Some books give me trouble. Color Blind fought me tooth and nail about being finished. I had more writer's block on that one than anything else to date. (Knock on wood...) But The Muse...if anything, that one came too easily, and at bad times.
I got the idea, initially, while I was trying to edit Color Blind. I tried to ignore it, just until I was through, but Layne-and it would have to be him!-wouldn't shut up until I jotted down a few things.
I suspect, sometimes, that Layne is not 'my character' as much as he is some otherworldly being that likes to bug me. Admittedly, these suspicions usually come very early in the morning or very late at night, when I also think that doing a cartwheel isn't that hard. (It is. I can't do a cartwheel. I hurt myself.) All the same, though, I have to wonder. I hadn't been considering doing a story about a writer, or reading a lot of Greek mythology, or anything that might trigger a small landslide of ideas. It just happened. One minute I was going, 'am I really sure this scene goes here?' and the next minute someone else was going, 'hi! I know this is a bad time, but you need to write my story down RIGHT NOW or you'll never get any editing done.' No other idea has ever hit quite so hard, and quite so fleshed out. It was like some kind of inspirational lightning bolt.
As time went on, I got ideas for the story at the worst possible times. In the middle of a math test? There was Layne, prattling on about this horrible dog that nearly took his head off. At a family gathering? There he was again, bugging me to get rid of this crazy guy with an ax. I really do have to feel sorry for Alice. She's stuck with him 24/7. (Although some days it felt like I was stuck with him 24/7.)
I don't know. All I know is that this funny little man with the pink hair took over my life for...has it really been three years? And I really have enjoyed every minute of it, even though I really couldn't afford to be brainstorming during a math test.
-Lalla
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