# Random musesâ€¦.



## Heliotrope (Oct 19, 2016)

Does anyone else find random muses in their everyday life? 

I feel like I'm so enthralled by interesting people I see on the street. 

Today I (for the first time) noticed that my garbage man is kind of hot. Now I want to write a story about what it would be like to be a hot garbage man, picking up ladies but then having to hide my career choice. 

Or maybe a lonely woman secretly in love with her sexy garbage man who she only sees for a moment once a week. 

Another time I was driving home from my coffee shop and there was a homeless man standing in the middle of the dark street around a dark corner. They do that a lot in the winter in my town because if they get hit by a car they get to go to the hospital where it is warm and they get fed. After that I was inspired to write about a homeless man trying to get hit by a car. 

Does anyone else find facinating muses in every day life?


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Today I (for the first time) noticed that my garbage man is kind of hot. Now I want to write a story about what it would be like to be a hot garbage man, picking up ladies but then having to hide my career choice.
> 
> Or maybe a lonely woman secretly in love with her sexy garbage man who she only sees for a moment once a week.


I would totally read this. Please write it.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

Bow Junka Wow Wow... There's your working title, heh heh.


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 19, 2016)

HA! Oh my gosh that is hilarious.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Oct 19, 2016)

This happens to me too. I see people interacting with each other and a story spins off of it. I haven't acted on it so far, but it's an amusing pastime when not doing anything else.

Also, now and then I look at people for inspiration of what characters in my story would look like.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

Anytime I can be of assistance.

Weird memory flash due to this topic... my sister once noted that the guy who came out to pump her septic was extremely hot... which seems like an odd job for good looking people. Apparently, he was the son of the owner of the company and to top it off, his sister made a living as a model. I never saw him, but did see his sister on a calendar... yup, children of the septic guy were good lookin' folks, LOl.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

I don't really like people so I get more inspiration from Pinterest than I do at the coffee shop.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Demesnedenoir said:


> Anytime I can be of assistance.
> 
> Weird memory flash due to this topic... my sister once noted that the guy who came out to pump her septic was extremely hot... which seems like an odd job for good looking people. Apparently, he was the son of the owner of the company and to top it off, his sister made a living as a model. I never saw him, but did see his sister on a calendar... yup, children of the septic guy were good lookin' folks, LOl.



LMAO! Some of the hottest dudes I've seen worked at gas stations, which may explain why I ended up marrying a diesel mechanic.


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 19, 2016)

Mechanics are notoriously hot though.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

People inspire all the best murder plots I have in my head... heh heh.



Chesterama said:


> I don't really like people so I get more inspiration from Pinterest than I do at the coffee shop.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

Sorry, I immediately picture the the mechanic in the Kids in the Hall skit with the outlandishly long blond hair.



Heliotrope said:


> Mechanics are notoriously hot though.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

For me, most of the hottest women I've ever seen are waitresses... or maybe that's because they're bringing me food and beer, LOL. 



Chesterama said:


> LMAO! Some of the hottest dudes I've seen worked at gas stations, which may explain why I ended up marrying a diesel mechanic.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Demesnedenoir said:


> People inspire all the best murder plots I have in my head... heh heh.


There's this sweetie pie girl I know that made it into one of my novels. She was a hostess at the restaurant I used to work at and she pissed me off one day so I killed her off.

*Regarding men with long hair...sigh...LOVE. I will forever be attracted to Barbarian looking men and was totally horrified when my husband cut off his dreads. Carry on...


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 19, 2016)

Oh my gosh, my husband has this fantasy about having torpedos on the front of his truck for all the slow people on the highway, but the kicker is he wants a video camera and a repeat button so he can watch it over and over again in slow mo.

Chessie also love me a long haired Adonis. Man buns and bushy beards are my thing 

I've got a huge crush on my single dad pirate in my WIP right now.... long shaggy hair, bushy beard, lots of tatties.... Trying to raise an obnoxious pre-teen in modern day New York when he belongs on the high seas in the 17th C... *sigh*


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

I had a disintegrator ray installed in my car, but it never worked, damn it.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Oh my gosh, my husband has this fantasy about having torpedos on the front of his truck for all the slow people on the highway, but the kicker is he wants a video camera and a repeat button so he can watch it over and over again in slow mo.
> 
> Chessie also love me a long haired Adonis. Man buns and bushy beards are my thing
> 
> I've got a huge crush on my single dad pirate in my WIP right now.... long shaggy hair, bushy beard, lots of tatties....



