O Muse, Where Art Thou?

I’m stuck! Actually I’ve been stuck for a couple weeks now. The novel I’m writing is not flowing like all my others. If it wasn’t for the fact that I am seriously annoyed and depressed about it I would laugh. I’m a pantser who does very little planning and almost no pre-research. When it comes to this novel though, I have planned and researched up the wazoo. My MMC has a specific disability that, in order to come across half-believable, required extensive research. The FMC also needed quite a bit of research considering she’s a modern day witch and I have no wish to offend that group of readers with totally made-up spells or beliefs.

Then why, o why, am I so stuck? The characters don’t have much chemistry and the scenes are just flat. A lot is happening but where’s the emotion I normally put into my writing? Where’s the cheese? (Yes, I have been accused of being a cheesy writer more than once.)

I go home from work, sit with my laptop on my lap, and I stare! Literally! I just stare at the screen. If I’m lucky I’ll write a couple words, maybe a sentence or two. Argh…How can this be so hard when I’m writing about a beloved character?

Where’s my muse? What do you do when your muse is vacationing in a much nicer place than your head? It’s lonely without my muse.