Musings about muses…

Most writers speak of their muse. Maybe it is a person or place or thing that inspires their work or a ‘state of being’ that comes over the writer that speaks volumes to him/her as the words flow onto the pages. I have to admit I have often ‘mused’ about this feeling. My personal muse is nothing tangible…it is just a feeling. But after reading and talking with other authors about their own muses…is mine simply the need to write?

I would love to hear from other authors about where and when their muse appeared. And, honestly, I’d love to know what inspires your work…what is your muse?

I am inspired to write at peculiar hours…perhaps at 3 a.m. on a quiet night or in the midst of a beautiful thunderstorm or early in the morning just as I finish my breakfast. Different scenarios in my work are inspired by different things. Hey, perhaps that quiet night or that thunderstorm or that great sunrise is my muse?

My late maternal grandmother was a teacher. My late paternal great great grandfather wrote his own life story of growing up and being in the Civil War. Maybe these ancestors have influenced my own thought processes, perhaps they are my muses. In fact, I feel they are definitely influential in my writing. I never met either, but I too love to put words onto paper. Maybe it has been an inherited need to write…a tiny piece of them that continues on in me.

Whatever it is for individual authors, we all have that overwhelming need to write. I believe inspiration comes from all sources, if you look hard enough. And, I believe that teensy spark that I feel in my mind when an idea seeded from that inspiration becomes a need to write…that teensy spark is the muse. Is that my inherited need to write? Is it my curiosity has sparked my imagination? Or is it just my creative imagination cranking into gear?

It is truly a bit of it all. I am curious about things, I have a vibrant imagination and I learned at an early age the wonder of books. My muse is life…wish I could capture it all on my pages,

KW