Many Minds Makes Light the Work

So there's something to be said for this writing by numbers game, though sometimes I wish it was easier to make cooperate. Let's talk muses, those silly parts of ourself that define which aspects of our minds are actually in use.

Me and the beta brain are still on the outs. The beta brain is a muse that allows me to detach from what I'm reading and notice the writing instead of the story. Reading and dissecting, not permitting myself to get into the reading, has simply not been happening—despite three projects on my desk and enough stolen time to do them.

But there are other muses that preside over other aspects of my process, muses I have previously lumped into a single entity and, thus, never been able to regulate. They are:

The Percolator, a muse I am well aware of and usually blame all of my good writing on. There is a distinct difference in flavor between the writings of mine that have percolated and theose that have not. More on that later.

The Burner, a muse I understand most people blame their best writing on. This muse is vitally necessary to the process, providing the fire—the enthusiasm and the focus; however, it also interferes with the percolator when it doesn't want to wait to get things going.

The Enactor, a muse that allows me to "get under the skin" of my characters and play out what's going to happen. This muse works well in tandem with other muses, particularly the articulator, but it's a bear if I miss the boat and write after a single enactment is over and done with, because I can never match the perfection of it.

But there are few limits on this muse; it will run over and over if I want it to and free me from the pressure of matching a single vision. This is the muse, alongside the burner, that allows me to write so much in fandom.

The Articulator, a muse that makes sense of all the rest and puts it into words, in other words, the bottom line part of the equation for a writer. It tends to go hand in hand with other muses, and my best days are when the articulator, the enactor, and the burner get together after the percolator has handed over the goods. Of course, this doesn't happen nearly as often as I like.

I've done a lot of evaluation of the raw data from my recent writing sessions, but I had not yet taken into account the difference between these muses, how I mix and match them, and how I sometimes fail to mix them. But when I do take them into account, I start to notice some startling trends.

Of my published fiction, I can usually tell you the way I wrote any particular story.

"Portrait of a Butterfly" was the first one posted up here, and it was written rather impromptu, based off of many details of a Household's family and work that had been in my head for ages. The entire story began with fandom and went like this:

• Get excited by fandom and throw it on the Burner.
• Throw a bunch of fandom info into the Percolator's slow cooker.
• Realize I was unsatisfied with the explanation for powers and put it back on the Burner.
• Turn on the Percolator's pressure cooker.
• Scrounge up whatever I could by researching and cogitating on how this could work.
• World created.
• Use the Enactor and Burner to play out a few dozen stories.
• Turn everything off for a while and stick it in the Percolator's refrigerator.
• Turn on the Burner and decide I want to write a story. Sit down to write impromptu and see ingredients from out of the Percolator show up on the page. Articulator not present.
• Turn on the Articulator for editing.

Sounds almost freaky how much went into this about 200-word piece when I put it like that, but this is the reality of how much went into "Portrait of a Butterfly" and why this piece has nuance, whereas "The Alchemist" really doesn't.

"The Alchemist" was written in a couple hours, in a single writing session, and impromptu. Later, I edited it and shipped that baby out.

• Threw an idea in the Percolator's refrigerator of an alchemist who turned iron into gold spiritually/ideologically, not physically.
• Turned on the Burner, wanted to get a story written, and sat down with prompt. Used the Articulator and the Burner and watched story unroll.
• Added condiments from the Percolator for editing.

Percolation and depth in one of my stories seem to be directly proportional. Note: the percolation doesn't have to be for a particular story, nor does it have to be at any particular time. I can even do it later and revise the mess in (not recommended),  but it does have to occur.

As for the Beta Brain, I use it to do other people's fiction and to pull snippets from unsalvagable fiction of my own; however, I never use it to edit.

So... Who are your muses? Is there any part of the writing process that is more important for you than another? Does excluding one have any effect on your stories?