You've inspired me to make Sergei's hair longer than shaggy. It's a done deal. Also, my husband is not allowed to shave off his beard. It's all that's left of a time when he was hairier than a werewolf. Sigh. (Yes, he's covered in tats what's wrong with me?!)


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

On a serious note and back to the topic...very rarely have real life people made it into my stories. Maybe it's because I live an isolated life in the mountains? Dunno. My characters seem to come out of nowhere ether, although this NaNo story's mc is a total play on Vasilia from Slavic mythology.


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 19, 2016)

I just love real people. I think this is why I tend to write urban fantasy, I just see real people and I get so inspired by their stories. Perhaps I'm character driven? 

I love to take real life stuff and make it fantastical, showing the possibility of magic in every day life, so when I see a great 'real life' character it just grounds the whole story for me. I don't have a Nano cover, but I'm using an image by the photographer Lee Jefferies, because it is basically what inspired the whole story of Blackbeard Sleeps in the Subway. Lee Jefferies goes around the world and photographs homeless people and this photo just had my whole story in it: 

*edit: can't get the image 

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/heliotrope1/novels/blackbeard-sleeps-in-the-subway

You can see it on my nano page if you want.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

Yes, on the serious side, no character I've written is directly attributable to a real person. There is, however, an homage to David Bowie in a character in the book Helio is reading, as he died about the time I was writing the chapter, and if imagining someone to play the part, Bowie would've been it for me. But, he's not based on Bowie by any stretch. 

There's also a certain symbolism of one character that goes to an amalgam of women, far more thematic (the lost potential of love) sort of theme rather than as an inspiration.

On the subconscious level... well, who the hell knows, LOL.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> I just love real people. I think this is why I tend to write urban fantasy, I just see real people and I get so inspired by their stories. Perhaps I'm character driven?


What fascinates me are the different reasons why all of us write and what inspires us.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Oct 19, 2016)

I have used traits and backgrounds from plenty of the people around me in my stories - or things people tell me about that happened to them. It's a nice source of inspiration and it gives me ideas I probably wouldn't have come up with at all otherwise.


----------



## spectre (Oct 19, 2016)

I get inspired a lot by politics, not like Hillary but life politics, and the players therein


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

Small scale politics are good inspiration, the little nuances of social hierarchy and interplay. I suspect that large scale politics infiltrate my themes in the long run, looking back I tend to find lightly threaded libertarian themes and explorations of those. This election cycle in the US could inspire vomiting... or laughter, depends on how you look at it. heh heh.



spectre said:


> I get inspired a lot by politics, not like Hillary but life politics, and the players therein


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 19, 2016)

heliotrope said:


> today i (for the first time) noticed that my garbage man is kind of hot. Now i want to write a story about what it would be like to be a hot garbage man, picking up ladies but then having to hide my career choice.
> 
> Or maybe a lonely woman secretly in love with her sexy garbage man who she only sees for a moment once a week.



Write this book NOW!


----------



## Saigonnus (Oct 19, 2016)

Real life, dreams. Anything can serve as a muse. The other day I dreamt of an arab-style warlord looking to take a woman for his third wife. Unknown to the warlord, she was already in love with a foreigner and they planned to flee. The warlord discovered the plot and waited for a good time to ambush the "hero" in his flying chariot. Once they were in the air, he forced the vehicle to the ground and executed the foreigner for subversion and the woman for trying to flee... obviously told from the POV of the villain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 19, 2016)

Demesnedenoir said:


> Small scale politics are good inspiration, the little nuances of social hierarchy and interplay. I suspect that large scale politics infiltrate my themes in the long run, looking back I tend to find lightly threaded libertarian themes and explorations of those. This election cycle in the US could inspire vomiting... or laughter, depends on how you look at it. heh heh.



Both. Lol. Yes, even in Canada we are watching your election more intently then we watch hockey.


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 19, 2016)

Great topic!! 

For me? Hmmm...Clouds, for one thing. I don't know why that's the first thing that comes to mind. I love to watch and photograph clouds. they give me incredible ideas for fantasy landscapes and flying cities and creatures of the air. Nature generally, actually. Nothing nurtures my creativity like spending time in the natural world, surrounded by life. 

