Attack of the Muses


           Some people say their ideas come from personal experience. Others
say they come from mid-air...but I can tell you people, mine are from my muses.  
What are muses, you ask?  They're my faithful and sometimes quite-annoying 
companions of whom I possess three.  There is a small white fox with fairy 
wings whom i call Twilight, a tiny pink dragon whom I have named Zora, and a
green beetle-like creature whom I have come to know as Buglore...named after
one of the characters in my boyfriend's upcoming comic series. 
           I was seated on the couch, leafing idely through my binder of pokemon 
trading cards, grinning to myself about the fact that I only needed sixteen more 
and my collection would be complete. As I reached for my open can of Pepsi 
on the arm of the couch, I felt something alight on my wrist.
           "Hey! You gonna write or not??" Zora piped up, her voice irate.
           "We've been over this." I groaned. I've had writer's block for 
almost a week." 
           "No excuse." Twilight replied, fluttering nearby my left earlobe.
 "Get on that computer and write...you know you want to."  I cast a look at 
the monitor. A new text file had conveniantly been opened and sat, pitifully 
blank with a cursor blinking in the middle of it.  Buglore sat on the mouse 
glaring at me with translucent black eyes. 
           "What if I don't want to?" I asked the three tiny annoyances.  
They exchanged a devious look amongst themselves in reply.
           "Maki's gonna be on in about an hour." Zora grinned, showing off 
her maw of impossibly tiny white fangs. "Want us to take over your IM's and 
write him some nasty notes so he'll never talk to you again?"
           "Fine..." I sighed, pushing the red binder off of my lap and 
standing up. 
           "How many days does this make that you've worn that pair of jeans?" 
Twilight inquired. 
           "My jeans all look the same." I countered as I crossed the room 
and seated myself at the computer, staring numbly at the blank screen. 
           "How about you finish that one story you started back in November?" 
Buglore inquired. "You know...the one about the dragonkeeper and her green 
dragon that couldn't fly?"
           "That one died after two paragraphs." I sighed. "And I'm not gonna 
finish it."
           "Then why do you keep it on your files?" the insect asked, twitching 
his antennae.
           "My AOL miscellanous folder is my story graveyard." I explained. 
"I keep those to cannibalize ideas out of them and use them in stories I 
plan on finishing."
           "Yeah well you've used the 'my main character is pregnant and 
doesn't want to be' idea in about four unfinished stories." Twilight shot 
back. "I think that idea just wasn't meant to survive."
           "It'll happen." I replied. There was a long moment of silence as 
I wracked my brain for something to type.
           "How about a love story?" Zora suggested.
           "A what?" I asked her skeptically.
           "Well you sit here for four hours a night mooning over that 
boyfriend of yours when he signs on." Zora replied mischieviously. 
           "Leave Maki out of this." I replied.
           "Hmph...touchy." Zora snorted, flying to the top of my monitor.
           "I don't wanna write." I said decisively and turned to get up...
but something held me back. I turned to see a twining piece of duct tape 
wrapped securely around my wrist and tied in an enigmatic series of knots 
on the computer console.  "What is this??" I demanded to know, tugging at 
my bond. 
           "Welcome to writer's hell." Twilight chuckled.  "Yer not going 
anywhere until you write something." 
           "Oh really??" I asked, my fingers flying across the keyboard. 
"There...how's that??"  The fox inspected the screen with distaste. 
           "Maybe you should focus more on an actual plot instead of telling 
us to perform acts that are anatomically impossible." he suggested, flitting
toward the backspace key and leaping on it repeatedly until the line of 
profanity I had typed in my anger was deleted from view.  "I mean, REALLY 
write something. You're the one who wants to be a writer someday."
           "Someday is not today." I replied. "Now let me go." 
           "Ah ah ah...you're not getting off that easy." Zora replied, 
crossing her arms over her chest.
           "Yeah...if you can take time out to draw those CREATURES for your
yerf site---" Buglore piped in.
           "Those aren't creatures...they're my characters." I argued.
           "What the heck's this yellow thing?" Zora asked, kicking at a 
pile of sketches on top of the computer. "With orange eyes?? Gimme a break!"
           "That's Karma." I explained. "And my alter-ego so I'd appreciate 
it if you'd stop riffing." 
           "Riffing? Who's riffing?" Twilight asked innocently. 
           "I need a soda." Zora grumbled, hefting her slight weight off of 
the top of the computer. The other two muttered in agreement and followed 
after her into the kitchen. As I heard the fridge door open, I struggled 
with the shackle around my wrist. No use...I didn't know how they managed to
do it, but the little demons sure seemed to have me where they wanted me. I 
could see my free time going up in flames.  Flames...? That was it!!  My 
fingers flew with blinding speed across the keyboard as lines of text 
filtered across the screen.  The lines became a paragraph and the paragraphs 
became a page...then two...and then nearly three before I stopped, admiring 
my work.  
           "Wow! How's that for a breakthrough?" Buglore grinned, attempting
to help the other two heft an opened can of Sprite onto the computer console.  
I noticed for the first time the shackle had disappeared.
           "What happened?" I inquired, rubbing my wrist and watching as the
three muses fought over who's turn it was to take a sip of the soda.  
           "You got out of writer's hell!" Twilight grinned. 
           "Not to mention broke through that writer's block." Zora added. 
"So what'd you write about?" she asked, peering at the screen.
           "That one part in my story I was having a problem with...you know, 
how my heroine ended up in the parallel universe?" I asked.
           "Ehhhh..." she groaned, trying to recall.
           "Had her plane's engine die on her and go spiraling through a 
wormhole in a blazing ball of flames!" I declared proudly. The small dragon 
spared me a look that told me without words she thought I had gone utterly 
insane.  I sat back, pleased with myself. I had beaten writer's hell and 
broken my writer's block.  It was roughly this time there was a tell-tale 
ding as Maki signed on. 
           "We'll leave you two lovebirds alone." Twilight grinned, flitting
off into the other room.
           "Yeah...have fun!!" Zora winked as she and Buglore zipped after 
Twilight.  I rolled my eyes as the first of the many IM's I would receive 
from him that night rolled across the screen.
           "Hiya! How was your day?" he asked, greeting me with a hug.
           "It was okay...but let me tell ya, muses are relentless!" I 
replied, chuckling to myself.



                                                                                       
                                  THE END