Some days are just near impossible to start.

Funnily, some days never seem to end. Some moments leave you trapped, even after the fact.

And amongst all of that chaos, while you’re teetering between stopping to smell the daisies and curling inside a fireplace, cleverly hidden behind the nearly decorate Christmas tree, you’re supposed to spare a thought and write.

Sometimes, even if you find the time to write, your mind is in it and your schedule is free, people and things still find a way to get in between you and your keyboardpenpadnotebook-thingy.

I find salvation in music.

Specifically, I find LOUD, sometimes obnoxious music to be most helpful. I find that people feel annoyed by entering the room, and thus leave me to be.

I like rock. I like metal. I like country. And my radio, which won’t turn off no matter what I’ve tried (other than unplugging it – it’s not possessed), is currently on nonstop Christmas tunes.

Sometimes, I have all three going at once.

How can you even understand all that noise?

I’ve been asked that quite a lot, actually. The answer, however, is that I’m not supposed to. The amplitude of madness is a strong barrier between my mind in writing mode and whatever else is going on.

That’s not to say that the occasional song won’t deserve my total attention. Radio stations go on commercial breaks, CDs have those songs that you really would have rather ripped off of the list, even internet or satellite stations have a tendency to replay some songs over and over. That drives me crazy – as if there weren’t enough songs in the world, why must the same song be played just an hour later? Why!!

Above all, sometimes a song will play, a perfect song. One that fits the mood of the current scene or the overall message of a story. Sometimes, a song and I connect, either emotionally or I just have to get up and dance.

Soundtracks have that going for them. Sometimes, making me own soundtrack for a story is beneficial, but stories take twists and turns that even me as the writer didn’t expect. At these times, I find music crucial to get in the mindset.

If I’m writing about an eighty year old man, I’m not going to be listening to Linkin Park or Oasis, I’m going to go at least forty, fifty years back to a time when the man was at his prime, listening to his own radio stations and making memories. An eleven year old girl would likely, to my horror, be listening to Hannah Montana and a few of the other current atrocities to music. Unless, she is a savvy girl, who knows real talent when she hears it, or is some kind of musical prodigy that only listens to Mozart and Bach.

Music connects you to your character, to their feelings and emotions and era, when you can’t pull up a chair and chair a cup of tea.

Currently Listening To: Upside Down ~ Jack Johnson.

Who's to say
What's impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread its wings
There's no stopping curiosity…