I wanted to share a short story with you that I read almost exactly two years ago, but I still think about it regularly. The author is from Germany, and as far as I know, there's unfortunately no english translation. That's why I'm writing this blog post, because I feel the need to share this incredibly beautiful metaphor with the world (and there are many authors and artists on Tumblr who might feel addressed by it) :P
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The Muse – Benedict Wells
Margo Brodie, an author, sits before a blank page on which not only her financial future but also her future as a writer depends. That night, however, a muse appears, a man with dark blue curls and whiskey-colored eyes. While she sleeps, he leans down to her and kisses her on the lips. Margo wakes up and looks at him in shock, while he himself is startled that she is able to see him.
The muse's kiss seems to have worked wonders. The next day, the pages write themselves. The kiss freed her from her writer's block. In the nights that followed, the muse returned. Muses usually only gave artists a kiss on the forehead. But with the kiss on her lips, she could not only see him, her mind was now brimming with ideas for her new novel. The affection the muse felt for Margo was reciprocated. He stayed with her and did not return to his realm at night. But the price of their happy relationship was high. She had to abandon her novel, because for every word she wrote, a piece of the muse vanished - Margo was draining the muse dry.
At first, she promised him she would put the novel aside, yet she cannot resist the inner compulsion to finish the book - which is already completely saved for the final section - and she secretly rises at night to sit at her old typewriter. When the muse catches her in the act, he withdraws further with every word she writes, eventually vanishing completely. After the novel is finished, Margo cannot enjoy the ensuing success, nor can she stop thinking about him. When she confides in her publisher during a book tour, he laughs and replies that it is the oldest story in the world, he has worked with so many authors who told him the very same thing - although he does admit he likes her metaphor, that she had to choose between art or love.
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"The Muse" is a short story from the book "The Truth About Lying", which is a collection of short stories.
