I’m stuck in the quandary that most writers fall into at one time or another. Blessed is the writer who avoids it. I refer to the flight of the muse. He’s a fickle bird, and he’s headed for warmer climes. The itch to write new words gets worse over time. It’s been months. The few new scenes in the rewrite don’t count. The only thing that will work is new words in a different story. The problem is my lack of inspiration.

Other writers when faced with this situation plop their butts in their chairs and write anyway. Me? I find myself paralyzed. Not at all conducive to my goal for the year of reclaiming my identity as a writer. The winter doldrums – I can blame that, can’t I? – have stolen my momentum. I have no energy to spare. Life and school need it all. But I’m the loser in this equation. Right now, the rewrite is mostly stalled. I touched up a chapter for critique group on Sunday. It was the first time I’d touched the manuscript in three weeks.

So, now what?

I know the answer. I have to set aside some time each day to work on the rewrite and some time to write new words. It’s easy to say that, but much harder to do. This morning half of my writing time got siphoned off by the need to reinstall iTunes – can’t write without my music – and the need to reinstall Adobe Reader – not necessary for writing, but since I was dealing with computer problems. And this is what happens. I let myself get distracted. Frequently, it’s practical and even arguably important things that get in the way. Sometimes it’s Twitter and Facebook. I know the answer to that too. I need to go dark, to shut off the internet and email during my writing time. The downside is that it will cut me off from the wonderful support of the #amwriting community on Twitter. I may have to try leaving only Twitter open.

The real question, since I know what I need to do, is which WIP should I pick up whilst I wait for the muse to return? I need fresh inspiration for a new story, something that is complex enough for a book. Ideas tend to grow best when the field is already fertilized. Active writing seems to be the best fertilizer. Reading and watching movies feed my creative brain, but nothing jumpstarts it like the act of writing. My hunch is that I will return to my very first WIP, A CLOSER PARALLEL. It’s YA fantasy, not something I’m exactly qualified to write, but I adore my characters and their world. It needs work. It needs the other half of the story written, which gives me a great way in. The not-so-fun thing for me is that it needs some serious world building. I have to make technology decisions and so forth. Maybe it should have a steampunk element blended with the magic… Decisions, decisions.

I’d like to know how other writers handle the new-word itch when the muse has flown the coop. What works for you?

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