POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Clean Your Plate

By Nandy Ekle

You sit at the table and the food server brings you a plate with several wonderful looking foods. You like the chicken, the squash, the potatoes, the salad. Your entire plate is full of food and you pick up your fork and start to eat. Then someone next to you finishes their food and their dessert is served to them. That’s when you realize you have too much food. What was a great dinner has now become a drag. So you start to stuff the food in your mouth just to get your plate clean enough for the dessert.

Writing is a little like that. You are involved in several projects that you enjoy doing.  When out of the blue, the muse comes back with a great story line. She’s got a clever beginning, an air-tight plot, and a punch-in-the-gut ending and she’s giving it all to you on a silver platter. But the tasks you normally savor have now become drudgery.

Time for concentration. You want your work to be quality, but you want it to be quick. So, the only choice you have is to buckle down and get it done. Getting all the other projects out of the way will make your actual writing experience all the more exciting.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.