Hello everyone, I have a very interesting topic to bring to your attention. Have you ever thought of having a muse for your writing? If so, I’m sure you have a story to tell about your muse, and how it helps you make a connection with your characters. If you don’t have a muse, then I hope and pray that my story will inspire you to find a creative muse of your own.
As you know, from a previous post, I have been inspired by ALF to continue with a story that was initially inspired by a dream. With that being said, I found even more videos on YouTube featuring ALF. One of the videos I found, during my YouTube search was an interview with Paul and Linda Fusco that my husband actually stumbled across one night after we watched a few ALF episodes on his iPad. Paul Fusco created the snarky little alien, who became popular in the late 80s, and is still loved by fans around the world today. If you want to watch this inspiring interview for yourself, you can do so by visiting the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n_bnq0ebgw .
There were a lot of things I liked about this interview, including a joke about Fruit Loops at the end of the video, but there was one segment of the interview that really stuck with me. Mr. Fusco talked about his creative process, when writing ALF’s lines for the TV show. He told the professors who conducted the interview that there were times when he couldn’t think of any funny lines for ALF to say on the show. However, when he put ALF on his hand, ALF would tell him what lines to write.
The reason I can identify with Mr. Fusco is really simple. As a writer of Christian Fiction, I know my characters so well that they tell me what to write, when I sit down at the computer. From time to time, my characters will mentally pull me along on their journeys. To give you a perfectly good example of this creative process, is during the time I wrote my first draft of A Journey of Faith, A Stepping Stones Mystery. There were times, when I wasn’t even thinking about my story, my protagonist Becca Martin, would start her journey, and I felt as if she was beckoning me to “come onâ€. She kept looking over her shoulder to make sure I was following her, and I was mentally walking along behind her. Although I wrote this book long before I heard this video, Mr. Fusco’s story took me back to 2015, when the writing process for my novel, began.
There’s something to be said about creative minds thinking alike, no matter what we write whether it’s fiction, a narrative, comedy, etc. This interview inspired me to find a creative muse of my own to internally connect with my characters. My muse is a beanie bear my husband bought me, when I was hospitalized with Cellulitis back in September. She sits at an angle, beside my computer, which makes her look like she’s looking at me while I write. When I’m suffering from writers block, I pick up my beanie bear and hold her so she’s looking right at me. In this way I can sometimes tap into my character’s conversations; yet at other times, all I have to do is touch her and my story comes to life, like a movie playing in my head. However, when I try to force my beanie bear to tell me what comes next in my story something always happens to stop me in my tracks.
Here’s the part of my creative process that may sound weird, but when I try to force myself to be creative, ALF pops into my head as the voice of reason that keeps me from staunching my creative flow. This memorable TV character from my childhood, comes to mind when I need him to rip my writers block to shreds and keep me from halting the creative process, in the middle of the stream, when no other sources of inspiration will work.
I believe that as writers, we all need a voice of reason, aside from those of our characters, to keep us on track and throw writers block out the window. Your voice of reason can be anything from a loved one who is familiar with your creativity, to a voice from your past, such as a favorite character from a TV show, movie, or book. Who or what is your voice of reason? How does this person or internal voice keep you inspired and help you keep the creative juices flowing, so that you can write your story from start to finish? Please share your creative process in the comments below.
