Blog of Gracie O'Neil Author Paranormal Romantic Suspense

16 February, 2010

Have Ferret, Will Travel

All right. Having found my Inner Ferret I am now in the process of training him. And I've discovered some useful things.

His name is Finn. He's black and white. He's easily distracted by email and will chase Search Engines round their tracks--and everyone else's--for hours.

On one hand he doesn't like structure. On the other hand he enjoys direction. He doesn't like to be caged in, but he likes to work within parameters. He has a short attention span. He likes toys and gimmicks. Give him a rattling good idea and he'll bat it around the floor for hours, but he'll also chew it to bits if you don't watch out. He likes to be both entertained and entertaining.

Now, this might be riveting stuff if you're a ferret. But if you're not, what does it mean?

It means that the five Sanity Checks I talked about in January have taken on some less sane aspects.

Make a regular time to write. Now that Finn has joined me this seems to be easier. He nudges me along in the mornings, possibly because he likes having his whiskers tickled by the warmth from the laptop fan. He's also fascinated by my plug-in mouse. If I use the internal laptop one he pouts and won't come out to play. If I plug one in...voila. There he is, bouncing happily. Goodness knows why.

Get words on the screen. Because he has such a short attention span, we now use a timer to work by. Ten minutes seems to be best. He waits until I press Start on the timer and he's off. We work like the devil for ten minutes, the timer goes off, and we race each other to the screen to reset it. Another ten minutes. Bang. A couple of hours can pass this way. On the down side: he likes the fun of not editing, and the whole 'not editing' concept brings me out in hives.
Write for yourself not the market. Finn has no clue that there even IS a market. He plays his game. End of story.
Stand alone, don't be a clone. Same thing goes. Finn isn't concerned with identity or confidence. He's having too much fun. He is who he is.
Research is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Now here we do have a problem. He ADORES research. It's the hunting instinct. Everything else is a game, but this is food. We've tried using the timer for Internet usage too, but it's not working. Best thing I can say is we're still negotiating online time, and we take turns to sulk if we don't get our own way.

10 February, 2010

Find your Inner Ferret

"You didn't become a writer to make money. You became a writer because your inner ferret and your daydreams / nightmares forced you to." David Morrell (creator of Rambo)

Your Inner Ferret.

Three little words that probably don't mean much to most people, yet. But I read those words this morning and something clicked inside me.

I've never been happy with the accepted concept of a "muse"--the idea of having access to a beautiful Greek goddess of something esoteric seems so pretentious. Today, I realized why I felt this way.

It's because my muse isn't a goddess. It's a ferret. A black and white ferret. I get the feeling it's male, but I'm not completely sure.

What I am sure of is, like its earth-plane counterparts, it is an inquisitive "little thief" that spends fourteen to eighteen hours a day asleep. It snores...in a genteel fashion. But around the hours of dawn and dusk, it snaps awake and goes hunting.

It shatters my sleep. It gnaws at me until I have to get up and let it out, and once it's free it's crazy.

Although ferrets have been domesticated for 2000 years, mine hasn't caught up with this news yet. I can see we're going to have to have a serious talk. However, now I know what my muse actually is I'm going to change my approach to my creative process.

I mean, you can't tell a Greek goddess to get off her backside and chase a brainwave down a plot hole. But you can tell a ferret. What's more, the ferret will have a ball doing it. A Greek goddess would probably complain about the possibility of breaking a nail.

Thank you, David Morrell! This has so many wonderful possibilities. I no longer have to worry about my muse having a snit and going all goddess on me. We can have fun here. Play. Learn together.

I'm going to train my ferret to use its curious nature on my behalf. Teach it to chase ideas and inspirations out of their burrows. Reward it for gathering insights and revelations out of the ether and bringing them back to me.

Oh yes! This will work!

I wonder what its name is.