My Sleep-deprived Muse

[marydell]

So last night I had a dream about writing. Yay! My brain still cares about writing!

In the dream (as in real life) I'm lamenting the fact that I don't have a good setting/cosmology for fantasy stories...I need to come up with an environment that's fresh and that reflects the things that I find magical in life. An older woman sitting at the other end of the table from me says I can write stories in a shared universe with her, if I like...she tells me about her great setting and says she'll let me use it. Her fantasy setting is a magical forest that connects the real world with a different, magical world.

I wake up at this point and say "wow, hey! That older woman must be a part of me, she's like my inner muse! How cool, she's giving me ideas in my sleep!"

Then I wake up a little more and realize that my inner muse is a HACK. I mean, come on, the Wood between the Worlds? She's not even TRYING.

Comments

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Bridge to Terabithia was hardly hackish. ;)

The formula works--- it's all about the repackage.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Agreed...to clarify, I'm not saying that using standard fantasy settings and tropes makes anyone a hack. I'm saying that when an archetypal figure comes to me in a dream, and offers me a gift of inspiration, I expect something more creative than something pulled from a book I've read 20 times (The Magician's Nephew, in this case). It's as if I had a dream where someone told me to write about hobbits.

I find that I have a lot more inspiration in the SF direction than when I lean toward Fantasy, but there are things I want to say that can better be said through Fantasy stories than through SF. So on the way back from the 4th Street Con I was mulling over what I would need to do in order to write good (in my own eyes) fantasy. What I came up with is that I need to build a unique cosmology and setting for myself, so that I can have a lot of fertile ground for stories to grow. The dream followed on that.

[eposia.livejournal.com]

But...But...*we're* working on a shared world and we neeeed mooooore braaaains! No one's taken on inventing the forests yet...*eyes you eagerly*

Heehee. On a tangential but slightly-related note, did you still want to trade and workshop stories or did you need that to fall off the baby-changing table for a bit? I'd understand a need for hiatus, but if you have the time and energy I'd love to see some of your work. *attempts a lecherous leer, hilarity ensues*

[eposia.livejournal.com]

Oh no worries shared worlds are supposed to be people writing the parts that really capture their interest. I am looking forward to reading your stories! i'll find where I filed the ones I have out circulating and send a couple along. Happy baby (room) painting!

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I definitely still want to trade stories! Various things are going to fall by the wayside because of the kid but I don't plan for writing to be one of them. Since I'm a lazy undisciplined writer, being busy with a kid won't change a thing, LOL! Yet I'm probably an ideal workshop member because I'm a fast, disciplined editor, while not producing enough of my own writing to overburden my fellow 'shoppers. And I do have a couple of stories in queue that I hope to start drafts on in the next week or two while I'm off work with the kiddo.

Let me send you the couple of finished stories I was telling you about, not to workshop them because they're already at the submission stage, but so you can get an idea what my writing is like (and whether you really want me to workshop with you!) And please pass them on to Kit as well, if he's interested. And then with luck I'll have drafts of my 2 stories-in-progress in a week or two. And please go ahead send me some of your stuff whenever you're ready; in a day or two I'll be done painting the kid's room and can get down to some reading again.

Hmm...can you email me with your preferred email address so I don't have to use crappy LJ messaging to send & receive? Can't sort & store the inbox, from what I can tell. My email is mary @ canary3d.com

As for shared worlds, I'll happily throw ideas into the stew, but I am not your girl when it comes to forests. I know they have trees, and stuff growing under the trees. But that's about it. My life has been entirely spent in some variety of urb, small or large. Which is why when I dream about a forest, it's one from a fricken book!

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

That's awesomely hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

I know that experience (minus the older woman, but still, yeah).