Lots of writers have animals that keep them company while they write. Some call them Muses, after the Ancient Greek goddesses who inspire artists, writers, and scientists. Some call them Familiars, after the medieval supernatural animals who protect and assist witches. After all, writers are a kind of witch when you get right down to it. They cast spells with their words and make us see things and feel things we didn’t expect. I suppose what you call your Writing Buddy depends on the type of writer you are and the type of writing project you’re working on. It also, of course, depends on the animal.
Here’s a very dramatic muse on a monument to Frédéric Chopin in France.
She’s clearly inspiring him to write a beautiful piano piece–or vowing to swoon if he doesn’t.
Here’s a witch and her familiar. She’s working on a love potion,
and the black cat is warning you not to interrupt. Good kitty!
Cats make great writing buddies—most of the time. My own cat, Weezie, likes to sit on my lap while I type. She helps me by keeping me in my chair. It’s harder to get up and check the mail or get a snack or do laundry if a cat is purring on your lap. Is she a Familiar or a Muse? Well, sometimes she likes to lie on the keyboard or stand in front of the monitor or stick her butt in my face. On the whole, though, she prefers my lap, and her purring is both calming and inspiring, so I’m going with Muse.
Weezie will pretend to be sad if I don’t write.
I’ve had other writing buddies. I had a parakeet named Cookie who would fly around my apartment and land on my shoulder. He wasn’t particularly helpful because he’d screech in my ear and bite my hair. That screeching sounded to me like a witch casting a hex. Definitely a Familiar.
Cookie looks askance at a poorly-worded sentence.
For a while, I had a little jumping spider who lived by my desk. I’ve read that jumping spiders are among the most intelligent arachnids, and this one was definitely curious. He would crawl around the edges of the desk and up onto the top of the monitor. He’d stare at me for a while, wiggling his little pedipalps, then move on to get a better angle. His staring gave me an audience and made me feel guilty if I stopped writing, so I’d say he’s a Muse.
“Hey. Whatcha doin?”
My desk sits in front a window that looks out on my storage shed. An oak tree’s limb hangs low over the shed, almost touching it. Recently, I’ve been visited by a squirrel that climbs out on the oak limb every morning. She jumps down onto the storage shed roof and sprawls out Superman-style in the morning sunlight, eyes closed, soaking up rays. It’s her regular morning nap. Even though she draws my eyes away from my screen, she reminds me that there’s a whole world out there to inspire new writing projects. Definitely Muse.
“When I wake up, I will have wings like the flying squirrels of legend.”
How about you? Do you have a Muse or Familiar? Does your Writing Buddy inspire you? How does your writing change when your Writing Buddy’s around?
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