Today’s post is the first guest blog I’m featuring and I’m honored to have Alex Dove as my first guest blogger! To learn about becoming a guest blogger and to learn more about Alex, scroll down to the bottom!
“What is the one thing that inspires your writing?”
This is a great question isn’t it?
We will get back to it in a bit. First, let’s talk about those times you have tried to put together a piece, but the words you look for are … to say the least, AWOL. I have been there too.
In the middle of writing my book, Dusk, I got so distracted by what to say that I often lost track of how to say it. That happens to other people, right? It’s not just me? Well then, you should know that it’s a thing that happens to people.
Many other people like myself (yes, I go through it a lot) go through what we call writer’s block, which is that awkward moment when you really know what you want to say but the words don’t want to work with you, so you just generally sit there, staring at the open page wishing really hard that the words come back.
The WORST one of all is when you really can’t find the motivation to do the work, you know that you have to write because, honestly, if poems could write themselves, what would they need us for? But motivation just doesn’t want to be a part of that drama club. I call that the Lazy Lingering Writer’s Syndrome (it sounds really cool).
Sometimes, we go through all of this before we can claim to be even remotely close to starting a project, most times it happens when the project is supposed to be done but clearly the brain is not agreeing to any of that. It’s quite sad when you think about it, it is an amazing set of circumstances. I always say, “it’s funny how many things can go wrong when you need them RIGHT.”
I once, defeated, (around the time I remorsefully picked up the laptop I had thrown to the floor because it wouldn’t type in that ‘Chris was a jerk’ in a really fancy way that would make him the jerkiest jerk to ever walk the earth) sat down and plugged in my earphones. I had just started listening to Alice Phoebe Lou (absolutely amazing artist). She has ways with words and she unlocked a part of me that I never knew existed. I got so inspired (maybe too inspired) that I listened to many other artists like Zara Larson and Justin Bieber and others and I included some of their songs in the book. My favorite was “RUIN MY LIFE” and they spoke a lot to the characters’ feelings and the mood of the scene.
Which brings us to why I chose music…
Well, music has done way more than write some of my emotions for me, it has inspired my writing and has actually brought back my confidence in the craft (corny, right?). The truth is, without music, I either too distracted or not distracted enough. Sometimes when music plays in the background of my writing, I find myself so distracted by the lyrics that I end up feeling the song on a character’s level, like when I wrote a sad scene and I couldn’t think of words that I could use because my mind just hadn’t been in the right space at the time. I had been distantly listening to a song by Zara Larson (I know, I know… I am obsessed) and I started crying for no reason, I felt my heart hurt and I knew that I had to put it on paper, so I did. It came out amazing (if I do say so, myself).
I think music is the best thing to happen to my writing. I don’t know how, but I find myself finding it much more enjoyable to write and I am absolutely happy with the book. I know you will love it too.
What are some of your favorite songs or playlists to write to? Share them in the comments below!
Interested in becoming a guest blogger? Fill out this form and I’ll get back to you about scheduling and topics!
Today’s guest blogger: Alex Dove
Find Alex on Instagram @alexdove_writes
Leslie Arambula 