Authors - is your muse male or female?

[Michael R. Hicks]

This was a question that's been generating some fun discussion on twitter and Facebook, and thought I'd pose it here, as well: is your muse male or female (or neither)?

Mine's female, although I never really even thought about "gender" for a muse. Not sure why I know it's a "she," though. It might be because of "her" endless desire for more chocolate...

[HollyChristine]

This is interesting! I've never thought about gender myself, but I'd have to say female, generally. Though the muse for my next work of fiction is male.
Clemenza, my dog, was the muse for my first book, The Nine Lives of Clemenza (a little obvious, eh?). She's female, but she still pees with her leg up (my husband and I can't figure it out: is she showing off? bored and entertaining herself by making the task more challenging? Confused by her decidedly masculine name?). In the book, Clemenza is female, male and genderless.

[sierra09]

Wow, this is thought provoking since I never considered it really. Or more, I never considered it a muse before. Usually it's my character yelling in my head and right now that muse is a definite male who wants his book written.

I always thought it amusing when I would say, the book took a different turn because this character or that just went in a totally unexpected direction. I started my sequel with a totally different brother and then while on Chapter Four his baby brother started getting really vocal and took it over so I have to rewrite because when I have a loud character it's best to give them their way or I don't get anything written.   

Strange, I know.

Sierra

[Tanner Artesz]

In the first two books, Shadow and Legacy, my muse was my lead character, Ky. He is very immature, very chaotic and a challenge to handle, but I let him have his way. Vengeance is being taken over by his sister Arriena who is a very unpleasant shape-shifting woman who, at the moment, wants the virginity of her youngest brother (Simon). I really don't want to go that way since nothing of that sort is in the first two books, but I wrote that chapter her way, then rewrote it the way I would like it. She's angry and fighting me. I need to find some other devious compensation for her to calm her down. In the meantime, I'm working on other parts of the story.

Sierra: My characters often take the story to places I had no idea about. I've had to go back and rewrite quite a bit to make their decisions work. There are parts of my books where the characters can take more credit for the plot than I can. It's a fun way to write. I let them have their way for the most part, as long as it ends up where I want it to, anyway...

Tanner

[Brendan Carroll]

Sounds like an intriguing question.  My muses are always males and like Sierra90 says, they yell at me all the time and do not like to be ignored.  Right now, I'm only in the editing stages for my works and have enough of that to do to last me until I'm at least 99, but they still yell at me, telling me to add this or strike that... so I think that male is definitely the answer and some of them carry bladed weapons.

[sierra09]

At least I can assure myself that I'm still sane and that yelling characters aren't really as abnormal as I was beginning to fear.  Though at least most of mine don't carry knives. 

Sierra

[Thumper]

If I have a muse, he or she is communicating on a level I'm not aware of...

[RJ Keller]

My 'muse' always takes on the form of my narrator, who is currently male.

[mamiller]

What if you don't have a muse?  

I sit there at my desk and wait for some great voice from beyond to tell me what to type...but no one (male, female, animal) shows up.  

[sierra09]

Sometimes it may be better because at times those muses can be loud and annoying.

[Elmore Hammes]

Hmmmm... though the majority of my work is written from a male viewpoint, I believe my muse to be female. I tend to refer to her that way, as in "Has anyone seen my muse? She appears to be missing again!"
Elmore

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Hmmmm... though the majority of my work is written from a male viewpoint, I believe my muse to be female. I tend to refer to her that way, as in "Has anyone seen my muse? She appears to be missing again!"
Elmore

She's probably hanging out with mine down at The Lord Mayor's Cat.  "Bring us two tankards of the Widow, maximum bubbles, minimum froth, and cold enough to chill hell."

[RJ Keller]

One thing's for sure, although my muses change gender, my internal editor is female. She's the voice of my 2nd grade teacher, and she was a total psycho-b!t@h. I've tried finding a new home for her, but she clings to me tightly and won't let go. 

[Frank_Tuttle]

My muse tends to take the form of my current protagonist.  If I'm writing a Markhat story, he's always somewhere in the room, his boots propped on something, his hat pulled down over his eyes.  When I was working on a book with a female lead, she was always looking over my shoulder and distracting me with her perfume.

When I'm between pieces, all I see is a Very Large Stick. 

[TiffanyTurner]

Well, I'm guessing that a muse could be an animal. If so, most definitely, she's a she, since my cat is a female. Though, I'd have to admit, one of my characters was my former muse, and he was a male cat. Brewford, the cat sorcerer, is based on my cat who died in 1997, Beuford. So, I guess sometimes your muse could become a character too. But right now, my muse is my female kitty, Samantha.

[Brendan Carroll]

What if you don't have a muse?  

I sit there at my desk and wait for some great voice from beyond to tell me what to type...but no one (male, female, animal) shows up.  

You have a muse.  Everyone has a muse.  If you think on it, suddenly when you're not expecting it, he or she will just pop into your mind and say something to you like "Hey! What do you mean you don't have a muse?!!!!"  Believe me you have one.  Maybe it's an Allagash-drinking fellow named Sam Adams.

[mamiller]

You have a muse.  Everyone has a muse.  If you think on it, suddenly when you're not expecting it, he or she will just pop into your mind and say something to you like "Hey! What do you mean you don't have a muse?!!!!"  Believe me you have one.  Maybe it's an Allagash-drinking fellow named Sam Adams.

If I had an Allagash-drinking fellow named Sam Adams as my muse, I'm pretty sure he'd have me write such intellectual dialogue as "mmwwhaaawwhhzzzzzzzz" 

[Brendan Carroll]

If I had an Allagash-drinking fellow named Sam Adams as my muse, I'm pretty sure he'd have me write such intellectual dialogue as "mmwwhaaawwhhzzzzzzzz" 

Maybe he would have you learn how to spell out that crunchy little squooshy noise that cans of beer make when you pop the top.  Or that most pleasing sound of milions of tiny bubbles bursting when beer foams up in a glass.  Hmmmm.  Everytime I smell a beer (anykind) it takes me back to the very first time I ever smelled it and that was a long, long time ago.

[sierra09]

   Oh, did you have to mention 'tiny bubbles'? Now my muse is singing that song which is hard enough to get out of my head.....though that could be an interesting scene if he was old enough to drink legally. What's the drinking age in Ireland, anyway? Oh, dang muses and their ideas.

[mamiller]

Oh dang, Sierra...now it's in my head!        "Tiny bubbles........"

[Carolyn Kephart]

is your muse male or female (or neither)?

Probably neither, since angels traditionally have no gender; but mine's a warrior angel, whose arms and wings enwrap and soar me aloft for some dazzling flights when the mood's right.

CK

[cheerio]

If I have a muse, he or she is communicating on a level I'm not aware of...

lol