I don't know about you guys, but my inner muse freaking LOVES music. When I'm working on a project, I build playlists that match the theme, the story, specific scenes, and character relationships. I find those playlists especially helpful when I'm working on multiple projects at once (and for the past two years, that's been. more true than not). If I'm working on a scene that has a song to go with it, I'll listen to it before I work on the scene. If I've been working on one project for awhile and need to switch to another, I'll listen to that project's playlist first to get my mind in the right headspace. If I find a new song, I automatically try to fit it to one of my open projects. It's just how my brain works at this point. See? I told you my brain is weird. I'm fairly certain my husband thinks I'm certifiable, but I told him the return window closed a looooong time ago and he's stuck with me ha! I'll also sing along loudly (and badly) but that part is entiiiiirely optional and up to you LOL.
(My kids. . . or possibly my dogs reaction to me singing)
Another way I use music is as a kind of reward. I freaking LOVE a lot of those songs, but in my brain they've been irrevocably tied to a certain project. Which means that if I need to keep my mind in a different project's headspace, I can't listen to the song while I'm writing. . . which at this point is what I spend a LOT of my time doing. So I dangle it in front of my muse like a reward. Finish the scene, hit the word count goal, and THEN I can listen to the song and think about that other project. The one I really REALLY want to get to. I may, in fact, have done exactly that this weekend.
In writing news, I've mostly finished up my portion of a short story with Nick Steverson, and by mostly, I mean I accidentally wrote too many words and didn't leave him much room to play with. Uh, oops? Never fear, he's going to write a kickass fighting scene that'll be all the awesome, and I'll cut my sections down a wee bit. Blood & Armor book 4 has passed the 30K mark, and Casey and I are chugging right along with an invasion and epic battles (possibly too close to reality for comfort but here we are lol). Annnnnnnd that project I mentioned, the one I really REALLY want to get back to? Now that all my short story commitments are (mostly) done, I can get back to GRIFFINS!!! Yesssssss!! I'm reading through the 42K I've already written (while listening to my awesome playlist of course) and gearing up to start writing again. I did time math--don't look at me like that Marisa, it was NECESSARY--and I figured out how many words I have to add to Blood & Armor, and how many to Griffins to get both projects done on time. Guys. . . it's a lot, but it's totally doable. And I am ALL the freaking motivated for both projects!!
In other news, this weekend is FantaSci! I'll be heading to Raleigh, NC on Thursday to hang out with a ton of my author friends, meet up with our awesome readers, speak on a few panels, and generally run around causing shenanigans and chaos because HECK YES!!
One last thing -- for these blog posts, I try to write something relevant to what I'm currently doing, whether its things I'm having issues with and ways I've found to deal with them, tips and tricks that I just started using, or common problems I've run into. Let me know if there's anything you're interested in though, and I'm happy to word vomit on that topic ; )
Until next week, folks!!