Inspiration

I was trying to think of what to write about today. I've been fighting that sensation of thoughts like rubber balls bouncing around inside my skull. When they rebound, it's even harder to grasp.

I end up drifting through the day in my own head, trying to settle on any specific thought I can grab.

I've already spoken about 'where I get my ideas,' and where I put them (notebooks!), so I figured I'd try to share a few thoughts about inspiration. For me, some of it can come from those overheard conversations, but word-nerd that I am, a lot of inspiration comes to me through visuals.

I love art. Before I really started writing, I was drawing. I still have sheafs of papers with drawings of aliens, elves, centaurs, some dragons and unicorns. Around sixth grade I started my first novel, unfinished. It was epic fantasy, I got about 40 single-spaced hand-written pages in, and the pictures of the main characters were inseparable from the story. If memory serves, the drawings came first, and the story developed from there.

Of course, I was utterly a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of writer then, so I still don't really know where the story should end. There were two sisters, princesses, running the kingdom while their parents were at war. Father was human, mother elf, and a tentative alliance between the species cemented in that marriage. There was a long lost prince, living as a thief in the capital city. I still love the characters, and I think there might be a strong kernel there (well, the long lost prince bit has been done to death, especially when he grows up to be a thief)...Uh, I'm going off on a tangent, aren't I? Point being, the pictures came first, the visuals inspired the story.

I still draw, but not as much, and I don't feel as compelled to draw character sketches of every person in every story. Other inspiration comes from others' art. When I'm trying to get in a darker mood for a story, I visit Lisa Snellings blog and look at her Poppets and other creepy sculptures. I have a long list of art blogs, some dark and creepy, some cartoonish, some realistic.

I also find a lot of inspiration in music. There are some artists or albums that just get me in the mood to write, and they tend to make their way onto every playlist I create for different stories. Most of the time, though, certain song swill invoke specific moods and I'll get a jolt that propells me toward one story over another. A recent addition, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer," inspired me to want to write a steampunk story, but with the story growing and solidifying beyond that 'feel,' I think I'll need more than that album when I'm ready to write.

Right now, I'm trying to think of a Halloween short story to write. Short stories are already not my forte, and sometimes I have a hard time thinking of a story plot when I start with something so general as 'I want to write a Halloween story.' [Strangely enough, the latest three stories are just so, Halloween, steampunk, and YA teen vampire (with a vicious rather than sexy, sultry vampire), which would partly explain why they're all taking longer to get from conception to 'sitting down and writing'.] What is happening with the Halloween story is that an image, or mention of some old urban legend or nursery story, will spark an idea, which I jot down. But so far the interest hasn't lasted long enough to reach the writing stage. I think I need to find a catalyst and then quickly feel around for additional little propelling images or songs. The inspiration is the first burst of forward movement, but the extra bits keep me going.


---
Huh, apparently skin sensitivity is at its highest between 10 pm and 1 am, according to this guy on Rachel Ray's talk show (he wrote a book on when it's the best time to do various things, like make love). That clicks as a bit of inspiration. You might be able to play with that idea in a sci fi story. Genetic manipulation/engineering?


Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina

Writing Progress

So I actually have to force myself to take a week off of work in order to get some significant writing, but I was honestly concerned I wouldn't be able to. Work's been busy, so I was going to give up on that week-long desire, but my wonderful and understanding employees encouraged me to take some time off, so I am forcing myself to take most of next week off. In the meantime, I've been trying to do some writing every day.

I haven't succeeded in doing so every day, but I am making headway. I guess there's just something about a song based on the Lady of Shalott and Kermit the frog singing "Creep" and "Hurt" that scream urban fantasy with werewolves and demi-gods to my imagination.

So anyway. ~waves~

Okay, I'm off to see if I can't finish these two scenes, if not this chapter.

Doing the music thing

I do the music thing. Listening to music as I write. Not so much music that matches the mood, but I start writing with a craving for a certain band or genre of music, and write to that. Usually I can go for chapters with just one cd. When I change to something else, it's often similar in sound. If it's very different, I don't listen for very long, just once or twice (which seems to shift the focus enough to jar my brain out of whatever rut it's in), then switch back to the original cd.

I can write the entire first draft of a novel with just a handful of cds.

Some people write in complete silence, others with music, others (I have a friend that does this) while playing movies in the background.

[I tried that with Pirates of the Caribbean, because SH has pirates, I thought it might help, but it didn't. Of course, the circumstances weren't ideal--my little sister was in the room and trying to talk to me as well. Very distracting.]

The point, to repeat what I say in a comment a few posts ago, and to echo WrittenWyrdd's words, is to write. And to get the book done.

Don't be afraid of doing it wrong. Especially not the first draft, don't get tied up in the 'right' or 'proper' way to do it. But if you're stuck, try something you haven't tried before. It might help.

