To Muse or Not to Muse?

Tonight, for some reason I was contemplating - what the heck is a muse? And do we really need to be inspired by one to write?  

Most of us have heard the expression, “She’s my Muse” or “The Mona Lisa is my Muse.” 

Okay, so does this mean a person, place or thing (a Noun?) has to be a “muse?”  

Perhaps you don’t find me amusing - 

Here’s the definition for Muse from:

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/muse

As a verb, to muse is to consider something thoughtfully. As a noun, it means a person — especially a woman — who is a source of artistic inspiration.

In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences. Today, a muse is a person who serves as an artist's inspiration. Often filmmakers talk about a certain actor being a muse — meaning the actor inspired a movie. Writers, painters, musicians and other artists have muses. Muse can also refer to thinking deeply. If you muse about something, you're giving it serious thought. You can't muse in five seconds. People muse on certain ideas for years.

While it is a verb, or a noun, depending on your use of the word, a muse isn’t some magical fairy that comes and sprinkles idea juice into your brain.

Personally, I don’t have a muse, most of the time I don’t even have a clue! 

When I sit to write, I open the page and start writing. I see images in my mind, not words on the page, which is perhaps why my spelling and grammar are so poor.  I think in terms of pictures and try to capture what I see for my audience. 

The perfect example is the current contest I am entering, they give us a theme (I hate themes, but it’s their rules), Person in a Hole.

So, I sat at my computer and had the stupid image of a person standing in a hole in my head, I had to delete that really quick, and I changed the thought to someone in trouble, alone, must help themselves out, and then I began to type. I could see the troubled person and situation happening over and over, all I had to do was write up to the "hole" and write them out of the "hole".

Never once did I consider a muse. I envisioned and I wrote. Simple as that. 

So hogwash to the muse, grab your brilliant ideas from wherever they appear and go write something today. 

Happy Writing Folks!