Let’s get a little theological today. In the past, if you’ve
been waiting for the Muses—in Greek mythology the goddesses that inspire
creativity—you’ve been doomed to failure.
Yes, there well may be a spark within you that says “Write!”
but . . . the Lord helps those who help themselves.
I got serious about all this in 1972 when I transferred to
the University of Washington and began my junior year with classes in novel
writing and short story writing. Many books, articles, columns, poems and plays
later, I can tell you the Muses have yet to show up when I’m working. And, I
can tell you, that writing spark is still there.
If you've been giving
How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks a try, what you’ve been doing is becoming a better writer by writing. Over
time, it will be easier for you to say what you want to say in the way you want
to say it. I could tell you writing will become easier but it would probably be
more honest to say writing won’t be as hard.
It’s seldom if ever easy. It can, if you work at it, get
less hard.
Part of the myth of the Muses is the misguided belief, the
sad hope, that at some moment, in a frenzy, you’ll easily dash off of a complete
novel. Yes,
O Father was written in a
three-day frenzy but it wasn’t easily dashed off. It was a lot of work
concentrated into a lot of hours over only a few days.
There’s a flip side to this. If you wrote your novel in a
Muse-induced state, if a goddess merely channeled herself through you, it
wouldn’t really be
your novel, would
it? But, nine weeks from today, it could be
your
novel. Your
completed novel.
Just keep writing.
