SLAVE2THEMUSE

Let's talk about the title of this little rant, shall we? The muse was a mythological creature that inspired artwork and creativity. And I'm its slave. Since I have always felt the compulsion to put down my thoughts down in writing (arrogant bastard--didn't Natalie Goldberg say something about putting my thoughts down on paper is one of the most powerful actions I know? I'm paraphrasing, though.), I've always been jealous of those people who can go through the day not commiting a single thought of a notepad, typwriter ribbon, or Word document. When they are watching baseball, HBO, or old episodes of "Full House," and they ask me what I'm going to do that night, I grumble something about having to work out the conflict resolution in my story on the divorced couple at the park. I can't NOT write. Sometimes I think I'll give it all up--who needs the grief (the rejection slips, the postage, the time sacrificed in the name of art), and then I'll get an idea for short piece of fiction that might be right for the Glimmer Train short short story award, and I scramble to the computer. Sometimes I genuinely wish I could walk away, but I know that as miserable as I sometimes am trying to wrestle interesting words onto the white space, I'd be more miserable if I lived like so many others whose thoughts stay unexpressed outside their heads. When I was deciding what to name this journal, my first thought was about how committed (obsessed?) I've always been to/with writing and the idea of capturing universal ideas, feelings, and issues in words. Hence the title of this blog.
In short, I am a slave to the muse.

P.S. Blogs are the most democratic form of published writing since the Print-on-Demand revolution (see early posts on POD experience). Seems like everyone has a soapbox from which to spout. Cool.