Cher Gorman Tells You How to Fire Your Muse and Find Writing Nirvana

Cher Gorman is the President of the Heart of Denver Romance Writers, our local chapter of the Romance Writers of America.  She’s a fantastic lady and someone I am happy to know face-to-face.  An interesting tidbit about Cher – every time I see her she looks just as good as she does in her pictures!  (I’d really like to know her secret.)

I’ll cut my rambling here and let Cher’s writing speak for itself:

Last year was not a very productive year for me in terms of writing.  I wrote only one book.  My novel was submitted, but I still felt like a pen dragging slug.  I can comfortably write three books a year.  Four books would be a personal best for me.  Five would be Olympic Writing Gold.  I would perch atop my desk and feel proud as the golden keyboard was placed in my hands.  Of course the writer’s national anthem would be playing in the background.  The writer’s national anthem for me is “Hunk A Burnin’ Love” by Elvis but substituted, “Hunk A Burnin’ Writin’ Love.”

In order to make 2010 more productive, I examined why I penned only one novel in 2009.  This is what I discovered.  The overarching reason was basically fear.  Fear of failure and *gasp* fear of success.  First I looked at fear of failure. I was afraid of writing a book or books that weren’t good, weren’t fresh, weren’t marketable.  So what if I continued to hone my craft, so what if I searched for fresh twists on old ideas until my little brain shriveled, so what if I studied the marketplace on almost a daily basis to make sure there was a market for my story ideas?  What if all of my hard work didn’t pay off?  What if my books were rejected anyway?  What if my work wasn’t good enough?  What then?

It’s true when you reach the bottom the only place you have to go is up but still.  I was afraid of hitting the bottom, lying there in a pile of bloody, torn manuscript pages with no rescue in sight.  Second, I looked at fear of success.  I was afraid of writing a really fabulous book, acquiring a top tier agent, selling to a major publishing house and being assigned a wonderful editor who believed in me and my work.  So what’s the problem?  How can success possibly be a barrier to writing?

For me, success meant the possibility of failure.  What if I didn’t live up to my new agent and new publisher’s expectations?  What if I didn’t deliver another great book?  I hate letting anyone down.  Then I thought, wait a minute, the only person I’m letting down is me.  The only person holding me back is me.

So, I fired my muse.  She lived in the closet off my office.  This girl was a major cigarette smoking, tequila drinking slut.  She locked herself in the closet, watched DVD’s, listened to hip hop and rap and invited her numerous boyfriends over to visit.  When I needed her she wasn’t there.  She gave me all sorts of excuses.  She was too tired, she didn’t feel like it, she needed a few days to get in the zone, she was having a closet party…you get the picture.  When I fired her she was shocked and spitting mad.  She trashed the closet on her way out and cursed my name to the heavens.  Whew!  Good riddance.

Next, I changed my belief system.  I decided not to believe in writers block anymore.  I decided not to compare my work with any other writer.  I decided not to let a rejection stop me from doing what I love.  But most important, I decided not to be afraid anymore.

Then I hired a new muse, who is a guy named Danté.  He lives in a fabulous tree house with a great view.  Not to mention the breeze soughing through the tree branches, the birds singing, rain pattering on the roof or the sound of wind during a snow storm.  He wears jeans, a Henley shirt and is always bare foot.  He greets me sitting on a very large pillow.  He has dark hair and soulful blue eyes.  And he listens to me.  He never puts down my ideas.  He offers suggestions, plot and character solutions for me to consider and always, always tells me what a great writer I am.  Plus he has a terrific assistant.  She is totally professional.  She wears a snappy suit with heels, always carries a note pad in one hand and a flame thrower in the other.  The flame thrower is used when a sniggly doubt or fear or confidence-crushing slime ball tries to sneak into my office.  She points and shoots with deadly accuracy and vaporizes them in an instant.

Now my office is my own personal writing nirvana.  No matter what happens, nothing negative is allowed to slither its way inside.  This also applies to any friend, neighbor, family member or even stranger.  NO ONE brings negative vibes into my writing nirvana without deadly consequences.  Don’t allow doubts and fears to crowd your writing space and corrupt your prose.  Fire your muse and establish a new belief system.  For this is truly the only thing we can control.  We must protect our work and our creative process because no one else will.  The rest is up to the publishing gods.

Has anyone ever fired their muse?  If so, what were the results?  Positive, negative or something in between?

The re-release of my first e-book, Wolf Island, a romantic suspense set on a mysterious island off the coast of Maine is set for July 30^th 2010 by Wild Rose Press.  This book will be available in e-book format and also print-on-demand from the Wild Rose Press web site, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Currently, I am working on a new contemporary project called Something Old, Something New, Something Dead about a wedding planner and a mortician.  It is a single title with a bit of humor and a lot of sizzle.

Next in my project line is the first book of a paranormal series—and no it isn’t vamps, weres, witches or demons—followed by another contemporary.  To round out the year I want to begin work on my first historical novel.

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