F³A: 2nd Rejection

This is the kind of rejection I can take. A nice one. One that gives feedback.

She didn't like my main character. She was too...bitchy.

The scene in the teen psyche ward was too heavy.

She did say I'm a talented writer. So there's that. I think I'll try a few more agents while I'm working on revisions of An Unbalanced Line and if I get no bites I'll work on another revision.

What are you working on right now? Get any good rejections you want to share?

Okay, Friday Scribbles
Next Pandora Song (the one on right now I hate, I'll need to "thumbs down it"):
Muse Uprising

Book of the Week: The Belly Fat Diet By John Chatham. I read it for a job interview. I liked it. I'm trying it.

Movie of the Week: Snow White and the Huntsman. I've not seen it, but I'm wanting to and it just came out on DVD.

Quote of the Week: A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.  ~ "Bo Bennett"


Happy Friday!

Thought Provoking Thursday: Music

A drawing I made of my muse a while back.

As writer, our muses come in so many forms sometimes they're hard to keep up with (except for those times they take the extended smoke break and you have to go outside and around the corner of the house with arms crossed over your chest, glare at them, and kick their ass back in the house so you can get some writing done)

I draw inspiration from many placed, nature, my own life experienced, and many times, my muse comes to me in the form of music.  When I wrote Never Eighteen, I was listening to a lot of indie (not when I wrote, I have to have complete silence when I write as my multi-tasking abilities suck when it comes to writing).  Iin fact, originally I had song lyrics at the beginning of each section of my novel.  Death Cab, Badly Drawn Boy, Tiger Army, The Airborne Toxic Event started the four sections of my book.  I also had more Death Cab lyrics in the novel, as well as the song Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep.  Unfortunately, unless you're Stephenie Meyer or have music connections, it's near impossible to get permissions to use lyrics in your novel.  So they got cut.

I love evocative music for writing.  So much of what I listen to when I need inspiration is indie.  Or songs that make you want to pull a Plath.  This is  because I truly believe I write better when my emotions are raging to the point that I'm almost in tears.  I know this sounds completely and utterly insane, but it's true.  In fact, I actually write certain scenes with a soundtrack.  For instance, there was this scene in my Superhero novel, when the protagonist and the love interest kiss for the first time, and all I could think of was Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

I bring up this topic because yesterday I decided my protag in my WIP (work in progress for you lay people) was going to be a song writer and musician, and thus, I had to write a song for my novel.  This isn't new to  me.  I was telling my Facebook peeps yesterday that I used to write angsty rock songs in a spiral notebook back in my teens and early twenties.  I have a feeling that poetry and music are going to play parts in probably every novel I write, if not in the novel, than an inspiration to write.

I guess what I'm saying, is music is a big part of my life and always has been.  And it's a constant source of inspiration for me when I hit a brick wall while writing.

So what inspires you?  What gets you past those difficult moments, be it writing, or just in life?  In what form does your muse manifest itself to you?

Catch you on the flip side,

~Megan

Muses

A lot of friends have mentioned their muses the last couple days, so I thought I would really sit and ponder where my motivation comes from.

I've always said that my craft mostly reflects life.  Sometimes I get story ideas from my own experiences, or base characters on people I know, myself included, but I need more than that.

The weather.  I know, it's crazy, but the weather has an effect on my mood.  I've always said I write better when I'm my most angsty, but thinking on it, that's not necessarily true.  I also write well when the sun is shining, it's just different.  I don't use as much emotion, I use more energy.  So this kind of yin yang weather thing is definitely a muse for me.

Music.  I cannot listen to music when I write.  I have to have things perfectly quiet and still.  However, music does pop into my head during certain scenes, and in my novel Mending Fences, and now in my WIP Finding Nirvana, music plays a major role.  When I was writing, the second novel I ever wrote, Dena Powers: The Trouble with Boys, there was one scene in which Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars kept popping into my head, urging me along.  Most the time the music is alternative or Indie because those songs just seem to speak to me.

My emotions.  As I said before, the weather directly effects my moods, and my different emotions help me to write in a variety of different ways.  I actually prefer to write when I'm miserable.  I just think I write better when I'm brooding, but there's something to be said for happiness too.

I suppose if my muse took form, this is what she'd look like (and do not make fun of my drawing).

So tell me, how does your muse take form?

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

Now that I've lived like a rock star for five days, it's time to clean up, pack up, and get back home.  I've got a lot on my plate the next few weeks and I'm not sure where to start.  I know a trip to either the consignment store or Goodwill is in order as I've come to the realization that my closet is way too full of clothes I haven't worn in way too long.  I'm also going to make Thing One and Thing Two go through their things.

My muse as of late has been working overtime and I cannot get her to slow down. So now I've got two ms's I'm actively working on, and still probably need to do another round of edits on Cheesy before sending it to my agent toward the end of summer.  Have I mentioned that I hate edits?  I try to fool myself into thinking it's fun, but in reality, it's not.  If someone likes edits please tell me why.  Sway me into liking them.

I'm also house hunting.  I've found the perfect place, but unfortunately, it's a short sale, which my realtor tells me is a pain in the butt.  Figures.  I fell in love with it and of course now nothing will live up to it in my eyes.  It's big, it's colorful, it's full of light.  It's perfect for me.

Other than that, I'll need to lose the 20 pounds I gained this weekend, get myself a pedicure, and patiently await my advance check which should be coming within the next few weeks.  Woot!

Have a great Tuesday all.

Ciao,

Megan