A Muse Sings?

Just a thought . . . what prompts people to write? What makes them decide to actually put pen to paper, or keyboard to computer for that matter? I know in my experience, most of the writing was done because it was required for every paper you had to write in school. English major anyone? You can imagine the amount of time spent writing papers on books, poems, short stories, etc. Some were better than others, of course, but those were not always that much fun to compose because it involved work and thinking more than usual, or so it seemed. I just was thinking about this in regard to actually coming up with topics on which to post for my blog. As you can probably see it has been a few weeks. There was no muse speaking to me on any ideas. Oh well, I eventually come up with something, whether it just happens to cross my mind or I start thinking about something.

Now that I have gone on a complete tangent, basically what makes authors, poets, playwrights, etc. write? Perhaps something significant happened in their lives? Love, death, special event, or world event, this is what makes them especially amazing in that they have something that completely strikes them as something they need to write about. They want the world to know something and gain some insight into a particular period in history or how their lives have been affected based on events that have happened to them. Others are simply wonderful story tellers that want people to enjoy the worlds and people they have met in their imaginations. These people are just as amazing since they are creating something that can be vastly different from the societal norm or a situation based on something that has happened in the real world but fictional characters are providing you with the experience. Ah, the joys of reading because there is so much from which to choose.

Then you have your regular everyday people who dabble at writing. I did my share of English papers that were really enjoyable and some were like pulling teeth (literally), but I also write poetry, when I have a mind to, or a muse about me. I think I even wrote a short story or two, but actually have not done any writing in quite some time. I guess the great thing about setting up a blog is that you can let your creative juices flow into something. I guess email can count for something, but that is really a form of conversation, especially when in touch with friends. You don’t really ponder what to say, it just comes out like they are right in front of you. Sometimes, looking back at things I wrote in high school and college I am utterly aghast at what I wrote since I am no longer in that particular frame of mind. It seems fantastic to me. How could I have written something so good? Of course the other side of the coin is what happened? Whatever the circumstances may be, it is nice to have a reminder of the writer I was once. Perhaps my muse is coming back to me? I just need a little nudge to get my mind to progress in the right direction. Since I am no longer a book editor, it certainly has gotten me back into reading and thinking about writing because I am not constantly reading day in and day out. I finally have an outlet that is not related to work. Anyway, bear with me along the way. I do post, eventually. Any one else have any ideas?