I Start With The Soundtrack

Music has always been a huge part of my life. I high school, I was the quintessential choir nerd and my after-school job was at a music store where I also took voice lessons. While I quickly realized that singing would never be more than a hobby, my love of music had already gained quite a stronghold in my life.

So, it was no surprise that it was music that brought me to writing. I was listening to a song while I was driving and it made me think of a scene. When I got home, I started to flesh out the story in my mind and created what I thought would be a kick-ass soundtrack if my story was ever made into a movie. The end result was a playlist that took me where I needed to go whenever I got the chance to sit down and write.

Since I have a wide variety of music in my library (my sister-in-law thinks that I have the music library of someone with multiple personality disorder), my playlists are completely different for each of the projects that I have in the hopper. That comes in handy because I like to jump between pieces. I decide which project to work on, start up my playlist and go to the place in my brain where that story lives.

We all have to start somewhere. I have found that my blank screen or white piece of paper doesn't stay empty for long some good tunes to get things going.