History Main / MuseAbuse

The artist does not have to be any good at their art for this trope to apply, mind you: Muse Abuse is compatible with a lack of talent on the part of the person who sacrifices their real life and the people in it, as well as (potentially) their personal growth, for the sake of their art. (Obviously, people tend not to be any more mollified at discovering they've been exploited by the merely GiftedlyBad, or for the sake of a work DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible.)

This trope is not uncommon as a self-critical claim on the part of RealLife artists (writers, filmmakers, songwriters, etc.), though it often tends to have a ring of ItsAllAboutMe and {{Wangst}}. By extension, it is also very common, especially on the part of the AuthorAvatar, in fictions, often by the same authors.

Often (for extra irony) a source of TrueArtIsAngsty. May lead the artist (if self-aware) to ShooTheDog, or BreakHisHeartToSaveHim, at least if they [[IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy want them to have a chance of a good life]]. Sometimes, of course, the would-be love object spots them coming, put off by the potential for Muse Abuse, or just plain not interested. Or the artist, if unlucky in love, may turn to Muse Abuse of the unresponsive loved one, often with more or less subtle {{Take That}}s and, not least, the implication that the "art" version of the loved one will be what people remember.

** In the ''Sato's Ring Case'', a mystery novelist with OCD is shown to regularly abuse those around him due to his obsession with his work. He's eventually poisoned in order to avenge the death of his previous assistant, who was believed to have committed suicide but who actually [[spoiler:was killed by the author while using him as a guinea pig for a murder plan for a story, something the author did regularly.]]

* ''Manga/MajinTanteiNougamiNeuro'': [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Singer Aya Asia killed off her best friends because her being happy prevented her from connecting to the loneliness that allowed her to sing so well. Unlike most of the other killers in the series, her killing intent never "possessed her" turning her into a monster. She was a human being who calmly chose to kill the people who loved her and that she loved back.
* ''Manga/{{Otomen}}'': Juta Tachibana uses gender-flipped versions of his friends Asuka and Ryo as characters in his manga, and tends to fret over how the real Asuka and Ryo's relationship isn't progressing, which is holding back his manga characters' relationship. To his credit, with time he grows to feel very guilty about it.

* ''Manga/KillerKiller'': The first culprit is a mangaka who illustrates a true crime serial about the events of [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Hope's Peak Academy's "Killing School Life"]]. In order to get the injuries and murders right, he set up a torture room to recreate the deaths with scores of victims.

* ''ComicBook/TheEternalSmile'': In ''Gran'pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile'', the eponymous character learns that he is actually the star of a reality-TV show (a thinly-veiled ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' parody), and was once a simple frog who, like all the other 'characters,' was enhanced with a personality chip. The creator of the chip and show, [[MrAltDisney Elias McFadden]], explains that Greenbax's personality is based on his own, and we see that at least three others, Greenbax's twin granddaughters and put-upon assistant Filbert, were likely based on people working on the show ([=McFadden=]'s (adult) twin nieces and a put-upon employee named Norbert).

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Amy tells Tulip about her failed relationship with an author who mined their pillow talk for information to use in creating his female characters. (His book also sucked, according to her, but that did not prevent it becoming a bestseller.)
--> "Never date writers, honey. WritersSuck."

** Bette the diner waitress in "24 Hours" is a wannabe writer who views all her regular customers as grist for her novel. She has quite a cynical approach to worming her way into their confidences to get more material, and no shame about distorting their fictional counterparts to suit her purposes.

* In ''Film/AHauntingInVenice'', Poirot is not appreciative of Ariadne using his exploits as inspiration for her novels. [[spoiler: He's even less pleased once he finds out that Ariadne was in cahoots with Vitale and Reynolds to deliberately present him with an unsolvable case to provide fodder for her next novel.]]

* ''Film/MusicAndLyrics'': Sophie is a victim of a particularly cruel version of this, courtesy of the English Lit professor who had an affair with her without telling her he was engaged and then, when it went sour, proceeded to write a novel painting her as a talentless [[GoldDigger gold-digging]] whore who seduced an [[WoundedGazelleGambit innocent]] writer [[AuthorAvatar not a million miles away from himself]], ruining his life in the process. The book itself would be bad enough, but the fact that it became a ''New York Times'' bestseller and catapulted him to fame and wealth as a literary genius completely destroyed Sophie's confidence in herself and her ability to write. And then, to make matters worse, she learns they're making a movie of it as well. [[spoiler: LaserGuidedKarma gets him in the end when the movie -- which he wrote -- bombs, ruining his reputation while she goes on to success as a songwriter.]]

