Inspiration and... Cemeteries?

Sorry for the lateness of the post, guys. This last week and weekend was utterly killer.

(As an aside, my response to Sarah's post on Tuesday... I'm such a pantser it's not even funny. Even when I try to plot, I'm a miserable failure. This last WIP I wrote out the entire plot from beginning to end on stickies, worked on it for ages, but already I've deveated from it. Tragic, right? So many sticky-lives, lost.)

I thought I would talk a little about inspiration today, and what inspires any number of things in writing. When I first started getting into actual novel writing (as opposed to short pieces of work that were never finished, along with fan-fiction) I heard a lot of more seasoned writers talking about how they would often use real-life experiences and weave them into their work. At the time, I thought, "I could never do that. It would be too weird."

But the more I write, the more I notice little signs of my real life woven between the lines. Places are especially important in my current WIP, which is set in a fictional version of my city and has some fantastic and interesting locations. (Like the underground tunnels in Old Sacramento where the original city was built.)

Now and again, it will be one of these places or a line that someone says that inspires a scene, no matter how small and insignificant. This last weekend, I went to the Old City Cemetery here in Sacramento and it, too, inspired me to set a scene there. (I also learned there are possibly hundreds of bodies buried under Broadway Street just outside the cemetery. Random fact. You're welcome.)


To switch gears a little... easily my biggest inspiration, though, is music.

I have a hard time writing if something isn't playing that matches the mood. It's why I keep a running playlist for all my works, so I can put the right music on and immediately get myself in the groove for any particular scene or character.

(Someday, I hope all these fancy e-readers have some kind of interactive tool where authors can assign songs to certain parts of the book if the reader wants to listen while they read. WOULDN'T THAT BE COOL? ... I thought so, anyway.)


For anyone wanting some awesome mood music without real vocals, I would check out the band E.S. Posthumus. You might recognize some of their work from a lot of movie trailers, like the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean series. Some amazing music.


What inspires you? Music, people, places? Do you people-watch and listen in for authentic dialogue? Do you like visiting new places in hopes of finding your next story or scene setting?