Friday, August 3, 2012

Tuned In To - Part 2: Music and Inspiration

So, this second part of this week's Tuned In To isn't really talking about any particular song, but it does have to do with what I've been listening to this week, and also ties into writing.

I don't know if I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but I am participating in the August session of Camp NaNoWriMo, a summer version of National Novel Writing Month, which is held in November. For the  first three days, at least, I've just been keeping right on pace, making myself sit down and write my daily required word count, but not writing much beyond that. My plot hasn't gotten off to the best start - I have the first chapter finished, but it was kind of slow and boring. Tonight, though, inspiration struck - in an unexpected and thoroughly complicated way.

It started with the night swim one of my friends was holding at the public pool to raise money for the SPCA. I love night swimming and since today was the first day of band camp it was guaranteed to be ridiculous warm, of course I went. After talking to a few people I knew for awhile, I ended up just kind of chilling by myself in the pool. The lights around the pool and the streetlights nearby were all on, and they looked really cool reflecting off the water. What was even more awesome was ducking under the water and looking at the lights from underneath, though it did make my eyes sting.

Trust me, this is all getting somewhere.

So of course, since my brain has a constant soundtrack of background music for my life running through it, I started thinking of the song "Never Let Me Go" by Florence & The Machine - Looking up from underneath, fractured moonlight on the sea, reflections still look the same to me as before I went under. The song kept going through my mind; when I finally left the pool and came home, I belted out it and several other Florence & The Machine songs while I showered. One of those songs was "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)."

Stay with me a little longer. We're almost there.

So I'm singing this song in the shower, and of course because I'm in the shower I sound amazing, and I get to the chorus and I pause after reaching the line, "Midas is king and he holds me so tight, and turns me to gold in the sunlight," to think, "Huh, that could kind of fit my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo." (Which is based off of mythology.)

At first I was just thinking it would be a cool song to listen to while writing, since it's fast and intense. But then I listened to it all the way through again, and this is where the true inspiration struck: as I listened, I couldn't help thinking, "Oh my gosh, if I applied this to Jade (my secondary MC), it would make her character so much more interesting."

So, after all that, I've discovered a lot of hidden depths to one of my characters. And it's made me so excited to keep writing. I can't wait to let more of her character come out in the plot and see where it takes me.

I told you it was kind of a complicated story, but it was so exciting I just had to share.

Have you ever had a really long chain events lead to a single moment of inspiration?
~blackandwhitedreamer

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