Muse: alternate personality who is first one to know what comes next

In discussions of fiction writing, the word “muse” is used in three ways: 1. a real person who helps the writer, 2. a mythical goddess of artistic inspiration, and 3. an internal, alternate personality, sometimes visualized, often heard, or just vaguely thought of as “the unconscious,” who knows what comes next before the rest of the writer’s mind knows, and who may act as an advisor.

How does the muse know? Either the muse has prewritten the story or has gotten it from other alternate personalities. I don’t know how they do it. It’s just a fact that some alternate personalities are mythopoetic. They like to make up stories, often from things the person has experienced or heard about, but which the host and most other personalities may have forgotten or dismissed.

This is what is behind it when fiction writers say their stories and characters “come to them” or that “the book writes itself” (except for the pruning and rewriting, which may be a lot of work).

Search “mythopoetic” to read a post on the mythopoetic function of alternate personalities.