I just mentioned in the prior post two people who give me inspiration, Cold Soldier and NyteRavynn. Cold Soldier and I bounce ideas; Nyte is like a GM who tosses hooks and makes me think.
I do envision in my head, the muses surrounding a huge cauldron. Sometimes the stuff boils over and I cup whatever leaks out and try to make something of it (usually writing prompts, or quick scenes). Other times, a muse comes up to me with a ladle and I get entire sequenced scenes, or a huge epic idea of getting from point A to point B, without the immediate details. A muse will sometimes whisper something, or kick me. Sometimes they all ignore me. Sometimes they pout.
These are the classical muses. This is how I envision them:
Calliope – Epic poetry
Calliope and Thalia work together a lot. Calliope tells me bits and pieces, usually the seeds of stories. I call upon her to step in in when I try to work with a writing prompt. She’s the kickstarter.
Clio – History
My perfectionist muse, aka the Wikipedia queen. She makes sure that “real life” mimics the story, that things are realistic. She especially makes sure that history is correct. She’s also the one who yells at me when someone RP’s impossible things and I just have the overwhelming need to question them.
Erato – Lyric poetry
Erotica and all the sex scenes and double innuendos. Period.
Euterpe – Music and Elegiac poetry
This muse is very much in the background. She does not inspire me to music, but she uses music to inspire me.
Melpomene – Tragedy
Like I said, Mel likes Nyte. Most of the time, she does the heart-wrenching stuff (“Synchronicity” was one). Other times, it’s straight drama.
Polyhymnia – Religious poetry
Never had a chance to really work with her.
Terpsichore – Dance
This is my choreographer. She is the one who tells me how to describe fight scenes and action sequences.
Thalia – Comedy
Thalia is the one who steps up mysteriously and cracks a few jokes to make me laugh, then retreats back into the background. To think that I’m that witty blows my mind.
Urania – Astronomy
She’s my hard-scifi muse. She’s the one who tells me stories of space and rewrites TV shows.
My tenth muse: Elektra
Elektra is based not on Greek myths, but on the character spotlighted in Frank Miller’s miniseries Elektra: Assassin. She symbolizes, for me, a blood-thirsty person who can and will exact the most inhmane and cruel actions, but has something that’s precious to them that either brings their humanity back or makes them realize that what they’re doing is inhumane. Whether that gets them to stop it or not is usually dependent on the character.
Elektra gives me the bloody, gory scenes, and Clio tells me how to make it realistic enough to hopefully make the reader cringe. Elektra tells me how a person can be cold and angry, while Thalia gives me something to make him sarcastic. Elektra tells me who he fights; Terpsichore tells me how.
Everyone has their muses – feed them, and they will serve you well.