MP3 MADNESS in Adventures From Prison

I have discovered, over the course of the last month, just how influential music has become to my art. Without music my writing is just crap. I accidentally killed my MP3 player about five weeks ago – washing machine and electronics just don’t play well together – and since that day my writing output has dropped at least 50%. I just can’t find the same groove without filling my ears with sound. I guess that is a serious handicap, but then again so was the need to stand in sour milk while painting. (FYI – that’s a Salvador Dali factoid). I guess that’s why people look at artists like we’re not quite right in the head. We will bend to our limitations, no matter what they are, to create new things. I’m just lucky I don’t find my inspiration in anything as dangerous as a bottle or a needle, like many of literature’s greatest men and women. So being handicapped was not fun. The need to create gnaws at me with the same intensity as the need for good sex gnaws at a nymphomaniac. One way or another it is going to happen, no matter the cost. For me that cost was hours of listening to the soundtracks of Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the theme to Superman, and a good heaping handful of Christian rock. Let me tell you, it is extremely hard to envision a character being the victim of a satanic ritual while listening to the praises of Jesus. I know there is a certain irony there, but that doesn’t help. Being a horror writer is hard enough without having to wonder if you’re accidentally being blasphemous. (And yes I do worry about going too far with my stories). Eventually, I had to return the borrowed player to my Hobbit and tell him it just wasn’t working. I think I hurt his feelings a little when I told him his music was too nice for my needs. Poor guy is just so naïve. Tonight, finally I was able to get a replacement MP3 player and reloaded my music!! So now the sounds of Halestorm, Pretty Reckless, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Mason, and My Darkest Day are pounding evilly in my ears and the ideas are once again flowing from my pen like arterial blood spray. (And yes that is a very good thing!) I’m used to writing 10 to 15 pages a week, and not being able to do that left me feeling…well useless. My future lies in ink and paper, and without constant practice I feel like I’m doing myself a great disservice. Obsessive, yes, but I like to think of it more as driven. I took a huge step just before the murder of my music; I actually submitted two of my short stories for publication to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine. I don’t know if they’ll be selected, but I think they have a shot. I’ve never put my work out there and I hope it is just the beginning. I know to expect about ten times more rejections than acceptances, but I think it’s time to get some of my luck back. The editing of my first novel will start sometime this summer, I hope, which fills me with dread. I hate editing! I know it’s necessary – and in the case of my 1000 page plus novel, crucial – it just hurts, a lot. My second book, the aforementioned horror novel, is way easier to write than that earlier behemoth, so I want it done before trudging back into the world of my first novel. My greatest fear is the editing process will be too onerous to continue my writing and I definitely don’t want to risk my ideas stagnating. That’s exactly what’s happened to me in the past, so if any other writers out there can offer advice on keeping that at a minimum I’d love to hear it! Ideally, I’d love to be able to simultaneously work on an editing and writing project. Then again, since editing is not my forte, perhaps I’m just not wired well enough to do that. At least now I have my music again to guide my pen, whatever the case.