People. People are weirder than fiction, and they have so many unwritten stories. The strangeness of humanity is one of my biggest muses, all the quirky, eccentric people I meet. I write down things I hear people say, stories they tell. Sometimes it's my friends--I swear i do not know anyone close to normal. Sometimes just strangers. My life is full of strange characters and as a result i have lots of material to draw from when inventing characters. 

Video games? I'm not much of a gamer, i can't afford any of the new games or consoles, and if i had money i would spend it on books, so i mostly play apps and stuff...But the artwork and environments often really inspire me. 

Music! I listen to lots of instrumental music, but i'll listen to almost anything. It gives me so many ideas--sometimes images just pop into my head without any warning and I find I have to write them down.

Oh yeah, and dreams! Typically my dreams inspire settings, but sometimes I had dreams with plots and everything. The other day I dreamed something about driving a dogsled through the night and I kinda want to write about it...


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 19, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Both. Lol. Yes, even in Canada we are watching your election more intently then we watch hockey.



I'm in America. It's not very funny from this vantage point.  More like *sobbing and beating forehead against wall*


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Both. Lol. Yes, even in Canada we are watching your election more intently then we watch hockey.



Please don't. Spend your time doing something else besides vomiting in your mouth at these sorts of affairs.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 19, 2016)

Svrtnsse said:


> I have used traits and backgrounds from plenty of the people around me in my stories - or things people tell me about that happened to them. It's a nice source of inspiration and it gives me ideas I probably wouldn't have come up with at all otherwise.



That's because you have a million + 1 friends. 

Rethinking this topic...muses for me definitely come from places like Skyrim, Fallout, the mountains...dreaming up of dangers lurking behind the trees, those sorts of things.


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 19, 2016)

Chesterama said:


> That's because you have a million + 1 friends.
> 
> Rethinking this topic...muses for me definitely come from places like Skyrim, Fallout, the mountains...dreaming up of dangers lurking behind the trees, those sorts of things.



I want to play Skyrim


----------



## Svrtnsse (Oct 19, 2016)

Let's keep away from real world politics. 

Clouds were mentioned...
I kept a photo collection for a while where I kept pictures of clouds.

...and then there's music. My story I'm writing for the NaNo is inspired by the song _Call the Ships to Port_ by Covenant. I'm uncertain about the forum policies for linking poems/lyrics, so I'll just quote a short bit:


> Tonight we light the fires
> We call our ships to port
> Tonight we walk on water
> And tomorrow we'll be gone


The full lyrics can be found here if anyone's curious: Covenant:Call The Ships To Port Lyrics | LyricWikia | Fandom powered by Wikia
The entire song is full of inspiring imager.


----------



## Penpilot (Oct 19, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Both. Lol. Yes, even in Canada we are watching your election more intently then we watch hockey.



As a hockey fan, I want to dispute this, but can't. It's like watching a slow moving train-wreck. 

Now back on topic.

I use my personal life like spice and sprinkle into my stories. The novel I'm shopping right now is an urban fantasy set in my home town, specifically near a seeder part of town where spent a some of my childhood. 

Right now, I'm developing a contemporary story about my experiences with hospitals and an elderly parent. With all this talk about hot garbage men, well, I'd like to add cute nurses to the mix


----------



## Demesnedenoir (Oct 19, 2016)

Yes, walking through creeks and woods and whatnot and wandering what monster/critter hides behind those weeds and trees, or inside the creepy hollowed tree... 



Chesterama said:


> That's because you have a million + 1 friends.
> 
> Rethinking this topic...muses for me definitely come from places like Skyrim, Fallout, the mountains...dreaming up of dangers lurking behind the trees, those sorts of things.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Oct 20, 2016)

So, after reading some of the recent posts in this thread I wanted to tell you something.

One bad day, a long, long time ago somebody started a thread about real world Politics here in Mythic Scribes. It started alright, but soon things turned hostile and in the end the people involved were saying really nasty and harmful things to each other. That was quite a disaster, and we have a very strict rule against discussing Politics since that incident.

