muse

Since middle school my writing habits have been pretty rigid. not in terms of schedule or a particular form of media. My only unbreakable habit is the need foor music, loud music. And I have to have headphones. Yes I know this is unwise, but it's the only thing that works. What's funny is after a while I don't even hear the music anymore. It keeps the world at bay and allows me to slip into my writing, into the world I've created. In high school the rules changed slightly. Not any song would do and it had to be a particular song looped over and over. When I took up writing again after years of pretending I was too practical to do such a thing, the rules had become more refined. If I don't find the absolute perfect song, writing is like slogging uphill in deep mud. Usually i could pick a song and run with it and say, "Okay this fits." Now the story seems to pick the song. I learned this when, to my horror Katherine (Filter Book One) would only flow to Katherine McPhee's "Terrified." You see I listen to christian music and had only heard this on American Idol. And then as the story intensified it switched to Airplanes by B.o.B, a song I picked up from driving with my sister. In the end, with tragedy and violence, it was Flyleaf. As I work on Book Two more surprises are hitting me. William's muse song is "What do I Know of Holy" by addison road. Not a huge surprise, and a song that makes me cry every time I sing along. But Marie's muse is a shocker, a song I haven't heard since I graduated from high school in 1997, "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin. I love that song but hadn't tried to think of it. That's what's so weird. I wanted a girl power song by Natalie Merchant, Ophelia. Marie would have nothing of it. So I downloaded Sunny and soon after had five fantastic pages of Marie done. I loved Katherine, but she is a candle beside Marie's bonfire. I'm so excited about book two now. William is a complicated young man and makes my brain hurt to follow his thoughts, but I still adore him. book one is still available at
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/filterbookone for free!

Pocket of Inspiration

Praise and glory! Hallelujah!
I hit a pocket of inspiration! What an amazing rush. All day I have been plunking away, squeezing sentences out and then suddenly my characters (William and Katherine, you can know that much)
took off. Of course they did everything I, in my infinite wisdom, told them not to. But they couldn't handle it anymore. Four pages flew from my fingers tips. It was like the same rush you get from sprinting a half-mile. What a joy! Of course it's probably all crap, but it felt good! O yea.
And, if my calculations are correct, my novel is 32 pages (book size pages) long now.
How wonderful. I just hope it isn't all crap as I suspect it must be.