* Taken to extremes in ''Film/CabinByTheLake'', which centers around a horror movie writer who moonlights as a misogynistic SerialKiller. He kidnaps young women to keep them captive in a featureless room he built into his house, then drowns them in the nearby lake and props them up in an underground graveyard. All throughout he's asking them questions how they feel about their predicament to get more inspiration for the SlasherMovie he's writing.

* ''Film/YvesSaintLaurent'': Early in the film, a LoveTriangle developes between Yves, his lover Pierre and his muse Victoire. Yves and Pierre are both intensely jealous of Victoire, Yves because Pierre has sex with her and Pierre because Yves finds artistic inspiration in her. Both men treat her badly, and she leaves.

* ''[[Literature/JulietNaked Juliet, Naked]]'', by Creator/NickHornby: The idea of TheMuse is subverted, with the character getting really sick of the fanboys that hang around her house wanting to see the woman that inspired their favourite album of break-up songs.
** [[spoiler: It's also revealed that Tucker had already moved on from his broken heart and no longer had any feelings for Julie by the time the album was released, and now regards both the album and their affair as part of the same OldShame, mostly because he had to feign still having a broken heart while he promoted it, mostly because said pretence led to him abandoning his girlfriend and his first child -- leading him to avoid the music business for twenty years. Annie eventually points out that the album is practically the only aspect of the situation he shouldn't be ashamed of.]]

* ''Nobody's Perfect'', an early novel by Creator/JacquelineWilson, was based around a teenage girl who writes a fictionalised account of her search for her DisappearedDad who walked out on the family years ago. She doesn't shy away from describing her displeasure in the real-life figures her characters are based on.
* In ''Literature/November9'', Fallon becomes Ben's muse, with he being inspired to write a romance novel based upon their relationship, with the main heroine being based directly on Fallon. However, some of his treatment of her is questionable, such as pressuring her to show him her breasts (one of which is deformed from scars) and pressing her for details about the fire that nearly killed her and her feelings around this so that his novel will be more authentic, although it's implied and later stated outright that Ben is less concerned with the novel than he is about getting to know Fallon better. When Fallon reads Ben's manuscript, she's unsettled when she finds out [[spoiler:the character based on Ben set the fire that injured the character based on her]], thinking that it's a rather ghoulish and overly-personal twist. [[spoiler:It then gets worse when she realises that it's not just a made-up twist, but that it ''[[AwfulTruth actually happened]]'', with Ben never once letting on to Fallon he knew the truth yet writing it all down in a book he intends to publish. Fallon is so repulsed she breaks off her relationship with Ben permanently...or at least until the following year]].

* ''Literature/PortraitsOfHisChildren'', by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin: The main character takes this to its absolute worst level, as explained in TheReveal. [[spoiler:His daughter was brutally raped, and the rapist was never caught. When the main character found her, the phrase he used to comfort her was "Show me where it hurts," referring both to her physical and psychological trauma. A few months later, he published, and made a significant amount of money off of, a thriller called ''Show Me Where It Hurts'', a fictional version of the rape story in which that line was reassigned to the rapist. The main character is utterly stunned when his daughter shows up in a rage, calling him a rapist because he'd "raped" her story for profit.]]

* One episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' sees a steamy romance novel become a bestseller which turns out to have been based on a story Frasier once told the author, in confidence, about his first time. Frasier's initially furious at not being at least acknowledged, but eventually realises he's actually angry about how the relationship ended.

* ''Series/HomeAndAway'': The show seems to portray writers as having no original ideas, just copying things that happened to them. One classic example involved Angel entering a writing competition with a romance story, and basing it heavily on best friend Sarah's doomed romance with a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk. She thought she'd changed enough details that no-one would know what her inspiration was. Everyone did, leading to a big falling out with Sarah.

* PlayedForLaughs on ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'' where some of Q's punishments have him acting out stories and stage productions based on his life—none of which portray him in a positive light.

* On ''Series/JustShootMe'', Maya dates the host of a children's puppet show, and later discovers that he's using his relationship as material for his show, painting her as a greedy harrigan and even suggesting a three-way with Nina.