This rule in particular is enforced strictly, so please avoid the subject completely. Do not even touch it! It's like radioactive waste, very bad stuff. It's great to discuss Fantasy Politics, but here in Mythic Scribes the real thing is forbidden. It's better to pretend that we do not even know that real Politics exist.

Thanks everyone.


----------



## CupofJoe (Oct 20, 2016)

Sheilawisz said:


> It's like radioactive waste, very bad stuff.


So what your are saying is that I COULD get super powers...


----------



## Russ (Oct 20, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Oh my gosh, my husband has this fantasy about having torpedos on the front of his truck for all the slow people on the highway, but the kicker is he wants a video camera and a repeat button so he can watch it over and over again in slow mo.



I am a Trekker, so my car has photon torpedoes for that problem.

And in an odd, partially unrelated story my mother tells me that when I was five I told her I wanted to grow up to be a garbage man or a lawyer.  I think that was because my cousin was a garbage man and would score all sorts of cool toys and slightly used books out of the stuff on his route and give them to me.

He was, however, in no sense of the word, hot.

Real world people make their way into novels all the time, in Tuckerizations or other ways.  My wife held a charity contest a while ago to get killed off in her first book and it was won by a business associate of mine who indeed she killed in the first book.  I know people who have used anagrams of literary critics in their books, or have used the name of people they think have plagiarized their works.  It is kind of fun to watch!

My  muses tend to come from big ideas and then I work down.  My fantasy WIP came from my musings and a law school paper on feminist spirituality, and the thriller I am working on came from my researching modern european racism for my own interest.  I get the big idea and then think "who would be most impacted by this conflict" and then write the story from their point of view.


----------



## Caged Maiden (Oct 20, 2016)

I get inspired by people. Sometimes I make up stories for them when I see them.


----------



## Caged Maiden (Oct 20, 2016)

BTW, if you're not gonna write Bom Junka Wow Wow...I am! 



The low grumble of the garbage truck pulling up my street...

To anyone else, it was probably just another unnoticed noise, like the tornado sirens they sound every Wednesday afternoon, a test to make sure they still work.

But lately, I've lived for Wednesday mornings, when the trash collection came by. No, not because I'm excited to wheel my bins out at 6am and wave to the clean-cut, suited businessman next door while I'm in my threadbare pink robe and a pair of bunny slippers. 

I wait for eight o'clock, when with unfailing timeliness, the garbage truck pulls past my house at a crawl, the big lettering on the side announcing that Rumpke Wast Management is on the scene to take care of my trash needs. And the fellow with the close-cropped beard and black stocking cap jumps off the back platform and comes to my curb. 

Just keep walking, I always think, watching from my window. My driveway won't bite you. Nor will my door, if you choose to go that far. Me? I might bite. I've been waiting months to do it, and perhaps if I think it really loud, you might look up and think the same thing? Come bite me, honey. I'm begging you.

But he doesn't look up, and he doesn't come up the drive. Instead, he turns over my garbage can and leaves it with lid open, and jumps back on the truck, scooting off to do the same for the businessman next door...who isn't even home. 

One time, I left a sofa on the curb. I suppose I could have donated it to Goodwill, but it seemed a small sacrifice at the time. I wrestled the old leather-clad monster to the curb with the help of my sister, who insisted I should simply re-home the outdated piece of furniture that still looked serviceable. I told her to shut up about it, already, in a tone I later regretted. 

And I didn't call Rumpke ahead of time, to announce the large item pickup. Instead, I hovered by the window in a silk blouse the same color blue as my eyes, and waited. Waiting for the grumble. Waiting for him to appear.

Waiting for the perfect opportunity to rush out the door with a cup of coffee I'd raced to Starbucks for. Waiting for an opportunity to fly from the front door and apologize for the inconvenience of the sofa in my lawn. To tell him just how thankful I was. And to enjoy every moment of the muscles I imagined bulged passionately under that brown coat with the reflective tape on the sleeves...


Yeah...I'm inspired by your muses, too, Heliotrope!!!!


----------



## Chessie (Oct 20, 2016)

Geesh, Caged. Why aren't you writing contemporary romance now?


