What the heck is a muse?
I can only speak as a man, but for me, the muse is that female whose presence in his imagination makes it all worthwhile. She’s his ideal deeper and better self.
Why should a novelist need a muse?
Practically speaking the muse raises your level of performance. She makes you strive to do more, faster, more beautifully.
In the Albert Brooks movie The Muse, Sharon Stone plays a professional muse, who contracts out to failing screenwriters.
Jack Nicholson nails it, in As Good as it Gets, when he tells Helen Hunt, “You make me want to be a better man.” Beyond that, I can only make lists:
• She’s the girl you showed off for in 4th grade.
• The teacher you made A’s for in high school.
• The girl you imagine reading your stories and weeping at their beauty.
Wouldn’t it be great if all these inspirational women could take turns being around, inspiring you minute by minute as you worked? Fat chance of that.
My wife, for example, who is hands-down the muse of my life, would consider such a duty to be about as bearable as drifting down the Mississippi chained to a dead mule (apologies to my friend Prof. Jake Mills for lifting his simile).
Yes, of course I’m being vivid, but she’s got a point. Few things are less interesting than watching a writer write.
Lucky for me, however, I have an everyday muse who picks up the slack. During any given moment of my work day, if I need a touch of muse power, Tina is there for me. “Are you annoyed?” her eyes say. “Bored? Frustrated? Underwhelmed with yourself? Look at me. Look into my eyes…” and I’m refueled.
I’m not just being Pollyanna, either: I’m absolutely okay with the fact that, not being Shakespeare, I need every drop of extra inspiration I can come by. And in some funny way, Tina supplies it.
She reminds me who I am and yet implies I could be more. I could be whatever my original vision once told me I can be. Her certainty is reassuring. She just knows it. (By the way, Tina is the cat pictured at the top of this post.)
Women, what’s the male counterpart to the muse?
Jung’s “animus” is roughly analogous to muse or “anima.” If it works that way for you, who are the animus figures who inspire you? If you could keep a handsome male cat at your side, would that do it for you?
Tip: For Carol’s very different take on the same picture of Tina (different cropping) – see her prompt on today’s Carol’s Blog.)
(Not to spoil it but she’s dead right about the physical clutter I work in. I blogged about that last year.)
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I totally agree as a writer it is so important to have someone that inspires you close by. More so than this I think it is important to have someone with high expectations around that you want to write your very best for!