Have you ever woken in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because your story is calling you? Have you ever had your story become your dream so vivid that when you wake you are exhausted?
If you can answer yes to either or both questions, then you have selected the right vocation. This morning, I woke at 3:15 AM CST. I told myself that I would roll over and sleep some more. I kept fooling myself until 4:00 AM. I got up took a shower, a hot & steamy shower since it was minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit outside with an 18 mph wind causing a wind-chill of minus 29 degrees. The steam, the heat running over my head caused me to think and to remember that while I was sleeping I was visited by my muse Maria (my older sister calls her Maggy); you know her as the Magdalene. She planted in my mind the beginning to my next chapter since I am nearly done with Chapter 05 of "Pagan Mirth".
"Pagan Mirth" is a murder mystery that is all about family, faith and calling. You and I have a calling to be writers, authors, poets, journalists. We have been given a talent by God and we need to use that talent. Sometimes that calls for us to rise from our slumber and write. What do we write? We write what our muses lends us in the way of words. I am a very visual person. As such, I picture the words on the page of my journal. The sentences dictated by Maria are highlight in the most beautiful crimson color you can imagine. Those dictated by her husband, who tags along every so often, are highlighted in the most stunning royal blue that there is no description to do it justice.
We each have our own method, our own vision, our own way of seeing what our muses tell us to write. It is just sometimes that sleep gets in the way!
It never fails, it seems like my best ideas for writing come at bed time or the middle of the night. Curse or blessing? I don't know, but I keep a pen and paper by the bed now and have written several chapters, some of my best work, after midnight.
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