When the flow of my writing slows to a trickle, I often retreat to the piano. So, when I got stuck on a scene in my WIP, The Strangekinds, I listened to Fur Elise to get some inspiration for a song I’m working on. Later, I turned in for the night. Mid-sleep, I woke up to the tune of Fur Elise flowing through my head, that delightful, brighter section (which Google says is part B.) And I thought what a nice tune to have playing during the concert scene in The Strangekinds. Perhaps, Alice will play it.Then I remembered that Fur Elise is the exact song that featured in the old, original, non-YA, version of The Strangekinds, which is now sort of the prequel that I never finished and had forgotten all about. And I thought, well, then that’s definitely the song Alice will be playing on stage, so that the man who is sitting beside Tamara in the audience can remark upon the significance of song and the woman it reminds him of, whose name happens to be Elise. He won’t stop talking about it, until Tam realizes this dude is Bad News.
And whilst I’m washing my hands in the bathroom, which is where I shuffled off to with these thoughts in my head, I see myself laugh in the mirror. It just struck me how I could go through the whole day with Fur Elise and that concert scene in The Strangekinds disparately cycling through my head, and I never made the connection until mid-sleep.
It’s funny, the things that come together when you sleep on it and let your subconscious go to work.
Photo credit: "Sleeping Lion" by wwarby available under CC BY 2.0
It's funny, isn't it? Sometimes it takes sleep for something swirling in your head to surface. I woke the other night editing in my head and I finally figured something out. I had to get up and shuffle into the computer, because I knew I'd never remember it in the morning.
ReplyDeleteThat's happened to me, too. It's why I keep a small composition book within reach or under my pillow. :)
DeleteThis is similar to my latest blogpost, Fairchild. I liken experiencing different art forms in whatever way one cares to as being similar to cross training for sports activities. If one keeps all parts of one's brain in good shape, great ideas should flow easily.
ReplyDeleteHi ChiTrader! That's a good analogy. Certainly, it's important to keept the mind adequately stimulated--music, literature, films, TV, etc, all have helped me generate new ideas and add dimension to old ones.
DeleteThanks for stopping by.