Author’s Note: Diana at Mythos of the Mirror has a new prompt: Meet The Muse! The rules are simple. Post a conversation with your muse on your blog and then leave a link to your post in the comment section of Diana’s post here. There is no word limit. Just keep it family friendly and have fun!
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Isellta walks over to the bartender and asks for a hot toddy. He pauses. “What exactly is a hot toddy?”
The bartender guffaws and said—–
“What are you doing?” my muse asked me.
“I’m writing. Go away.”
He stepped over to my side and peered at my computer screen through his wire-rimmed glasses. “You’re on Discord.” He made it sound like I was on the fast boat to Hell.
“Yeah? So? I’m writing.”
The bartender guffaws and—–
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re roleplaying with your characters.”
“Still counts as writing.”
The bartender—–
“It doesn’t count if it fails to advance your story.”
I sighed. “But it’s fun!“
“What? Advancing your story is not fun?”
“Well….Oh, but come on! Just look at how cute Isellta’s being here!” I rubbed my hands together. “I intend to make him slipping under the counter drunk. Mwa-hahahahahaha!”
My muse was not amused.
“Look. I’m going to work on my story in a little bit. I just want to play around a little.”
My muse was not impressed.
“Besides, roleplay is a very good way to see how my characters react to situations and characters they will never run into in my story. It’s….” I smiled smugly. “It’s character development. In roleplay, I uncover and understand certain details about my character I never even gave a thought to while working on my story proper. A lot of small details like the natural development of a fey’s wings. A lot of big details like the reason why Mark Caten never reflects on his childhood and young adulthood. That detail in particular has been bothering me about him. If his childhood was all that great, why wouldn’t he have good memories about it? One of the other writers on Discord pointed out that Mark Caten might be lying, which is a very intriguing thought. I’m really looking forward to exploring that in-story.”
He pulls out a jumbo-sized bag of Reese’s Pieces out of the pocket of his tweed suit jacket. The bag is already open. He pulls out a handful. “So, you’re saying that roleplaying your characters is helping your story?”
“Exactly!”
He pops the candy in his mouth and eats it. “That is all very interesting. I’ve never thought of character roleplaying like that before. I’ve always considered it a distraction from what you need to write.”
I preened. I preened so much I practically turned into a peacock.
He peered at my screen again. He scrolled upward to see the rest of my Discord roleplaying. “Hm.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You still need to work on your actual story.”
“I know.”
“You have half a chapter sitting in draft mode waiting to be completed.”
“I know!”
“And you still have a multitude of unwritten SPOILER moments waiting to be written.”
“Oh my gosh I know! And I will get to work on it. Just let me give Isellta his hot toddy.” I grinned devilishly. “And then he’ll get good and drunk. He’ll be such a cute drunk too. Everyone will be all up in AWWW’s over him.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. But if you aren’t working on your next chapter in 49 minutes, I will send your Internal Editor after you and we’ll see how you like that.”
I frowned at him. “You don’t have to threaten me, you know. I will get back to that chapter very shortly. Now, leave me alone so I can get Isellta drunk.”
He shook his head. “It can be so hard being a good muse. I expect you to have two in-story chapters done before the end of the day.”
Before I could respond to that, he disappeared. As always, he got the last word in.
This was a delight!
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Thank you so much! I had a lot of fun writing it! 😄
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Reblogged this on West Coast Review.
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That was so fun. I think you sort of convinced your muse that roleplaying was vital to your character development. 😀 Great conversation. I’ll get it lined up for a reblog!
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Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
My muse may be sort of convinced, but he will always poke the back of my head while I’m roleplaying. 😂
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Lol. That’s what I love about these posts. Our muses have such personality! And our relationships with them are all unique.
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So very true! 😀
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I also wonder why some appear as women and some appear as men. Perhaps some muses are traditonally masculine traits, while others have traditionally feminine traits?
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I’m not even sure. I just know that my muse AND my Internal Editor are definitely both guys. And they both have a weakness for Reeses’ candy. 😀
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So, they can be bribed, then. That’s always good when a muse gets intrusive.
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Great question. My usual Bossy Muse is female, and the Mercenary Muse is male (am I stereotyping? Lol). Whatever works. Thanks for stopping by, Liz. Much appreciated. ❤
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I don’t want to stereotype either; I just thought is was fun to think about. Also, some muses appear to be internal, an alter ego of the author, whereas others appear completely external. 🙂
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That’s part of why I kicked off the prompt, Liz. It’s actually kind of fascinating.
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Yes, it is!
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Reblogged this on Myths of the Mirror and commented:
Elsie and Ambrose try to convince their muse that video games is part of writing. Enjoy. 🙂
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Your muse is bossy, too, I see. They are slave-drivers aren’t they?
I loved this. I role-play, too. And you’re right. It is important to get to know your characters.
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😀 I’m pretty sure my muse is related to my Internal Editor who is likewise very bossy. They might even be twin brothers. 😆
I RP with some writers I met on the NaNoWriMo forums. And it has been a blast! I especially enjoy bringing together characters who don’t get a chance to interact with each other in-story, like my two fey characters. The one, LM, doesn’t show up until the other one, Isellta, has already left the main group of characters to do his own sub-plot.
LM is a half-fey with social issues/trust issues. He’s a little like a feral cat that you really have to work hard to gain his trust.
Isellta is a whole fey who has plenty of his own issues, but he is very soft-natured. He’s like a house cat that wants to just curl up in your lap and fall asleep, purring. Other characters tend to join the “Protect this innocent, precious boy” bandwagon when they meet Isellta.
So, given their differences, I wanted to see what would happen if they did spend time together. Turns out, LM has something of a one-sided competitiveness with Isellta. If Isellta does something, LM will try to do it too just to prove that he can do it just as well as Isellta.
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Good one! If roleplaying adds some dimensions to the characters, it is absolutely necessary and yes, it could be fun too.
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Absolutely true!
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Muse: “See, look what her muse does.”
Me: “A real motivator for sure.”
Muse: “So why do you complain when I do that?”
Me: “Bowl of ice cream?”
Muse: “Sure.”
Me: “Now what were you saying?”
Muse: “MmmmMMMmmmmMmmm. Not sure.”
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😂😂😂😂😂😂
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Fun! 😎
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Thank you! 🙂
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Loved your take on the prompt! Well done.
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This made me smile. I don’t RP as a gamer, but the Offspring does, and I can attest to the fact that a lot of creativity goes into the process. Of course, I hope that one day a book-type story will emerge from the RP, but heaven forbid anyone should accuse this mother of being bossy… 😉
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