Muse-ish inspiration

I'm making pretty good progress on a novel that may never get published, but whatever. I shouldn't put myself down like that, but I'm just being realistic. If I say, "I'm making good progress and I have a good feeling about what I'm writing, thus I'm going to be published because of this feeling," I'm being naive. I've felt good about what I've written before and about the possibility of getting published (even in a seemingly amateurish publication), but it didn't happen. So now, I just feel good about what I write, and if I later succeed, that's an extra.

What's helping me write this novel and a previous failure are types of muses that are both real and imaginary. Actually, a muse is a female, and mine isn't/aren't, but it doesn't matter. So I don't know if they would fall into the "muse" definition (which would really be a slightly altered version), or if they're just inspiration. But whatever they are, they keep me going. Now the only problem is that if things change in the external world, then I might slip and fall, so I'm trying to write as furiously and productively as I can, lest the "muse" or "inspiration" or "muse-ish inspiration" disappears.