
there are other times when there's not even a trickle
and nothing comes. It would be easy for me to blame
it on the rp or rl,but that's not true,not entirely.
Certainly how I feel about #Camelot effects how I
write about BT,but blaming lack of inspiration on
lack of roleplay is specious. Generations of writers
got along quite well for centuries without it.

I mean,Tolkien didn't roleplay,did he?

Hmm..I think I have a title for this entry now.