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 20, 2016)

Caged Maiden said:


> BTW, if you're not gonna write Bom Junka Wow Wow...I am!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Oh my gosh, this is perfect. XD. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Write this, I would read the hell out of it


----------



## Ireth (Oct 20, 2016)

That's fantastic, CM. 

i don't typically think in terms of "muses", but I do get a lot of inspiration from music. I've made entire playlists pertaining to certain characters or stories, which I listen to while I'm writing. As far as general writing music goes, instrumental stuff is fantastic, but words can also lend inspiration. Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Karliene Reynolds, Adrian von Ziegler, David Arkenstone, Peter Gundry, Peter Crowley...


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 20, 2016)

Oh my gosh caged maiden that was fantastic!


----------



## Caged Maiden (Oct 20, 2016)

aww...I was just messing around, but thanks, you guys. This is just the kind of shit that pours from my head when I think about fake characters. 

BTW, Rumpke _is_ my trash collection, but I don't know what the garbage men look like. I'll have to get a better look next Wednesday. HA!

Thanks for sharing your muse...


----------



## Malik (Oct 20, 2016)

Demesnedenoir said:


> Bow Junka Wow Wow... There's your working title, heh heh.



You could call the series _Getting it in the Can._

I'll show myself out.


----------



## Svrtnsse (Oct 20, 2016)

Malik said:


> You could call the series _Getting it in the Can._
> 
> I'll show myself out.



I CAN't believe you you just did that.


----------



## Chessie (Oct 20, 2016)

Malik said:


> You could call the series _Getting it in the Can._
> 
> I'll show myself out.



I'm going to need you to stop being so awesome. Thanks.


----------



## Heliotrope (Oct 20, 2016)

Killing myself right now. Oh my gosh. 

And I'm still at school. Good thing all my kids are gone for the day.


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 20, 2016)

Sources of inspiration: the twisted imaginations of the people on this thread


----------



## Chessie (Oct 20, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Killing myself right now. Oh my gosh.
> 
> And I'm still at school. Good thing all my kids are gone for the day.



I wonder what this man would think about all the conversation his good looks have sparked. Would he be flattered? What does he look like anyway? Ever seen Harold & Kumar? Our UPS man is like a goofier version of Kumar. He's terrified of getting stuck in our snowy driveway so he parks a 5 min walk from the house and never knows who he's looking for...which is weird because there's only us here. Can someone write a story about him?


----------



## Penpilot (Oct 20, 2016)

Malik said:


> You could call the series _Getting it in the Can._
> 
> I'll show myself out.



The little, old lady across the street just covered her mouth and said, "Oh dear."


----------



## Sheilawisz (Oct 21, 2016)

I saw these posts about that joke earlier today, but I did not know the meaning because I am not a native speaker of English.

I was forced to ask some native speakers about the meaning of it, and what they told me has been enough to convince me to post this here. Mythic Scribes is a Family Friendly community, we all have to remember that not everyone in these Forums is an adult and (even though we do not have a rule against such things yet) it's very inappropriate to post things like that.

Please refrain from posting such things in the future.


----------



## R.H. Smith (Oct 21, 2016)

That actually happens to me, but more in the music format. While listening to music I would get memory flashbacks or some such and those in turn would lead me down inspirational paths. I would then find who I would model that particular char on...maybe on a really good looking woman that caught my eye, or someone I have a crush on at the job, etc. Never underestimate the hotness of a Puertorican, lolz ;P


----------



## Malik (Oct 21, 2016)

Oops. Sorry.


----------



## evolution_rex (Oct 21, 2016)

A muse came in the form a nightmare I had. Currently throwing around ideas for a very depressing horror mystery based off of it. Honestly so depressing to me it's hard to write it out. But I think it'll be incredible if I can pull it off.

Dreams are great, I pay a lot of attention to them for inspiration.


----------



## Netardapope (Oct 23, 2016)

It's happens in the weirdest and most random places to me, you are not alone. Once, I was walking around and out of nowhere the idea of including a multiverse subplot just popped into my head. No context, no build up, no nothing. It just happened! 

I've even had epiphanies while I was just preparing coffee for myself!

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 23, 2016)

evolution_rex said:


> A muse came in the form a nightmare I had. Currently throwing around ideas for a very depressing horror mystery based off of it. Honestly so depressing to me it's hard to write it out. But I think it'll be incredible if I can pull it off.
> 
> Dreams are great, I pay a lot of attention to them for inspiration.



What's your horror mystery idea?


----------

