I've done a lot of research about Writing Muses. I've found a lot of weird advice, from surrounding myself with people in sync with the universe, to always using your lucky pen.Basically from what I can gather, muse comes from the nine chicks who inspired Greeks to write and sculpt, and sing. Really I think the Greeks came up with that so they didn't have to share where they got their ideas from, but whatever. There are about four muses that kinda deal with Writing. Calliope, owns Epic Poetry (What makes some poetry Epic and other not I don't know) Erato, rules love poetry, Melpomene, who has dibs on Tragedy, and Thalia, who's all about comedy.
Now and days people think of Muses more as actions and things than these nine very average looking women. It's also like their crack. Not that they have to get their supply from some sleazy street dealer, in that they rely on it. It's like superstition for writing.
Honestly I think it's all a head game. Like "If I don't wear my hat a certain way or do this or this or this, It's impossible for me to write" Now I've found a problem with that. You start messing yourself up in the head when you think like that. You'll have a herd time writing if you absolutely can not write if you don't have a hot glass of tea beside you, because one day you'll run out of tea or break your favorite mug or something like that and psyche yourself out of writing which breaks habits and streaks.
Muses seem to be an excuse for your own awesomeness or your own crappiness. "Oh I only was able to do this awesome thing with the thanks of my muse." or more likely "I only did this piece of crap work because my muse left me." It's all excuses. Now it's OK to have a little thing you do to get you into "the zone" when you're writing. Look at people who play sports, I'll give you a hint someone not like me, they'll do little things like rubbing last year's winning trophy or something like that before a game. The difference between touching a trophy and your writing muse is that your muse is a fickle thing. A trophy will always be a trophy, but your muse can alter, change and evolve little by little.
I think a lot of people find their muses subconsciously, then when they figure out they should get one, they don't realize they already have one and they freak. Let's look at how I write. I wake up first thing in the morning, before I even get out of bed and I push out 500 words at the least. This makes me feel like I've started something and I need to finish it. So by the end of the day I come home still thinking about my story and how much of it I want to write for my daily goal. That's a muse! Another thing, I love graphs, so I'll write down my word count every day, and at the end of the month I'll write those up into a spread sheet and see visually how I've done. It's also cool to compare days in my writing log with days in my Journal to see what mood I write best in. (I've actually found out I write more when I feel like sleeping)Take a sec to look at yourself and see what gets you working. Maybe it's rewards (Definitely not me,) did you write 2000 words today? yes. BOOM! you get to wear a Toy Story 3 bandage on that Misquote bite that kinda hurts but doesn't really need a band aid. Or are you like me and you work best under pressure? If so Try using Write or Die, I work better with punishments than rewards (and believe me Write or die has some pretty harsh punishments,) Nothing to be to scared of though. Another thing you can do as a pressure person is wait until the last minute to do your writing. Now this won't work unless you've got a fixed deadline and some consequences. This is mainly for school work for me, I can churn out a really good paper in one night if it's do the next day but not if I do it a week before. Anyway, figure out what is working for you and stop worrying about finding your "muse" because it's all a head game. Spend your time Writing, not finding your muse.