* ''Series/TheNanny'': Fran meets a rock singer named Tasha, who has become so successful, she's become jaded and developed writer's block and can't write the Angst-filled songs she's famous for. She becomes friends with Fran, and mines her misery for her songs. Unfortunately, hanging with a rock star improves Fran's mood, and since she's no longer miserable, Tasha dumps her for her friend Val.

* Music/TearsForFears: Roland Orzabal [[https://www.vice.com/en/article/65jvzr/how-we-wrote-our-first-record-tears-for-fears-revisit-the-hurting has named]] his ChildhoodFriend, fellow bandmate and group co-founder Curt Smith as his lifelong muse. After their debut album, Orzabal grew increasingly tyrannical and egotistical when it came to what he regarded as solely ''his'' (and not ''their'') music. [[note]]Here's his [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ed2le7nXsAE4QYP?format=jpg&name=medium exact quote:]] "But [Smith's] second [solo album], ''Mayfield'', was really good. I thought to myself, 'Why didn't he do this when we were together? I wouldn't have let him?' Well, that's probably true. I did view Tears for Fears very much as my band."[[/note]] This led to Smith being sidelined more and more as time went on, to the point where guest performer Oleta Adams had a bigger presence than he did on the band's third album. Smith was so angered by his greatly reduced role [[note]]here's his [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7zz1vh?start=193 exact quote:]] "If you sing and that's what you love, then you're pissed off when you're not doing it, so it's like, 'I want to be singing.' So yes, we definitely had issues and fights about that. [...] We couldn't really talk to each other without fighting, so who wants to do that?"[[/note]] that he quit in 1991. An infuriated Orzabal then wrote "Fish Out of Water" as TheDissTrack to Smith for leaving him. In Smith's AnswerSong "Sun King", he outright calls the mistreatment he endured from Orzabal as abuse.
** After they reunited, "[[https://www.pressreader.com/australia/herald-sun-hit/20171206/281590945895449 Smith says]] the pair now realize the tension that drove them apart is what fuels their creativity." Orzabal also [[https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30900411.html adds]] that the conflicts between them are necessary in their partnership.

** Jason often uses his sister in his D&D sessions... as various flavors of hideous monsters.

* In ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'', this a big part of Rin's route. [[spoiler:As she prepares for her art exhibit, she refuses to reply to Hisao's LoveConfession, orders him not to visit, and shuts him out entirely. One of the biggest conflicts in this route is Hisao's struggle with Rin's incomprehensibility, and Rin's difficulties with expressing her feelings.]]

* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'': Zoe lands a spot on a radio talk-show - starting out as a comic-relief side-character, she ends up basically taking it over, by regaling the listeners with the outrageous (and completely accurate) stories of her friend's misadventures. Which fails to amuse the rest of the main characters, who are somewhat annoyed that she openly mocks them on the air, with only the flimsiest cover-names in place, and ends up basically kicking her out of the house.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': WordOfGod says that Macbeth was friends with Creator/WilliamShakespeare and told him his life story, which Shakespeare then mangled (largely out of necessity since the King of England at the time was a descendant of Duncan) to create his famous play. Macbeth had a sense of humor about it, and even played himself in a few productions over the centuries.

* [[http://dooce.com Heather Armstrong]] talks about how blogging got her fired, ruined her relationships, and pissed off her family in her About page (of course, then it made her rich and famous).

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* One Norwegian example occurred in the early sixties, stating that this trope can be taken to destructive extremes. Author Agnar Mykle was forced to stop one of his publications, because his wife´s family intervened, taking legal action against him. The impact was so harsh on her (he had tried to use her tragic backstory as a theme in his novel), that she was DrivenToMadness and later DrivenToSuicide.

