My Seven Muses
September 14th, 2007
“In Greek mythology, the Muses are a sisterhood of goddesses or spirits who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music and dance. Not only are the Muses explicitly used in modern English to refer to an inspiration, as when one cites his/her own artistic muse, but they are also implicit in the words “amuse” or “musing upon”.” -Quoted from various reference material.
I have seven furry muses with four feet and a tail each. Their names are Mowgli, Bast, Cassa, Isis, Clarice, Ed, and my beloved Gabriel (a.k.a. Kitten). Ed and Bass are the most helpful. They find me wherever I am writing, usually on the couch, and they curl up and watch me. This may sound like nothing special for a cat, to sit upon a couch but trust me it is.
They don’t go to sleep, they just sit there and watch me- reminding me every time I look away that I need to keep focus or telling me none too gently to take a break with the seemingly innocent stretch and dig nails into leg approach. I’ll tell you now Eddy has some mighty big nails for a Siamese. They’ve even been kind enough to tell me when I’ve written plenty for the night by casually walking across the laptop (something they know better to do any other time) and missing every key but the power button. Kitten seems especially devilish in this field.
Sometimes, when I go a day or so too long without writing they give me a hint or two, or three, or four, …. Bass is excellent at this. I’ll be home sometimes doing nothing important and distracting myself or procrastinating in some way or another when Bass comes along. She’s such a lovey little kitty. I’ll bend down to pat her on the head or scratch her bum and instead of standing there she’ll run away like she is suddenly frightened but the trick is- she doesn’t run far. After about three or four feet she stops, looks at me, meows in that raspy voice of hers, and waits. Silly little human, I fall for it. I go to her and try again. And again. After the second or third time I see that I am either being lead to my laptop bag or the couch. She won’t settle for just one or the other. I must have both the laptop and the couch and of course my ritual game of hide and seek with the headphones and the five minutes of music searching and then here she comes. I pet her and she lays down happy once again. Goddess forbid if I get up. She follows me everywhere meowing and leading me until she can coax me back to the couch and computer.
Now you may be asking why I’m so off topic. First I was talking about muse and inspiration now I’m talking about being tricked by four footed creatures who poo in a sand box. Well after all of this has happened, if I ever get stumped within my plot I can look to my cats. Plot is 90% character after all, every move through plot is based on what your characters would do while maintaining their personalities. Well, with seven multi-personality cats running around scolding me when I don’t get any writing done I dare to say I can always look to them for advice on what one personality type or another might do in such and such situation. Don’t even get me started on the uses of cats if you’re writing about humor… that’s just too easy.
So, my tip for the day. If you want to be a writer. Get a cat, or a fish, or some sort of pet, a friend over might even work. Something that requires your attention now and again to drag you away or tell you when you’ve been at it too long or that knows what makes you happy and can tell you “Hey, go, sit, now- write!” The journey through writing doesn’t have to be alone. I’m not an expert but it’s working for me so far.