Noises in the afternoon

I am a dork.

I say this because I -do- look up words in the dictionary for fun (and because years and years ago I would ask my older sister how to spell something and her response was always 'go look in the dictionary,' which I greatly disliked her for back then, but I forgive her now), but also because I love the sound of my nails clacking on the keyboard as I type. I think if I got a laptop one day, I would find it a very strange difference, because the keys are flatter and not inclined to that lovely sound.

Which also means, of course, that I love my typewriter, despite the fact that I don't really use it much anymore. I did once a few weeks before Christmas, to type up a list of some sort, but not for months (possibly years, ~wince~) before then. It's nice for a quick note when my computer is turned off. Irksome only just begins to describe my feelings when my lovable, but old and slow, computer takes forever to boot up.

So, basing this on that fact that a noise I imagine most people find tedious and irritating (not as bad as nails on a chalkboard, but I don't type at night anymore because I worry the loudness of the hard clacks might wake people up who have to get up early for work) is one I enjoy a great deal, I have to say I am not a fan of the sound of my printer. It goes through this whole rigamarolle (sp?) when it's first turned on, and it's a Z22 and also slow, so I get to hear the sound of the actual printing for hours.

And I do not exaggerate the hours, because I just finished printing the second half of Book B. Space and a half instead of double-spaced and it's still 250 pages or so, without starting each chapter on a new page (the less ink and paper used up, the better). And while I didn't time it, it took a while. And the first half was even longer, because it was set for normal rather than high speed.

That is why headphones are my friend. Drowns out the noise of the dreadful printer (~knocks on wood~ 'cause goodness knows, as soon as I say that, it'll break down), but I can still hear my typing.

I think I like the sound of typing on my keyboard, because even if I don't type a word of a story, I still feel productive.

Totally off-topic, but a fun coincidence: Yesterday, my older sister sent me a link to a funny commercial starring Bruce Campbell (who is the awesomest B-movie actor, eva!) from Ain't It Cool News. The commercial was quite enjoyable and there was a little teaser trailer on the side bar for this movie called Pan's Labyrinth. I had never heard of it before, but darned it I wasn't intrgiued. So I find a link to the movie's website (because I went to another page on AICN and lost the teaser) and visit it. First, they have music playing, which you can turn off if you want to. But it was nice music. I liked it. Second, the movie itself, unfortunately only playing in select cities, of which my town is not, unless it's just painfully under-advertised, is a dark fairytale set shortly after the Spanish civil war.

The coincidence part? After seeing that little teaser and finding the website, just before shutting down my computer that same day, I see the movie and its director (Guillermo del Toro) mentioned on Neil Gaiman's journal. Then, computer off and late enough that I'm about to turn off the TV for the day, I see a commercial for it. And then I kinda thought the guy in the commerical after (for some music device or phone) might also be one of the actor's in the film I just saw the commercial for. I won't swear to the last, because in the film he's wearing a lot of make-up and costuming, but there were similarities.

So that was my fun day of coincidences yesterday, and I hope this film comes to Hawaii, because I want to watch it. (And whenever I use the word coincidence, or even think it, I picture the Gilda Radner comedy bit with the priest: "Coincidenza? I think not.")

"You're in time for the show..."

* a line from "The Sharpest Lives" by My Chemical Romance

I do so love writing while listening to music. Maybe that's part of why the newest story has me stuck. This album was a big part of my process while writing the end of Book B, but I haven't found something new to help me switch gears to the new story. I just end up listening to one cd then another then another, never finding the right mood music. It's an interesting thing. I know not all people can write with a lot of noise, and I do tend to get distracted if I ca hear other people's televisions and their conversations, but the right music and my fingers fly across the keyboard.

So I shut down the computer yesterday thinking I'd work on new pages today. Buy the time I was lying in bed, I wanted to rewrite an older story. So I need to amend what I said yesterday. I am not entirely averse to rewriting. I don't like to if I've written three or more chapters, but about 20-40 pages and I'm okay with it. This one happens to be about 20 pages single-spaced, if I remember correctly. I started it not knowing where it was going to go, but I know the characters better now, and I have a firmer grasp on the plot, so I think a rewrite would benefit me and the story.

And then I wake up this morning and recall that it's Wednesday, so my sister and I meet up with a writer's group this evening. which means editing chapter 10 of Book B takes precedence, especially because it grabbed hold in my head and the choice in music helped it to usurp my concentration. So I'm doing that today, as well as working on my admissions material.

I'm trying to get into the English graduate program at my nearby college. They have a creative writing concentration. Mostly, I want to do it to work with some professors I really liked when I went there for my undergraduate years. I hope I get in. I'm using the first chapter of Book B for my writing sample.

...I'm done now. I guess I'll leave you with the last line of that song:

"And you can leave like the sane abandoned me."