So, earlier this week I was up until 3 in the morning finishing off a story called "Shadowmill", which had been inspired by a dream I'd had that morning.

I'm not going to bother posting it here, because it'd be about 12 installments long, and that's too much for people's interests here. But, it IS posted at the 7th Sanctum (and I'd like people to actually read it please, instead of saying they will and then not, it's not THAT long...) [url=[link] it is[/url] complete with warnings.

Now... The reason I complain about me and my muse here, is that the story took over 16 hours to write (well, it actually TOOK around 6 maybe, but I was actually, you know, alive and doing other things during that day too). It's done, at least as much as it's a start-middle-end kind of story. It needs editing, there are a couple passages I'd like to clear up and work on some of the wording here and there. But basically that's it in a nutshell. It does live in a universe that was also inspired by a prior dream, one in which Piers Hoarfrost (who is mentioned in this one) exists and therefore the world has more depth to me - and I can still continue to write in it.

That's not the issue.

The issue is me, going back to my "Stories" folder on my hard drive and looking for other things I ought to be working on.

And finding one. It's called "Royal Line". It's got a good batch of characters, well-done imho, future post-apoc by who knows how long, peasants versus royals with mutation and telepathy and who knows what else thrown in for good measure. I bring the main characters to the point where they're approaching the Royal City, and ... that's it. Meaning: I didn't finish it.

I re-read it, having EXACTLY NO recollection of having written it AT ALL the whole time. I mean nothing, NOTHING was ringing any bells. It was obviously in my style, obviously from my brain pan and had clear similarities to other stories that have yet to actually be written fully.

But the problem is: it's not an END. It's in the MIDDLE of this story. And I have NO FUCKING CLUE where the story was going to go. The first line, "I always felt both humbled and comforted by the Queen" gives me the knowledge that the main character was in fact part of the Royal family in the world. An orphan, "Blooded" and gifted with telepathic coersion powers.

I hint that the Queen whoever she is, only tells Soolie the main character what her real name is.

I gather that there will be complications due to the "hunting" that Royals do on occasion - hunting down and killing mutated, weak, mentally unstable or otherwise 'useless' people, and some of them apparently cannibalize too.

... And that's all I know. I have no idea what the Queen's name is, nor what her relationship to Soolie is. I have no clue if anyone is supposed to die on the way, or whether their 'revolution' succeeds or if Soolie, Royal that she is, turns on them and takes over her realm.

Seriously.

Not a freaking idea where I was going with it. It was written within the last 5 years, I know that, but... beside that I have no records of it existing beyond that one 22 page word document. My guess is that it could be around 60 finished.

And because I've done that before, started things and never completed them even though they were burning holes at the ends of my fingers when I first started writing... I have learned to obey the Muse. I must complete it if I know it's a 'short' story (that is to say, something less than the Nanowrimo length of 50k, which imho is a novella at best). If I don't complete it it will wind up festering on my hard drive with NO future whatsoever. I could TRY to pick up Royal Line. I could. I would fail - I have lost whatever spark that story had, probably no more than a day or two later, which is why I don't remember it AT ALL.

There are other stories I do need to finish, and I do know where they were leading. When I have an 'ending' in mind, I usually know how to get there but sometimes it takes... years. Years and years.

So if you catch me posting at 4 am or bleary-eyed at noon, that's probably why. I will have been obeying my Muse. The other time I did so, is here in DA, it's "Craft Me An Artificial Soul." And, come to think of it I believe "Suicide Muse" was also written in the course of only one day. Artificial Soul took until dawn - I remember writing, writing, writing, and then the sky was light outside.

Anyway. Please go read my story. I need to know if it's as good as I hope it to be, and I need to get it published, and paid for, and all that. Seriously, it only took me hours to write. It can't take days on end to read, can it?