I did lower body weights at the gym this morning.Usually when I weight-lift, I don't listen to music. The treadmill absolutely requires my aerobic track to keep me distracted. For weight-lifting, though, I'm counting and not fighting the certain despair that I'll never catch my breath again.
Today though, Air Force Guy had the TV up really loud with awful news about Libya. Since I have a strict policy about not depressing myself with news about events I can't affect, I jumped up from the adductor machine and grabbed the headphones.
Since I was mid-count, rather than searching out my weights playlist (why do I have one if I never use it? Hmm) I just clicked play. This one song that my long-time friend, Kev, sent me came on.
Because I could, I played that one song over and over. I love to do this. I can listen to the same song probably 50 times in a row. Something, I've discovered, the people around me don't enjoy so much.
Go figure.
Its an emotional song that strikes me on many levels. As some songs do, this one makes me want to write a story about it. I've never actually written a story from a song, but I think I might this time. As I kept clicking the back button to hear it just one more time (there's a way to put it on repeat, right? one day I should learn to maximize my iPod use), the story played out in my head, snippets of conversation. I could see the opening line, the penultimate scene.
It could be a great book.
Yesterday, I worked on two projects. If you follow this blog, you'll know I've been musing over whether I can move two writing projects forward at the same time. I'm a monogamous gal by nature, mainly because I'm simply not inclined to cheat. The thing I'm in love with is fine by me. It occurs to me now that this is the same aspect of my character that likes to listen to the same song over and over and over. Apple pie for the rest of my life? Sure! Still, with writing, I'd like to get more going.
So, yesterday, I clocked off the Internet for my usual two hours. (Yes, I'm weak and cannot stop myself from clicking if it's there to be clicked.) I wrote my 1K on the new novel, The Middle Princess. For the remaining 45 minutes, I worked on Sapphire revisions, from the editorial notes that came in this weekend.
And it worked!
Normally I'm not allowed to deviate from a current project, but since that experiment worked, I might try writing up a little of this morning's story - just enough to keep it alive and kicking.
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Wow, you know my secret shame.
ReplyDeleteI love when music transports me to a set of charachters and a whole new world can open up for me. I too, can spend hours listening to a piece of music over and over again. It drives my husband crazy and he calls it my "song bitch" mode. As in that song made me it's bitch. Usually they are pieces that evoke a strong memory or a longing for something. But somtimes it can just be a song that makes me feel good.
Good Luck with the writing experiment.
Pick the weeds, keep the flowers; easier said than done sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBut your garden thrives.
Love that, Kelly - very funny!
ReplyDeleteAh, Kev, you are so clever with the putting together of the clues!
I am really hoping that I can do revision on one project while writing something new, I'm about to try that out. I have managed to write notes on one project to "save" it until another one is done. But I'm so distractable, I think I have to keep the rule in force that it's just notes and I'm not allowed to go chasing after the bright and shiny until the previous project is at a pause point.
ReplyDelete