Volunteer Muse Program?

[dr_mabeuse]

I used to think the idea of a muse was silly, just an effete conceit. Now I've lost mine and I really miss it.

Let me explain - this isn't the classical muse that brings inspiration. My muse was a particular person who without my really realizing it, I think I used to write for. In one sense I suppose they were like my idealized target audience, but in another sense it was more personal than that. I knew they read everything I wrote and they took a personal pride in my accomplishments. I was out there carrying their favor, doing literary battle for them. We didn't always talk about everything I wrote, but I knew she was watching.

I don't have that now and I miss it. I'm surprised how much I miss it. I'm really kind of disoriented without them.

Or am I just some kind of whorish writer or performer?

Anyhow, I was wondering if maybe there were any muses for hire, or volunteer muses, people who needed things written for them, that kind of thing.

 

[WickedEve]

I understand. I lost someone years ago. We shared poetry; we inspired each other. When you have someone like that it's never quite the same. I have found other inspirations. Not lately, though.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

You make absolute sense. I write my best stuff for audiences of one - one person I'm trying to talk to, impress, turn on, express love for, tell stories to...

Maybe the questions to ask include some of these. What was it about that person that really inspired me? What characteristics did we share that made her (i'm assuming gender here, sorry) the ideal responsive audience? Obviously she wasn't a good audience for no reason; was it the sense of humor? Did you like the same things, so there were natural types of stories to tell? Were you coming from different points of reference, trying to teach each other, or describe your world?

M'self, I've found a couple of people on the board here who function as audiences, whether or not they know about it. It has made an interesting difference in my writing.

Interesting idea, sorta auditioning for one. I may try that someday.

 

[Sara Crewe]

I write things for people all the time. More often than not they have no idea and I have no desire to tell them. I feed on the connection I feel with them and in terms of the writing it doesn't matter if that connection runs both ways.


Not to sound unwelcoming but I am curious why you chose to seek your volunteer muse on the poetry board. I know you write poetry but I would have thought of you as predominately a prose writer. Do poets make better muses? I don't think I have a muse so I quite honestly have no idea if poet-types are more inspiring people in general.

And since you don't know me, I will add the disclaimer to that question that it come only out of curiosity. Sometimes I just refuse to add smilie faces when speaking to a smart person.

 

[BluePoet]

And since you don't know me, I will add the disclaimer to that question that it come only out of curiosity. Sometimes I just refuse to add smilie faces when speaking to a smart person.

Hi.

 

[wildsweetone]

hi dr_m, glad you finally Outed here.

hmm, i was just wondering... i think you're mixing 'inspiration' with 'muse'. i think muse is something that we carry within us, and inspiration is something we find outside ourselves in other people, situations or objects etc.

sounds like you might need to refill your cup... get out and about, experience and see new things, or the same things in a different manner. pick up a new hobby, a new creative outlet. fill yourself up with these new sights and sounds and ideas and you'll have more to pour out on your paper.

just my 2cents.

 

[Eluard]

Hi.

bad doll alert.

 

[WickedEve]

bad doll alert.

She's Chucky's sister.

 

[Liar]

A muse to me is not inspiration on what to write. I can always come up with something to write about. A muse is incentive to write. The reason, the want, the urge, the need. So the good dr is spot on, I'd say.

 

[Tathagata]

I understand. I lost someone years ago. We shared poetry; we inspired each other. When you have someone like that it's never quite the same. I have found other inspirations. Not lately, though.

I've got some inspiration for you....

 

[Tathagata]

And since you don't know me, I will add the disclaimer to that question that it come only out of curiosity. Sometimes I just refuse to add smilie faces when speaking to a smart person.

you use them with me all the time.




hey wait a minute...

 

[WickedEve]

I've got some inspiration for you....

Fine. Give me some, Mr. Inspiration Pants.

I hate to admit it, but my best inspiration for poetry was my ex-husband. He pissed me off so much that I was writing poetry about him all the time.

