Hitching Posts

Back in the horse and buggy days, there were hitching posts all along main street--in front of the saloon, the general store, and sheriff's office, and so forth. The idea was, of course, to keep your horse(s) from running off while you conducted your business. You might go from one store to another to another, all the while, leaving your horses safely tied to the post.

Howdy! Perhaps that's the way we should consider our writing: say the hitching post is your muse and your horse and/or buggy (story idea) is tied up to it, as a safe place, and from there, you springboard onto different ideas for stories, replete with rich characters, plot, and so forth, all the while coming back to your muse for inspiration and a stable foundation.

If you forget to tie up your horse at the hitching post, you can come back for it, and find it gone, or galloping down the street without you. Not good. Have you ever come back to your muse to find your story idea has gone galloping off down the road without you? Take a deep breath, find that hitching post, or center, within yourself, then run like heck to grab your horse!