Muse-Undisclosed Desires

Adam Lambert-Whadya (?) Want From Me

The Script-Breakeven

Pink-Sober

Adam Lambert-For Your Entertainment

One Republic-All The Right Moves

Linkin Park-Not Alone

Lady Gaga-Bad Romance

Finger Eleven-Paralyzer

Creed-Rain

Chad Kroeger-Hero (From the Spiderman Soundtrack)

Jay Sean feat. Lil' Wayne-Down

The Wallflowers-One Headlight

Owl City-Fireflies

Mathew West-Motions

Some of these songs are older, but they're still good. If you see something you like, go for it. Anything to get your writing groove on right? Have a safe weekend everyone!

Basically, I need to organize my life. Talk about scary.

When I started writing, I didn't have an active social life. I didn't go out with friends much and I had hours of free time to just do my writing. But things change, sometimes when we aren't looking for it. Now, I have a lot of people who depend on me and love to see me. That's hard to manage when you're wanting to sit at your computer and type out the scene that's plaguing your dreams.

So I'm accepting fate. I'm going to get a bigger dayplanner and schedule my time in more rigid increments. I have always been of the belief that rigid scheduling is the antithesis of creativity. But as I've been doing the Artist's Way with NP (love you NP!), I'm learning that sometimes the things you believe about yourself as an artist (or a writer in my case) aren't necessarily true. These beliefs can stifle your creative flow and actually block you up. I've been blocked up because I can't find the time to get my flow back.

I think it's a step in maturing myself as a writer since I'm moving in this direction. I'm scared and wondering if I'll be able to stick to this kind of thing when my life calms down, but I think I'll be able to handle it. And I think my writing time will be more productive for it.

Now the question is how far am I going to take this? Do I go nuts with the highlighters or do I just stick to the pen and paper and trust it? Hmmm...

So how do you get your brain up and running? How do you start writing when you just want to watch TV, go back to bed, walk your dog, etc.?

It's called a writing exercise.

This is different for everyone. Since I'm doing the Artist's Way with my good friend NP, I've been doing morning pages. I'm stream of consciousness writing in the morning until I've accumulated 3 pages. This morning I did this exercise on my computer instead of long hand because of the Ulnar nerve problem I suffer from. Since I can't hold a pen for very long, I'm typing my pages now. I found it works better for me since I can't get distracted by the pain and numbness in my hands.

Another writing exercise I do actually has no writing involved. I play Spider Solitaire while listening to my writing playlist and I let my right brain go. I chose Spider Solitaire because I can stop thinking about the game and let my mind go while playing it. That might not work for everyone. But it's like hooking up jumper cables to my brain and turning the car on. Suddenly I'm sitting in the scene with my characters and I'm off and running.

Whatever works for you, don't think that you have to just start writing as soon as you get up in the morning. Don't be afraid to find something you do that helps you get in the mood to write. Just as long as you write...who cares what you did to get to that point?

Wait a second. If I'm a writer, then writing the actual story should be easy right? Well, yes and no. But I'm not talking about writing one story in one book and leaving it at that. I'm talking about creating your own universe and remembering the rules you set into motion within that world.

The only way to make this understandable is to give away some of my own plot.

In my world, there are two different kinds of vampires. You can be a vampire if you're born that way and you can be sired into the world. I have to remember that siring a vampire is against the law. I have to remember that siring a vampire is tricky and not every vampire can do it. But the hardest part of my mythology to remember involved the werewolves.

See, in my universe, a werewolf can only be male. There may be an exception to that later on in the story, but for right now it's not possible. A werewolf can beget other werewolves if his wife has the werewolf gene in her bloodline (Ex. Her father was a werewolf or her grandfather was a werewolf or her mother carried the gene). Werewolves can change into wolves at any time and use the power of the wolf whenever they need it. But in the light of the full moon, they unwillingly turn into a half man, half wolf creature. They eat regular food and live in 'packs' together to protect their secret and their bloodlines.

It's hard to remember all those things when you go from one book to another. Then I get into the different kinds of shape shifters and it gets even more complicated. Plus the vampiric special abilities that make it possible for a vampire to walk in the daylight or turn into animals or whatever the case may be.

The only way I manage all of these things is to keep a notebook with every single rule laid out. And I have a continuity expert who keeps me on track. But I always remember one important thing when this gets difficult to do. If I mess up on my story just one time, the reader's illusion will be ruined. It's worth all the effort to make sure that the reader enjoys the story.