 

[Tathagata]

Fine. Give me some, Mr. Inspiration Pants.

I hate to admit it, but my best inspiration for poetry was my ex-husband. He pissed me off so much that I was writing poetry about him all the time.

Should have married me
I bet I could have pissed you off better than him

 

[WickedEve]

Should have married me
I bet I could have pissed you off better than him

Let's have an affair. Preferably one that's hot but a bit disturbing. Then the breakup. We'll have lots of fun to write about.


Off to the dentist for some oral action. Let me know later if you want to hook up. I'm thinking a 24 hour affair. I have a short attention span.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I write things for people all the time. More often than not they have no idea and I have no desire to tell them. I feed on the connection I feel with them and in terms of the writing it doesn't matter if that connection runs both ways.


Not to sound unwelcoming but I am curious why you chose to seek your volunteer muse on the poetry board. I know you write poetry but I would have thought of you as predominately a prose writer. Do poets make better muses? I don't think I have a muse so I quite honestly have no idea if poet-types are more inspiring people in general.

And since you don't know me, I will add the disclaimer to that question that it come only out of curiosity. Sometimes I just refuse to add smilie faces when speaking to a smart person.

I write prose but I worship poets. Honestly. I write prose because I'm a whore right now and I want to be read and consumed and make money and because for the time being I've really lost my poetic voice and sensibility. What would you call it? That clarity and intensity of spirit. Especially now, a troubled time for me, I need to deal with large masses in violent and sustained motion, so prose does that for me, but my proudest moments as a prose writer are poetic ones - a perfect metaphor or image. Yesterday I hit on "wet entrance" and it made my day, and someday, when and if I ever settle down, I want to learn to carve poems again. I call myself a poet, and I feel guilty when I do but I do it for the pride because I used to be one.

But I come here for a muse because the image I have of her is clearly a poetic image. I mean, it's an image, not a story, although she oversees the creation of both poetry and prose. She's wearing a midnight blue velvet dress, floating above the ocean at night in the moonlight, and that's the way I always see her, with silver buttons on her dress. Don't ask me why, but that's the way she appears. The sea beneath her is filled with fish. (God, just talking about her calms me!)

There was another girl who inspired me for a while, but only for stories), and she was quite different. She was Auroric, like dawn, and she was always in bed looking through the cracked window at the rising sun. She had long, long hair the exact same color as the rays of the sun and was very young, the very picture of innocence, but she loved her stories full of blood and violence. She was a rascal and used to think up the most perverse and complicates sexual acts involving ropes and springs and melting candles. *L*

God, I love women!

 

[dr_mabeuse]

hi dr_m, glad you finally Outed here.

hmm, i was just wondering... i think you're mixing 'inspiration' with 'muse'. i think muse is something that we carry within us, and inspiration is something we find outside ourselves in other people, situations or objects etc.

sounds like you might need to refill your cup... get out and about, experience and see new things, or the same things in a different manner. pick up a new hobby, a new creative outlet. fill yourself up with these new sights and sounds and ideas and you'll have more to pour out on your paper.

just my 2cents.

No, I'm not talking about inspiration. I'm talking about whom you aim your writing at

I hear a lot of people here say that they write for themselves. That's laudable I suppose, but I don't do that. I guess I';m just a whore or something, or a performer or a hack, but I have to know whom I'm writing for. I write in different styles depending on whom I think my audience is going to be.

What I call a muse is my mental image of my audience - that person who embodies my audience. "Honey, I'm writing this for you, not for him." I know that she's smart, that she'll understand some Latin, I know that she doesn't like flashbacks or changes in POV or flat secondary characters, and (in poetry) I know the level of intimacy she likes, and when I start to write, I immediately start with these things in mind, subconsciously. She's become part of my own style, my voice.

Rarely do I write something that knocks me out completely. But she might say, "that line about "frozen shadows" (or whatever) was good", and suddenly frozen shadows start showing up in my poems. And so a style evolves.

