Searching for my Muse - The Exercise of Writing

I usually don't have to search too hard for my muse. Much of the time she is spending time sharing tea with my dust bunnies hiding underneath the headboard or box spring, sometimes she is participating in badminton games held across the heating vents, or she is scampering up the climbing wall that used to be called my dryer vent tubing. But over the past few days she's been hiding in better or more well-researched locations and has been eluding me. This has frustrated me because I have a LOTR Community story to write that's about half-way through, and I just picked up another challenge, bringing out an OC character of mine that is near and dear to my heart. I need her assistance.

There are a variety of reasons why my muse may have taken flight, primary among them is my DH's desire to write his own story. Because he wants to bring one of his own alter-ego characters and my own alter-ego into it, he wants all kinds of input from me. In many ways it seems to me that he wants me to write the story for him - something that I refuse to do.

I work hard at my writing skills, trying to improve with each final story I release. I can look back over my history of posted pieces starting in March 2011, and I'm pleased with the progress I've made since then. I'm serious about plot, character, and the movement of story from one scene to another. I am tenacious about revising and revising and revising yet again to get the perfect blend of words and activity, and I still fail to catch everything I would want to change. But I am aware of what I want to do and I work for it, the goal stands forth boldly and, with luck, I hit the ball into it.

My DH is not a serious writer and, I feel, wants to write only to have a bit of common ground with me. I am not telling him not to write, on the contrary, I would love for him to do so. My issues come with his insistence on talking about things ad infinitum but never placing words upon page or screen. I believe in action - "Don't talk about it, just do it." So, while he talks, I am planning my conveyance to entrap my muse for yet another plot, character, or device, and I continue plodding along, happily creating my own vision of literary exercise.