Conjoined and Equal

The Ego is the Muse

Life is hectic. An interaction, major event, or random idea may or may not inspire a writer to manipulate pen, paper, or keyboard to birth what may never be fully recognized.

Is the mere indication of painstakingly pouring heart and soul into a work with no guarantee of appreciation daunting? Perhaps, especially as writers are simplistically encouraged to write the known.

On the surface, writing the known is logical. However, writing the known often lends to confusion, confrontation, breakdowns in communication, and deflated expectations.

Mythologically the muses are the inspirational goddesses of arts, literature, and science. Over time, the muses have become linked to metaphorical pregnancy and birthing — or embodied knowledge.

Writers meditate on and test absorbed, fermented thoughts, then use words to create and convey recognized, familiar, and scoped knowledge. In essence, the ego with its separate, intertwined identities and tangible and intangible roots, is our muse — it sparks, fertilizes, and nourishes our ideas.

Writers are not simply inspired by any given thing. Rather, writers allow the ego to tangibly assert itself into every interface, affair, and occurrence. After all, life is hectic and the ego’s perception of and perspective on truth makes great fiction.