"Putting My Muse to Bed"

I wonder how many hours a night Jack Sparrow sleeps. Pirates do some of their best pillaging at night, but since a pirate doesn’t punch a time clock I assume they have the next day to sleep off the excess from the night before. I may be a pirate, but I don’t share the same luxuries. I have a real life that demands me to serve many roles. It’s impossible to be a mother, a nurse, a wife, and a writer and indulge in too much of the pillage.

I am proud to say that I have started my WIP. With some brainstorming, and creative process I’ve finally developed a story that I feel can fly. It took me a long time to reach this point. In order to embrace a storyline, I have to believe in the conflict as well as the resolution. I have never attempted to write a story that I’ve felt in my gut that it’s the one-not until now.

I’ve reached one of the pinnacles of a writer’s journey. I should be happy, and I am, until its 3 a.m. and I can’t turn off the dialog and character scenes drifting through my mind. My muse is spending her nights as a pillaging pirate, and she’s not demonstrating a desire to stop anytime soon. I require at least four to five hours of sleep a night in order to function. I haven’t slept five hours since the weekend.

Don’t get me wrong- I love my hero whispering what he wants to do to my heroine in my ear, but can’t he tell me before I go to bed?

I’m not complaining, because I know at some point I’m going to hit a brick wall and my muse is going to be some where in the West Indies with Jack. I ’m glad that I’m so ate up with this WIP. It’s exciting; I brainstorm in the shower, on the way to work, and at work. I carry a notebook and I’m continually writing down my thoughts, and listening to the flight of ideas in my head. In the past week, I’ve written the opening scene, and somewhere along the way, I’ve managed to fall in love with one of my heroes.

It’s just a shame that I have a real job that requires me to be up at 5:30 a.m. bright- eyed and bushy- tailed. This week it hasn’t happened. I’ve been functioning at near zombie status, and I wake up when it’s time to go home and start writing again. When bedtime rolls around, I’m still having conversations with my hero. I finally say enough is enough; I save my WIP, and shut down my computer. I turn on the electric blanket, kick off my Hello Kitty slippers, and crawl into bed. It sounds like a cocoon of happiness, but when I roll over my hero is smiling at me in the dark. If he wasn’t a fictional character this wouldn’t be a bad thing- can you say eye candy? My heroine is a lucky woman, and the things he wants to do to her is enough to set the sheets on fire.

Tonight when he starts whispering sweet nothings about her in my ear, I’m using the line on him that always works with my DH. “Not tonight honey, I have a date with a pillow.” I just hope he takes no for an answer…zzzzzzzzz.

Do you experience muse overload? Have you ever fell in love with one of your heroes?