The Muse doesn't come with office hours

I had a little bit of a tough night last night. I laid down, tossed and turned for a few minutes . . . and an idea relevant to my latest work came into my head. So I hopped out of bed, grabbed my notebook, jotted a few notes. Then I climbed back in bed. Two minutes later, I had another idea for my work-in-progress. I hopped out of bed, grabbed my notebook, and jotted some more notes. Back into bed. Five minutes later, I had an idea for a new short story . . . you get the picture. I was in and out of bed twenty times over the next three hours.

I'm not going to complain (too much) because those little tidbits of inspiration are a gift. I'm not one of those writers who believes that you have to sit around, waiting for the muse to show up. I believe that you have to work for inspiration and even if you aren't feeling creative, you need to sit down in that chair and write. However, I'm certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and turn down the muse when she does arrive . . . even if it means losing a little sleep.

My husband, however, can complain. Can you imagine having to sleep next to someone who's in and out of bed that much (booklight flicked on . . . booklight flicked off . . . booklight flicked on)? Oh, the sufferings of a writer's spouse!