From: mumble@nomail.invalid   
      
   On 06/06/2014 05:14 PM, Brenda Clough wrote:   
   > On 6/6/2014 7:10 AM, mumble wrote:   
   >> Is storytelling a talent one is born with, or is it a skill that can be   
   >> developed?   
   >   
   > All I can tell you is that I am born with it.   
      
   What one is born with sometimes becomes occluded by the many layers of   
   indoctrination our association with humanity enforces, even to the point   
   of leaving us with few reminders of what we have lost during the process   
   of gaining.   
      
   >> Aside from autobiography, where do the stories come from? Are they   
   >> imagined up out of thin air? Are they transformations of stories one has   
   >> lived himself? Other?   
   >   
   > There is a reason why the Greeks invented the Muses. Your  muse may or   
   > may not be a construct, but she is a useful person to have around. She   
   > generates all these attack novels and whack ideas. She is the one that   
   > forces you to write that bodice ripper, when your contract calls for   
   > space opera.   
      
   Gods forfend my ever again finding myself in a situation requiring that   
   I do something contracted to in advance, even total paralysis would   
   probably be preferable to the straight-jacket of having sold my free-will.   
      
   > She is the one who keeps you up until 2 am at a hot keyboard.   
   >   
   > So: the stories come from the Muse. I just write them down. That they   
   > filter through me and my experience is true but not important. The   
   > inspiration is divine.   
      
   That's a pretty view of things, thank you for sharing it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)