Saturday, April 19, 2014

Finding inspiration in the oddest of places

So on day 6 of my April plan and I had some mixed success. But to be fair, the first week of April was much crazier than I could have imagined and I felt about this way about writing:


It's slowly coming back, very slowly. But I've accomplished a few things that are on the list. I now have a very rough query and synopsis. And I've made a lot of improvements to my plot and writing style. I just have been a little negligent on the editing part.

What I have found is that inspiration come to me in the oddest of places. One day I was out in the garden and all of the sudden I was struck with a brilliant idea for a new scene that tied together a few things that have been plaguing me for months. This became my inspiration:



If you're asking what that is, it's a bucket of worms. One of my very few hobbies aside from writing is my gardening and part of that is vermicomposting. Which means I have two worm buckets that do all my composting for me. And in the spring I get to dig in the dirt and collect every worm I can find. It's so much fun. Ok, maybe it's just me. But it's mindless, I get to clear my head of anything except dirt and finding those ever elusive worms. And once my head is clear and I'm not thinking about work or what my kids glued to the wall or my grocery shopping list, my imagination finally come out to play. The trick is transferring that to my computer after I got inside and had to cook dinner and put my kids to bed!

Then I had another little push on my plane ride home last night. I had spent three days in DC working pretty much non-stop. (Including some drinking with clients, always important.) I was exhausted. My brain was fried.

And then they closed the cabin doors and I had to turn my phone into airplane mode and put my laptop away. I tried to sleep, but I was too wired. And it hit me. I should work on that synopsis I've been putting off.

Genius

And by the time we landed I had a workable synopsis. Every time I started to do something else, push that evil twitter button or whatever else, I couldn't. I was cut off from the online world. It was just me and my writing app on my phone. And it was glorious. Now I can't wait for the next time I have uninterrupted time to myself when I can just sit down and focus. Get this novel finished so I can get started on the next one!

Where can you find your happy place?

**Super thanks to http://www.reactiongifs.com/ for the GIFs. The worm picture is totally mine though. **