Originally posted by Sue S.:
I don't really have a "muse". Sometimes I hear Lois and Clark talking in my head. They're just little snippets of conversation that I jot down and file away until I can figure out the context.
Seriously - most of my stories start out with a definite beginning and ending and everything that happens in between is just the characters talking me through it. I've written banter on the back of a bank deposit slip, on grocery receipts, the envelope my electric bill came in and sometimes even on the palm of my hand when nothing else was available.
That's not a muse. That's an inconvenient and sadistic imagination at work.
I'd say that's how my "muse" works (although they are rarely sequential when it comes to "talking" to me. Sometimes it's a phrase, sometimes a whole scene. I also consider myself having multiple muses (i.e. one for each character and sometimes one for that universe of that character.)
When I do identify my muses I usually say the name of the muses actor/actress and the character they played at that moment (examples are Kidder!Lois and Cain!Superman/Clark.) If it's a non-acted role it's based on the fandom (ex. comics!Lois.) For original characters, I just name them as their name.
