Overlapping Muses

Some days I can’t seem to find the groove. I wake up a couple hours before heading to work so that I can write, and some days I just stare blankly at the screen. As if my mind were allergic to ideas.

Then there are the times the Muses trip over each other, trying to crowd into that limited space I call my mind. I’ll start one story, then an idea for another will come and crowd out the first. That which seemed so damned urgent can now wait until I get these words down. But then another idea bursts in, unannounced.

I wonder if other writers experience this. I once knew a media professor who smoked a pipe. He once said that if he couldn’t find the tobacco he liked he could resort to cigars. “Or even cigarettes.” I’ve never smoked. I don’t see the need to, but his words reminded me of the behavior of my Muses.

Some days I work on my novels (my pipe). I prefer to write long, and I have completed six novels over the years. Other days I write short stories. I’ve got dozens of these lying around, mostly unpublished. Or poems. I wrote a lot of poetry as a young man, and I still think in poems from time to time.

Blog posts will suffice if none of my other writing forms suggest themselves. Or a letter to a fellow writer. Words, no matter what, will find a way out of me.

I’ve been experiencing a surfeit of ideas lately. I can’t seem to get one story finished without another intruding onto its territory. Not that I’m complaining. Stories, like fine wine, can sit on the shelf for a long while and age with dignity. I try to keep a register so that I don’t forget they’re there. Their draw is irresistible.

Ironically, the Muses overlap when workaday life gets busy. It’s as if they know you’ll barely have time to kiss them before rushing off to work. Nothing causes the death of creativity more effectively than business.

Gather round, my Muses. Just try not to speak all at once.

Comments

Patterns

There’s a pattern I’m noticing. For fiction publishers. Even if you aim low you’ll find it a struggle. Part of the reason is the pattern. Lots of websites list publishers. The smaller, hungrier presses either eventually close or get to a place where they require an agent to get in. That’s the kiss of death. Although my stories have won prizes, and been nominated for prizes, I can’t get an agent interested. I’ve queried well over a hundred, so the agent route is one of diminishing returns. This too is a pattern. Back to the smaller presses. I check many lists. What I write, you see, is highly idiosyncratic. It’s literary but it’s weird. Publishers don’t know what to do with it. If a smaller press published stuff like this, I’d find it. The pattern includes writers who never get discovered. Ironically, a number of editors of fiction literary magazines (mostly online) tell me they enjoy my wor...

Creative Righting

Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world. That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week. That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press. The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor. She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher. I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions. I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor. That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it? You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify. It’s got speculative elements to it. ...

Maybe Okay

A couple pieces of encouraging news, perhaps, dear struggling writers. I had a couple short stories accepted for publication in recent weeks. As a fellow writer recently said, “You've got to keep trying. Somebody will like what you wrote.” That’s a bit of sunshine. And it’s likely true. But the stories: “The Crossing,” about two men in a boat trying to cross the Atlantic, was accepted by JayHenge Publishing. JayHenge is a small, but paying publisher. I was flattered when they wanted it for their Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe anthology. Being associated with Poe in any way feels good. The second story, “St. Spiders’ Day,” had been brewing in my mind for years—yes, this is a long game! A friend pointed me to The Creepy podcast. Since the story hadn’t been written, I followed their guidelines of what they wanted. It worked. I recently heard a successful wri...

K. Marvin Bruce

Search This Blog