Morning Pages and Blogging - Waking the Muse

If you happened to check out some of the links from last Friday's Fill-Me-In mash-up, you may have clicked over to Jenny Hansen's post about Is Your Blog Eating You Alive?. In that post, she mentioned something that was a bit of an Oprah-style light bulb moment for me. She said that one of the reasons she liked to blog was that it sort of acted like her Morning Pages.

Now, for those not familiar, Morning Pages is an exercise from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Her program calls for you to write three pages EVERY morning that are a complete stream of consciousness. Her rules are that it should be longhand and that no one reads them. This is supposed to be a way to clear out all the clutter in your head, shut off your inner editor, and open yourself up so that you can tap into your creativity.

I have never tried morning pages. However, recently I have been trying to adjust my blogging schedule so that I have more time to write in the mornings. And guess what I figured out? Even if I didn't blog in the morning, I still wasn't getting to the good part of my writing flow until about the same time I used to when I was blogging.

I couldn't figure out what the deal was. But when I read Jenny's post, it clicked. Blogging has acted as a version of my morning pages. Though I'm breaking the rules--people do read these "pages" (hopefully, lol) and it's not longhand, I do feel like it's a version of stream of consciousness for me. I don't plan out my blog posts. I wake up and talk about what's on my mind. It's clears my head and wakes up my writer brain. So cutting out blogging in the morning really wasn't the right thing for me. I was messing with my method without even realizing it. Who knew?

And on a completely different note, I found this video a few days ago, and my friend Jamie Wesley suggested I use it to show the importance of editing and how even the best of 'em have sh*tty first drafts.

Now, I'm curious to hear about your writing method? Do you do a version of morning pages? What kicks your brain into gear? What does blogging do for you?

Why Is My Muse Hiding in the Shower?

Ah, that elusive muse. It's the writer's blessing and curse. It can be the source of wildly exciting inspiration or it can be the bane of our existence when the ideas stop flowing. So how do we learn to work with this fickle part of the writing process?

Well, first there is the "butt in chair" philosophy, which means even if your muse is on a bender to the Bahamas, you still sit in front of your computer and write. The idea is that eventually the inspiration will return. This is an important method to consider because once you have a contract and are on a deadline, you won't have the luxury of taking a few weeks/months off to let your muse return to you.

However, forcing the creative process sometimes shuts your mind down even further because you're using the logical part of your brain ("I need to get this down because x, y, z."), which can choke the free-flowing creative side.

So how do we free up that creative side?

Well, different things work for different people, but the goal is to get your mind into a relaxed state where the logical part can rest and the other side can take over.  For instance, I was watching an interview on The View with Aaron Sorkin. He was talking about writing the movie The Social Network (saw it yesterday, btw. FAB-U-LOUS. Seriously. Go see it.) But anyway, he said when he was writing it, he was taking like six showers a day. The ladies of The View looked at him like he was crazy, but I was like--Oh, I so get that.

He said the reason he was taking so many showers was because that's when the scenes would come to him. So when he got stuck, he'd either get back in the shower or would go for a long drive.

And those are two of my favorite places for inspiration too. Anywhere my mind zones out and goes on autopilot--the shower, a monotonous car ride, lying in bed at night before I go to sleep, listening to music. When I'm stuck, those are the times that the words finally come.

So, if you're doing BIC (butt-in-chair) but it's just not working. Get up, go for a long walk, a drive, or hell, jump in the shower like Aaron Sorkin. Give yourself permission to relax your mind so that you can hear the muse when he/she whispers to you.

So I'm curious, when does the inspiration usually hit you? What are some activities you do to let the creativity flow? Are you a believer of butt-in chair?

**Today's Theme Song**
"You're the Inspiration" - Chicago

(player in sidebar, take a listen)

Does Your Novel Have A Theme Song?

Any of you who have hung around my blog for a while have probably figured out that I'm a big music fan--hence the daily blog theme song, the romance I wrote about a rockstar, and my regular tweets about going to concerts or playing Guitar Hero. (Yes, I'm a thirty-year-old mom who plays Guitar Hero--look, I never said I was cool, alright.)

So it's probably no surprise that I find music very inspiring for my writing process too.  Sometimes a song can spark a story idea or sometimes I'll hear a song later and it resonates perfectly with something I've written already. The latter happened to me the other day.

