#5 whole months. i had to retrain myself to be passionate about art.

[ciderjacks]

being an artist means everyone suggesting u go into an art career or art school and being smart means saying Hell No every time

[ladyofmind]

Music Monday- Back to Basics

Finally it’s Music Monday again… Am I the only one that needed this since like Friday?

 So much thought went into this one. For the first official music post, do I tell you what I am listening to now, and share some of my favorite holiday songs? Or do I start with the song that was one of the important pieces that restarted my love of writing again?

 Love, passion, and odd inspiration spark for the hands down win…

 Lee Child has said that there are "two or three things in a book that have to collide like atoms collide to make a molecule…" (I first heard this while watching Lee Child and Stephen King talk Jack Reacher from Cambridge, MA 2015) and I like this concept. Books take time to write, and it almost never is "here is Bob." Maybe you remember your school days too, and keep in mind the lessons on the 5 W's and 1 H. Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Bob alone is about as good as a blank page that simply reads Chapter 1... The rules say that all characters want or need something, so starting Bob off walking fills out one more of those W's. Sometimes just answering those reporter style questions tells you more about what you were thinking than you realize.

 My collision course started with a Role Play I had been a part of for a long time; but various years of changes, including a change in my job scheduling, made it nearly impossible to continue for me. Going from a daily writing project, to none at all happened for a while, as life made work my focus. A few months passed, the analytical surpassed the creative side of my brain. Do forgive the fuzzy memory spots, I did not think to keep track of these moments, as they were insignificant at the time, which is over 5 years ago. Basically, I found I missed the RP and the people associated with it. So I started to think about what the place would look like 5 years later, who would be there, who would have left. I needed a story of closure for myself, one to properly say goodbye to a part of who I had been, one that was a happier ending than the truth. Because saying we grew apart as we grew up was not as satisfying a justice to those friends, or even my own character. It bugged me for a while, and so there was a day when I thought about my lead chars, back stories/future stories what have you. I needed just the right song for my character. That song that you put on and think of this one person, almost like my card catalogue of a mind would act like an internet search. On went this song, and out popped a mental dancing version of its owner. Facts, likes, dislikes etc would show up like recommended links, and slowly my character grew depth.

 But first I had to find that perfect song.

 There had been songs I listened to, some were close, others only for one element or another, but nothing that full on inspired me. I explained my problem to a friend at the time, Doom, telling him how I liked this song but it was too much, another was not enough… a regular Goldilocks and the three bears of music if you will. The song he showed me; that was the one that changed everything. I forgot to answer his messages, I got sucked into the world inside my own head, hitting replay so many times it would have broken a real button. It wasn’t just that night either, that song lasted the whole week without me getting sick of hearing it, as my characters and ideas cooked more. Even now, I do not tire of this song, as it is memory filled music for me.

 Believe it or not, but the song is Boss's Daughter by Pop Evil ft Mick Mars.

This song gave me so much. At the time I know I did not have the words to describe it, only amazement, but now I know what it is. A spoiler to the book series I am currently writing- there is a musician and a waitress. My man had not been developed completely, a shadow of a leading man if you will. Watching that music video, it was like finding his band. I knew what he looked like, what he would sound like, but I did not know his band or their sound. Finding Pop Evil was the best gift I could ever have received. The songs they have written over the years worked so well with my writings, that forever in my head, they became Pop Evil. So you can call it a bit of fan fiction, but it has meant so much more to me.

 Yes, I am aware that some of you might listen to that song and not hear what I heard, and that's okay. Music is subjective, like other art forms. I heard an upbeat and catchy song, one where it sounded like this spitfire kind of woman had men begging for her attentions, and they would do anything for just a little of her time. That was my female character, in a dumb down nutshell. I chose to use it for empowerment, and many of my emotional needs have found a Pop Evil song to fill that "just right" spot of my musical three bears. It is not easy to find a song you like, that conveys a message you need to hear at the time you need it. Music for me is very important for my mood and my mind too, and this one was just the right kind of dirty for me, without being too disrespectful. Love the band tricks too, I mean how far can the one man bend? Just how high can the drummer toss that stick? Do I even have to mention Mick Mars? Pretty sure his name precedes him. Sometimes I consider this song the gateway song into more of the modern rock groups, as I was the type to grow up on the oldies station.

I am not saying this song alone started my writing again, but it did open a door I have not been able to permanently shut since. Not that I would ever want to, but I do recall a few misfires in the beginning. The negativity, self doubt, writing oneself into a corner, I have done that all before. The reason those issues stopped is a story for another day, but I know I restarted the story twice. The first time, about 50 pages in, I got straight stuck. Some time later, I started up again, rewriting it, and strengthening my female character, and we went so much farther. It took about 2 years, but we got to over 300 pages, until the gaps were too huge for me to ever finish. The trouble was that I could not decide what happened 5 years later without telling how everyone met in the first place. 4 more years, another 330 ish pages, and what was the prequel is finally finished. That is currently book 1, aka Red Letters Yellow Days, and it has done so much for me. I finished it in October of this year; right in time for NaNoWriMo to boot camp me. Retrained and so much farther into the book 2 re-re-rewrite, with the halfway point on the horizon, my story and writing has grown so much over the last 5-6 years (if we're counting).

To think it all started with some colliding idea fragments and this catchy Pop Evil song…