* PlayedForLaughs on ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'' where some of Q's punishments have him acting out stories and stage productions based on his life. None of them portray him in a positive light.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E6LikeAngelsPutInHellByGod Like Angels Put in Hell by God]]", it's only after [[DomesticAbuse Lestat de Lioncourt mangles his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac into a broken, bloodied heap]] that he's inspired to write his first song in a hundred years. The [[VillainLoveSong end result]] is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PuWm9t5WY8 Come to Me]]" (in RealLife, it was composed by Daniel Hart and sung by Creator/SamReid), which Lestat [[GiftOfSong gives to Louis as both a Valentine Day's present]] and an ApologyGift.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E6LikeAngelsPutInHellByGod Like Angels Put in Hell by God]]", it's only after [[DomesticAbuse Lestat de Lioncourt mangles his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac into a broken, bloodied heap]] that he's inspired to write his first song in a hundred years. The [[VillainLoveSong end result]] is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PuWm9t5WY8 Come to Me]]" (in RealLife, it was composed by Daniel Hart and sung by Creator/SamReid), which Lestat gives to Louis as both a Valentine Day's present and an ApologyGift.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': It's only after [[DomesticAbuse Lestat de Lioncourt mangles his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac into a broken, bloodied heap]] that he's inspired to write his first song in a hundred years. The [[VillainLoveSong end result]] is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PuWm9t5WY8 Come to Me]]" (in RealLife, it was composed by Daniel Hart and sung by Creator/SamReid), which Lestat gives to Louis as both a Valentine Day's present and an ApologyGift.

** Bart's "Angry Dad" character was based on Homer's frequent angry outbursts. When Homer decided he didn't want to be an Internet buffoon, he repressed his rage, leading Bart to set up an elaborate booby trap in the backyard for the sake of inspiration.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': When Steve wrote a series of children's books with a character based on Roger, Roger was flattered until he found out how the character acts. In a later episode "Mused and Abused", Roger declares Klaus his muse and states that he purposely tortures Klaus to use his sad and crying appearances to make his art.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': When Steve wrote a series of children's books with a character based on Roger, Roger was flattered until he found out how the character acts.

** In "Author, Author", the EMH makes a holonovel about a supposedly fictional ship stranded in the Delta Quadrant, with an anvilicious theme of hologram discrimination that makes the crew look extremely unflattering, so much so that the EMH has to rework the novel. The episode's main conflict is that the publisher won't allow the EMH to revise it, because holograms don't have rights. (TheFederation decides that while he can't be classified as a person, he can be classified as an artist.)
** Notably averted in "Worst Case Scenario". While searching through the holodeck's database, Paris finds what appears to be a holonovel casting the Maquis members of the crew as mutineers. Despite this portrayal, even the "villains" happily play along. Ultimately, it's revealed it wasn't even meant to be art, but a training simulation made by Tuvok for security personnel when mutiny was considered a real danger before trust with the Maquis provisional crew was established. [[spoiler: ''Then'' it turns out that one of their old enemies had rigged it to turn into a DeathTrap for whoever used it.]]
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2019'': In "The Comedian", a struggling comedian becomes successful when he uses people he knows for material, but discovers it has consequences: [[spoiler: everyone he mines for material ceases to exist]]. At first, he tries to only use this on {{asshole victims}} but gets more carried away the more popular he becomes. [[spoiler: He eventually atones by focusing a set on himself, making himself disappear and undoing everything]].
* On ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'', when Alex is too lazy and irresponsible to help out Harper stage a street-corner puppet show to raise funds to help pay the rent when they are rooming together in an apartment post-graduation, the two have a falling out, and Harper's puppet show features a lazy, irresponsible character that ''even the little kids watching the show know'' is meant to be Alex. Alex also figures it out easily while watching, and starts her own show, magically shrinking Justin and Zeke to use as her "puppets".

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': It's only after [[DomesticAbuse Lestat de Lioncourt mangles his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac into a broken, bloodied heap]] that he's inspired to write his first song in a hundred years. The [[VillainLoveSong end result]] is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PuWm9t5WY8 Come to Me]]", which Lestat gives to Louis as both a Valentine Day's present and an ApologyGift.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': It's only after [[DomesticAbuse Lestat de Lioncourt mangles his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac into a broken, bloodied heap]] that he's inspired to write his first song in a hundred years. The end result is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PuWm9t5WY8 Come to Me]]", which Lestat gives to Louis as both a Valentine Day's present and an ApologyGift.

** In the ''Sato's Ring Case'', a mystery novelist with SuperOCD is shown to regularly abuse those around him due to his obsession with his work. He's eventually poisoned in order to avenge the death of his previous assistant, who was believed to have committed suicide but who actually [[spoiler:was killed by the author while using him as a guinea pig for a murder plan for a story, something the author did regularly.]]