Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Inspiring Wednesdays

Inspiration on a Wednesday!

We all have a love/hate relationship with our WIPs, don't we? At some point you feel frustrated or stuck with it, or maybe you're distracted by a shiny new idea like Patricia mentioned yesterday in her post

For me, I'm at a point where I'm starting to diverge a little from my outline. This happens to me with every WIP, so I'm used to it. But that doesn't mean I like it. It makes me feel scattered. That's the best word for me to describe me and my writing life right now. I still LOVE my WIP. I mean really love it. But I feel scattered deviating from the outline, even though it's really not by much. It makes me write slower, get frustrated easier, and think that maybe everything I'm writing actually is crap. I end up feeling like I'm missing something in that chapter(s). Not a good feeling.

So what do you do when/if you feel like this?

I can tell you what I do. First, I share my chapter(s) that are giving me trouble with my beta reader and crit partners. They encourage me and point out things I miss. I have two amazing crit partners, Danielle here is one (she's a bit busy with school right now & hasn't seen much of my current WIP) My other crit partner is equally amazing and really helped me tonight. She pointed out exactly what my last chapter was missing. I think it's so important to have good writing partners and friends!

But what I also do (which yes, I'm tying this all into the topic of inspiration) is really delve into music and photos and anything else that will draw me into the world of my WiP and into my character's head. So without further rambling, here are some my inspirations (which have really help me this week)


(I've been listening to a lot of Manchester Orchestra lately. The general mood & feel of this song always makes me want to work on my WIP. The lyrics aren't completely in-tune with my WIP but at the same time they still work too. [ps-this is the 1st time I've seen the video for this song and kudos to anyone who thought, 'Are you my mummy?' at all while watching this.])

And here are some photos that remind me of my WIP
(Why yes, my WIP might be a little creepy, why do you ask? You can check out a taste of the creepiness on this teaser post if you want)


So how about you guys? Any of you in slumps and use different types of inspiration to help out? Any of you just have an amazing piece of inspiration that you found/used this week and want to share?





4 comments:

  1. A few things to say here.
    1) I am done with school very, very soon for a whole month--and I WILL be reading your WIP. Wahoo!
    2) "Are you my mummy?!?" YAY for DW references. I have taught you well, friend.
    3) Any of you in slumps and use different types of inspiration to help out? Any of you just have an amazing piece of inspiration that you found/used this week and want to share

    I have discovered (or been given) the gift (or curse) of pinterest. I have a whole folder of lovely things that I have found to represent my WIP. Just pictures. But this epic scene I'm working on? SO much of that inspiration has been coming from these pictures I found. And it all started with conversations about what COULD happen with my WIP and then the ideas started rolling.

    So I guess the short answer: conversations to ideas; ideas to images; images to words.

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  2. Yay!I'm so glad I could help you out! Your WiP is AMAZING and I can't wait to find out what happens next:D

    I can't believe I've never heard that song before - I love it! And I love all of your pictures, especially that hand. It's soooo creepy!

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  3. Okay, I thought the 'Are you my mummy' was a MST2K reference....I forget the title, but the one where the boy takes in the alien that look like an elephant-ish...you know, the one where they're always asking (for the alien) if everyone is it's mom....please tell me you know which one I mean. "Big potatoe. Little potatoe. Fuzzy potatoe."

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  4. I have no idea what you are talking about Chrystal. What is MST2K???

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