I was driving, thinking about my book, and a song that I've heard many times before came on.  However, this time I really heard the lyrics and they gave me chills--the song fit the theme of my book perfectly.  So now every time I hear it, it just makes me want to work on the book more.

So here's my theme song for Exposure Therapy. Now, I know it's a sad song--and yes my romance does have a happy ending, it is a romance after all--but there are also a lot of dark things these characters have to handle within themselves before getting there.

"Outside" by Staind   (player in sidebar, if you want to hear the song)

Staind - Outside Lyrics @ LyricsTime.com

So I'm curious, do you use music in your writing?  What's one of the songs that you'd put on the soundtrack for your book?  Does your story have a theme song?

WIP Wednesday and Blogfest Reminder

I've been a woman possessed this week.  Since last Wednesday, I've added 12k words to my WIP.  Hollah!  I wish I could tie up my muse and force him (yes, he's male, I write romance, people) to stick around until I finish this thing--but he doesn't respond well to threats.  So I will exploit him while he's here and get everything I can out of this streak.

I'm also happy to report that during this streak I've been able to just write without that b*tch of an internal editor (yes, she's a chick) holding me back.  I know that I'll have to go back and revise and tighten up motivations, inject better words for the place-holding adverbs and weak verbs, and deal with how best to arrange the chapters in this dual timeline story, but the story  is On. The. Page.  Which is most important for me right now.  I'm still not sure how long this one will end up being, but I'm thinking another 20-30k will get me to where I want to go.

 Then I can enter my favorite part of the process--revising.  (Yes, I know, I'm insane to enjoy that part.  But once I have a rough draft, my anxiety level decreases and my mind can relax and see the story more clearly.)

Alright, now a friendly reminder: next Tuesday is the Let's Talk Blogfest!  We have seventy people signed up, so if you want to be part of the cool kids, go here and sign up.  It's going to be a lot of fun and get can all kinds of new people to your blog (and there's even a prize involved).  For those of you who have signed up--thanks--and I hope you've got your excerpt ready.  I look forward to reading everyone's contributions.  :)

So, how's your WIP going?  What's the gender of your muse or internal editor?  Do you find you write in big bursts then hit a wall and have to wait for the next streak to hit or are you more methodical?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Don't Go Away" - Buckcherry

(player in sidebar, take a listen)

The Musical Muse

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Dia de los Toadies, an annual concert event for the popular Dallas band, The Toadies. If you like hard rock and have never checked them out, please do. I go to a lot of concerts and the one this weekend was one of the best I've been to. Nothing like listening to great music in the middle of the Texas wilderness (it was held on the grounds of a ranch) with a couple thousand of your closest strangers. :)

On the way home, I started thinking about how music is tied to so much of my life. Each of us has a soundtrack that matches up with certain parts of our history. The Toadies' music always reminds me of when my husband and I first got together because he was the one who introduced me to their music. No matter what, when I hear one of their songs, I feel that emotion of fresh, new love. The same goes for so many other times in my life. The Cranberries and Alanis Morrissette make me think of high school. New Kids remind me of my preteen years. Led Zeppelin reminds me of my stepdad, who introduced me to 70s rock. The 80s song "Rock Steady", I don't even remember who it's by, reminds me of my mom because she used to use this song when she taught aerobics (and I had to sit and watch the class--while eating cheetos and drinking a soft drink, mind you).

So music definitely is linked closely to my emotions and memories. Perhaps this is why I find it so useful when I'm writing. I rarely write in silence. I almost always have something playing while I'm working on a scene. For my YA, I listened to a lot of current music: Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Secondhand Serenade, Green Day, Pink, etc. I didn't even do this on purpose, it's just what I was drawn to while trying to write in a teen voice.

My latest WIP is about a rockstar, so I definitely was influenced on that one. I pulled out the 80s hair bands (Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Cinderella) along with some newer stuff, like Buckcherry and 30 seconds to Mars. Come to think of it, my male protagonist has an uncanny resemblance to Buckcherry's lead singer, Josh Todd. Hmm, maybe I was a bit too influenced by the music, lol. Although, you have to admit, he is pretty yummy (if you're into that whole bad boy thing). ;)

So how about you? Do you listen to music while writing? Have any songs influenced your stories? What singers/bands/songs do you listen to while writing?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Tyler" - The Toadies

(player in sidebar--go ahead, take a listen)