You know how when you get lost in a book and it starts to take over your world? I’ve been working my way through Stephen King’s Dark Tower series (now on book 4) and I’m definitely having that feeling. I admit, I have a bit of a fantasy crush on Roland Deschain. Maybe it’s because my introduction to the series was through the graphic novel The Gunslinger Born with its gorgeous artwork and a young, attractive Roland. In the series he’s older, a bit more grizzled, a survivor who is single minded in his goal of finding the Dark Tower. He’s a badass with an old world, courtly charm.
Of course, instead of spending my precious free time reading the Dark Tower series, I really should be writing. But I seem to have lost my muse. Maybe I need some of Roland’s single mindedness so I can finish writing book 2? I really don’t want to view GRR Martin as a role model in how long it takes to put out another book.
So I’m trying to picture Roland as a muse.
“You there. You have forgotten the face of your father.”
“Um, no. I just want to kickstart my writing. Can you help with that?”
He stares at me with those weathered blue eyes. “How do you write, with your hand or your heart?”
Ah yes. “See, that’s the problem. I know it’s in my heart, but how do I find it again?”
“You don’t find it. You do it.” He shakes his head in disgust. “It’s in your heart or it’s not. If you don’t know that, you don’t deserve the title gunslinger.”
“But I’m not a gunslinger. I’m trying to be an author.”
“Trying? Do or do not. There is no try.”
Wait a minute. “That sounds an awful lot like Yoda.”
“If I’m your muse would you not expect Star Wars to slip in somewhere?”
“Yes, I guess you’re right. But how–”
“There is no how. Write from your mind and your heart. That is how you will remember the face of your father. Go. Do it. Now.”
“Thankee sai. I’m off to write.”
He stares at me again. “And this facebook? And twitter? What of those distractions?”
“Yes yes, signing off.”
“And email. And the book. Put it down. For a time. We will wait. The Tower will wait. Your characters are more impatient. They need you.”
He’s right about that. And so I am off to write and lead my characters on their way to their own version of the Dark Tower.
Cindy Young-Turner 