For me, a piece of literature doesn't even exist until it's read. It takes two to make a poem - the poet and the reader, Your muse is your constant reader. You don;t knwo what most people will think - they're all over the place - but she... You come to rely on her to keep you honest, and when you lose her you lose half your craft.

 

[Recidiva]

For me it's like being a cook. I know what I like. So I don't have to ask.

But other tongues, other minds, other tastes are so different.

I worry about authentic, I worry about being respectful to the thing I'm trying to make.

I've been writing romance. That's what I like. So I've been writing for me. All I had to do was ask myself.

However, I wanted to write in another category that's tough for me. Nonconsent. It's like appreciating another culture, traveling there, finding the traditions, asking people what they like, and then still putting your own spin on it. Either through ignorance of technique or personal twist. But if someone who I intereviewed in the process says "Yes, that's good." It makes me really happy.

I'm not the sort of cook or writer that gets pissy if you don't like what I made. I realize there are other cooks out there that can make just what you like. I'm genuinely sorry to disappoint you. But I'm thrilled when someone actually likes it, or is kind enough to just say so and spare my feelings.

 

[ghost_girl]

I write things for people all the time. More often than not they have no idea and I have no desire to tell them. I feed on the connection I feel with them and in terms of the writing it doesn't matter if that connection runs both ways.


Not to sound unwelcoming but I am curious why you chose to seek your volunteer muse on the poetry board. I know you write poetry but I would have thought of you as predominately a prose writer. Do poets make better muses? I don't think I have a muse so I quite honestly have no idea if poet-types are more inspiring people in general.

And since you don't know me, I will add the disclaimer to that question that it come only out of curiosity. Sometimes I just refuse to add smilie faces when speaking to a smart person.

Sara, may I steal that explanation from you? I realize that makes me lazy, lol. But you said it better than I ever could, if I could even figure o ut that is what I wanted to say.

yep, yours is perfect.



what she said....

 

[Sara Crewe]

I write prose but I worship poets. Honestly. I write prose because I'm a whore right now and I want to be read and consumed and make money and because for the time being I've really lost my poetic voice and sensibility. What would you call it? That clarity and intensity of spirit. Especially now, a troubled time for me, I need to deal with large masses in violent and sustained motion, so prose does that for me, but my proudest moments as a prose writer are poetic ones - a perfect metaphor or image. Yesterday I hit on "wet entrance" and it made my day, and someday, when and if I ever settle down, I want to learn to carve poems again. I call myself a poet, and I feel guilty when I do but I do it for the pride because I used to be one.

But I come here for a muse because the image I have of her is clearly a poetic image. I mean, it's an image, not a story, although she oversees the creation of both poetry and prose. She's wearing a midnight blue velvet dress, floating above the ocean at night in the moonlight, and that's the way I always see her, with silver buttons on her dress. Don't ask me why, but that's the way she appears. The sea beneath her is filled with fish. (God, just talking about her calms me!)

There was another girl who inspired me for a while, but only for stories), and she was quite different. She was Auroric, like dawn, and she was always in bed looking through the cracked window at the rising sun. She had long, long hair the exact same color as the rays of the sun and was very young, the very picture of innocence, but she loved her stories full of blood and violence. She was a rascal and used to think up the most perverse and complicates sexual acts involving ropes and springs and melting candles. *L*

God, I love women!

Sounds like you are hoping to find someone whom you feel connected to, who appreciates your writing and from that appreciation you will draw inspiration and creative energy. Makes sense to me.


I don't think you will find her. Write something and she will find you.

 

[Tzara]

I would have thought "muse" would have referred to a person or persons who serve as inspiration more than as a target or idealized audience, but that's an interesting idea. I'd have to say I rarely, if ever, write poems to a particular person. Quite often the theme or general idea of the poem originates with a particular person (being male, the inspiration unsurprisingly is often a woman) but once I start mucking around with the poem it becomes more of a formal exercise than a personal missive. This gets me in trouble sometimes.

