BookWenches

My Muse and Me

Hello everyone.  I want to start off by thanking BookWenches for giving me the opportunity to blog today. My topic is about my muse and what makes me sit down and write. 

My muse comes and goes as she pleases.  She is very temperamental.  So from one day to the next I am not sure if I am going to be writing or not.  Right now she has returned from her summer vacation and has been riding me hard, full of ideas, plots, and storylines.  I can barely keep up.  It’s a good thing my phone has a notes application because when I can’t sleep and don’t want to turn on my computer, much less get out of bed, I simply make notes.  I love technology.  But I am not complaining she is back, nope I am ecstatic because that means I have gotten lots done.  Those w.i.p.s that were just sitting around in my flash drive have been flushed out.  I have finished one long story and in the process of finishing shorter ones. 

So what makes me sit down to write?  Several things actually.  I could be listening to a song and then all of a sudden I get this idea for a story.  I wrote the short story Cowboy Loving Night after listening to a song on my favorite country music station at work.  So I made some notes about the characters, location, and then when I got home wrote it out.  For Weekend Chase, I did not have characters in mind but I did have a chase scene.  So I wrote that out and then the characters Carlos and Jayce evolved to fill in their roles.   

Another scenario is where I sit in front of my computer, open up a word document or one of my many w.i.p.s and just pound away on my keyboard.  I don’t even know what I am going to work on or type, muse won’t share, but the words just flow.  This does not happen often.  The most recent was for a story called Back in Your Arms.  I have had this story waiting in the backburner for about a year and then within a week it was done and it will be my next release.     

So what do I need when I sit down to write?  I need background noise.  Either my TV or IPOD is going.  If it’s late at night I put on my headphones so I won’t bother anyone.  I usually end up blocking out everything but I still need to have it there.  Weird I know, drives my sister crazy, but its part of my writing process.  I also have a game of Spider Solitaire going.  When I pause and need to think about a certain scene or character I will play a game to work out the kinks. 

I have learned not to force myself to write because not only do I just frustrate myself but I think the readers will pick up on it.  The story has to flow and captivate your readers, pulling them in and making them forget about their surroundings and troubles.  Atleast that is what happens to me when I read a good book and I hope to accomplish that with my books. 

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Laura Guevara is the author of Weekend Chase, published by Red Rose Publishing. We reviewed this story at Bookwenches in June 2009. For more information about Laura and her work, please visit her website at http://www.drearileyandlauraguevara.com and http://badazzauthors.com/

Others books by Laura include Flame On!!,  Shara & Friends Naughty Bites Vol 1 and Shara & Friends Naughty Bites Vol 3