Is Your Muse Dangerous?

Do you willingly follow the lead of the wild, tempestuous muse inside you?  Or are you afraid of where it will take you?

I wish we could all say we fall into the former category, but do you find you sometimes hold back in your writing?  It's all too easy to wonder what other people may think about certain themes, images, ideas conjured by our immature muse.  After all, the audience will accredit such ideas to "who you truly are"... because if your muse comes up with these twisted ideas, it must mean that you are twisted too.  Deep down inside.

It's scary.  The word "fiction" means nothing to them.

This is my challenge: to have an emotional honesty with my muse.  No one becomes successful from holding back.  And it's hard to write when your muse is on a leash.

If you're not already, I challenge all my fellow writers out there to do the same.  Find that emotional core in your writing and don't shy away from it.  I've read some wonderful fiction here recently by people far ahead of me on this front.  I would love to read more.

For me, it means I have some catching up to do.

And a muse to follow.