The prose I've written, on the other hand, is quite often written specifically for an individual, usually with the intent to entertain or amuse that person.

I think this is quite different from what Dr. M. means, though, as he seems to want to use the muse/target reader almost like a Platonic ideal of a wider audience. Sort of like If I write something well for this person, I can appeal to a lot of people. My writing for an individual is meant to be much more personal. It may appeal to others, but that isn't the point.

 

[Angeline]

This is an interesting thread Dr. Mab. And it's always a pleasure to see you in the poetry forum. You shake this place up with your ideas.

I write mainly for myself, but sometimes I write to eagleyez or my children. More often, I'm inspired by who I read here. Tathagata is a real muse for me. I think our childhoods were very similar. A lot of what he has to say resonates with me, gets me thinking about my similar experiences and then writing. I find Wicked Eve's and Lauren Hynde's poetry very inspiring, too. They are people who I always make sure to read. And smithpeter. Even now, I go back and read his poems because he got me to think about peotry in an entirely different way. Like photography, art, more visual. Neonurotic got me thinking about illustrated poems, he and senna jawa.

Most recently, I like to read Tzara. He has some big ideas (and small ones) that are very appealing. So does unpredictable Bijou.

You should write some peotry again, Dr. Mab. There's lots of us who can inspire you and I know your poems would be a welcome addition now. All you need to do is start writing, you know. Your considerable talents will do the rest for you.



Maybe I should bump my old blues thread. That'll get you going.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is an interesting thread Dr. Mab. And it's always a pleasure to see you in the poetry forum. You shake this place up with your ideas.

I write mainly for myself, but sometimes I write to eagleyez or my children. More often, I'm inspired by who I read here. Tathagata is a real muse for me. I think our childhoods were very similar. A lot of what he has to say resonates with me, gets me thinking about my similar experiences and then writing. I find Wicked Eve's and Lauren Hynde's poetry very inspiring, too. They are people who I always make sure to read. And smithpeter. Even now, I go back and read his poems because he got me to think about peotry in an entirely different way. Like photography, art, more visual. Neonurotic got me thinking about illustrated poems, he and senna jawa.

Most recently, I like to read Tzara. He has some big ideas (and small ones) that are very appealing. So does unpredictable Bijou.

You should write some peotry again, Dr. Mab. There's lots of us who can inspire you and I know your poems would be a welcome addition now. All you need to do is start writing, you know. Your considerable talents will do the rest for you.



Maybe I should bump my old blues thread. That'll get you going.

Angeline, the honor is all mine. Seriously, I worship you guys from afar

It's funny, in my last novel, my protagonist was a failed poet who was part of the Chicago Poetry Slam Scene. He hug around a bar baced on the real life Green Mill, whih was also seminal in the resurgance of live poetry reading in Chicago and which still has Sunday night open mike slams.

I'm an old beatnik. I like open readings. I stopped by the Mill to get a fee for my book and was struck by the fact that there were no erotic poets reading. It was the same old political social protest left over from the Beatnik/Howl days. No one up there reading about the thighs of the night, or "I slip these streets like tired jeans where intersection action scenes..." or "Take me dawns down El stairs lovingly parks along lakes through tunnel zoos haltingly.." None of this wonderful juicey love poetry when the audience is all guys and girls with arms about each other looking for the love buzz and wanting the love buzz and I was kind of astonished. Really astonished. Instead they're getting the same old stuff abut suburban lawns and Iraq.

So I came back here and worked on my novel and this haunted me. I really liked my hero's life, living down there in little Vietnam (and having a gorgeous BDSM affair) and reading in these bars and I started fantasizing about doing it (both, but we'e talking abou reading here), but I needed some muscular poetry to do it, and when I tried, I just couldn't. It was damned harder than I remembered.

So I got stuck and that's where I am.

But When I finish this story, I'm going to set aside some time each day...