Mine use to be my wife, when we were dating...It has also been my kids at times....I am sure when we divorce it will be my wife again..
nope... writing is a solitary pursuit for me... and the fanciful concept of 'having a muse' never made any sense to me, anyway... my writings come from within my mind alone, the ideas for them come from all i see/hear/read/experience/imagine and sometimes, even dream...
I draw inspiration from life, be it for songwriting, which is my main creative outlet, or prose, or poetry.
I suppose my muse is Lady de Winter from The Three Musketeers. She inspired me to write, both her strength and cunning as well as the symbolism of the vilified and oppressed womanhood she represented in that book. I haven't written any swashbuckling historical romances, but all my female characters have a tiny bit of Lady de Winter in them. Another one is Modesty Blaise, a comic book character.
When I started to write more seriously it began with my dog right after he'd passed. I found solace in journaling which led to poetry and an eventual idea for a children's book. My daughter was a month old when the one year anniversary of his death came and having her inspired me to take it further into a series of various, single adventures. Other than that, there is no one thing I draw inspiration from. Some days it's a memory, others a dream, a simple sight, smell or sound, an event that caused an emotional reaction, and more often than not just my plain old imagination drumming up some creativity.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to have drawn inspiration from a character from a book. For me, it's Jo from Little Women. I watched the movie before I read the book. Needless to say I was more than a bit disappointed in Jo's ending in the book. Spoiler: Spoilers for Little Women In the movie, Jo is the 'author' of the story when the German professor tells her to write from her heart. In the book, she writes her strongest piece from the professor's advice, but then gives up her writing. I didn't want to read any of the sequels after I realized that; the character was ruined for me...
Calliope, At her altar, I leave sheaves of wheat and the innards of goats from my neighbor's pasture.
The fact that there are 8 billion people, they are all independent, sovereign, and unique; and none of us fully understand the only world we will ever know.
Mine's my inner happiness. That place I go to write. I believe all the motivation and inspiration I will ever need is inside me. My muse is my sub-conscience which takes over when I need it. Some people call it 'being in the zone' Whenever I get discouraged by critiques or other peoples feedback my inner voice takes the helm and steers me back on the right track. I do heed feedback but I do not allow it to cripple my desire to write. At some point we all have to take the stabilizers of and ride our bike without help.
Can I admit to something that may sound a bit macabre and melancholy? Maybe even a little melodramatic? My muse is the world. More importantly death, insanity, and all the darkness in this world. ^I told you it was going to be a bit macabre, a little insane too. *shrugs*
My muse is that little tugging voice; that little tug that feels like it is connected to your pericardium and mesentery by spider silk. It's that little tug that pulls you to jump off the high places or the little tug that causes you to walk into the dark alley even though it's the last thing you want to do.
For me it's also characters (if that counts as a muse) that inspire me to tell more stories. There're too many of them to list here, though. But Modesty Blaise is cool.
A few years back, I had a conversation with an ex-vocalist of my band, and we came to the conclusion that we both wrote much more music when we were miserable. When we were happy and content, the material just didn't come as easily. That's when I realized misery is my muse, and since there's plenty of it to go around, I'm pretty sure I'll never run out of ideas. I personified my muse as Misery, the evil twin sister of Muse. They visit me in turns; first Misery digs in with her sharp nails and teeth, then Muse comes along and starts the healing process. Melodramatic, I know, but that's how it feels.
I always found the concept of muses to be interesting. I can't say I have one, but when I'm ready to write, it's usually my lead characters who inspire me most. Otherwise almost everything comes from within. Sometimes inspiration strikes while I'm out in nature, say, on top of a mountain or by the ocean. (I love the beach! )
