Music and writing
Writing is such a strange beast. I'm working on a mundane SF short story to submit to Interzone, and I'm stuck. Normally I don't get stuck, at least not like this. So today during a walk to the bank (I have the day off) I started really thinking about the main character, Gabriel. More specifically, I thought about her taste in music. This is a little strange for me, since I don't normally have to "know" everything about a character before I can write her/him, but this music exercise is helping, I think. Little nodules of goodies are coming loose in my brain. Then I thought about other characters I've written and their taste in music, and I was sort of surprised that I knew without thinking too much about it. So I guess I do "know" a lot about my characters. Subconsciously, at least. For the record, Gabriel doesn't really listen to music; she's more of a NPR/business talk radio kind of gal. But if forced, she listens to old school Sinatra. I think today I'm going to try and find the "Want Women Want" soundtrack for inspiration. And then I'm going to take my laptop to a coffee shop and write. Or maybe use a notebook. I think that's how this story wants to be written. First rule of writing: don't question to mojo. Second rule: get out of the story's way.