Writing a book doesn’t mean waiting for the muse

 

The book was written in a burst of imagination. I can’t explain really what happened, but it was like all the planets aligned one afternoon, and I just sat down and scribbled out this wonderful short story.

Perhaps you’ve heard some writer use such words to describe how he came to create some body of work. The writer, perhaps a celebrated author who appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, insists that some mysterious force suddenly tapped him on the shoulder and commanded, “Write this.” And the writer immediately fled to his computer and spilled out the words.

I think many of us want to believe that there are forces out there beyond our control, muses, if you will, that come along and guide us through the creative process.

Of course, this begs the question: Why does it visit some people and not others? Or, are some people just naturally creative or have some innate ability to summon up this muse?

As I’ve written in my book, Write the Darn Book, the muse is a myth. It doesn’t exist. It’s another one of those phantom literary legends that the writing community has embraced through the ages.

We are all our own muses. We all have the ability to summon up the creativity needed to start and finish books or other writing projects.

All it takes is an idea, reaching deep into our souls for that book within us and letting the words come pouring out in a torrent.

It sounds pretty easy, and it is. But of course, so many of us are resistant to this process. Why? Likely, a belief that writing has to be hard. That anything worth doing involves sweat and worry and plenty of angst.

Writing a book takes a commitment. Make no mistake about it. But it doesn’t have to be the ordeal many think it should be. And it certainly doesn’t involves sitting around for many days at a time waiting for the muse to come along.