Almost every fiction writer I have ever spoken to believes that they have a personal muse. Muses, however, can take many forms. It is rare to find a fiction writer who considers his or her muse to be like the muses of mythology. Some are fairies that flit about with magic wands, sprinkling ideas and words into a fiction writer's brain. Others are doctor sorts, who inject the fiction. Some consider their muses slave masters who take a hard-nosed approach to the fiction writer's progress.
For all the fiction writers that do believe that they have a muse who helps them work, they also blame this muse on the dreaded writer's block.
Writer's block is an affliction that befalls every writer at some time or another. It is an illness that comes without warning, and it certainly can be contracted more than once in a lifetime, or even a fiction story.
When a fiction writer has writer's block, their muse freezes. The muse either has nothing to say, or refuses to say it. Some fiction writers, frustrated with the struggle of beginning or completing a story, consider their muse to take perverse joy in messing them up.
So, how does a fiction writer triumph over the evilly cackling muse? How to their wrest back the control of the story from that silent inner voice? How do fiction writers stop writer's block?
There are three good methods for beating writer's block and getting your muse to talk again.
The first method is launching a massive brainstorming session. Brainstorming is the practice of writing down every single crazy thing that pops in to your head. If you have a basic idea about what you want the fiction story to be about, you should build off that idea. Do not worry if your ideas sound crazy. At least they are ideas. Your muse will not know what hit him.
The second method for dealing with writer's block is to just write anyway. Open up your word processing software and write anything that comes into your head. Give yourself a time limit, about five or ten minutes, and force yourself to write constantly for that whole time. The constant and continuous clattering of the keys just might wake your muse up.
The third method is not recommended. It does not get a fiction writer over writer's block so much as succumb dismally to it. The third method is to go on strike. Force yourself not to write anything. Do not try to come up with any ideas, do not try to work on your current fiction piece. One night, in the depths of slumber, your muse will awake and start whispering, giving you an idea in a dream. Or you will again hear its voice in a business meeting, class lecture, or on the cross-town bus.
Do not ignore your muse. It does not want you to succumb to writer's block, for then it is trapped in dismal silence.
