Finally designed the bare bones of this website to get it up and running but now I’ve lost that momentum from NaNoWriMo. I was hoping to start the outline for the next book in the series and get the critiques in for some overdue chapters from my Scribophile friends, but I only got to the critiques (though not enough for my liking) and this website. But, I enjoy the challenge.
Trying to get back into the groove of writing, I thought about what I could do to give me that swift kick back into gear. Some people find art inspirational. Admiring the nuances and hidden meanings that convey a story and inspire them to tell that story. Similarly, watching dance is like watching art move. It’s equally inspiring.
My writing inspiration is a combination of reading—many books—and listening to music. Reading is obvious. There’s a story already there and it can help present “what-if” alternatives that can create new stories, or new takes on similar tropes. My biggest influence is music. Classic music can be interpreted into a story. It sets a mood, whether it’s slow and flowing or fierce and passionate.
Many may find that mainstream music distracting. I find even more inspiration from listing to my playlist of top 100. The emotions that it evokes through the beats and lyrics and the flow from one song to the next that tells its own story gets my brain thinking. It influences my current WIP or the next books in the series, so much so that I get Siri on my phone to take dictation for new things I want to add to my books—though the notes that I see afterward sometimes don’t make any sense at all because of all the background noise that interfered with Siri’s dictation.
There are times when I go through life like I have my own personal music soundtrack. Every little thing that happens, there’s music playing in my head. Every conversation I have, a lyric comes to mind for each reply or discussion topic. And from time to time, my brain thinks up a dance move to go with the music.