While driving my daughter to school this morning, I listened to Whitney Houston's "I Look to You" on the radio, and thought...This song is my novel's theme. As I told you last week I am writing a new novel with hopes to have the first dirty draft completed by Labor Day and the full clean version as my Christmas gift to myself. I plotted this story years ago, and have pitched and played around with different plot points, and main characters, and even genre-switching util three weeks ago I finally met the main character of my novel. I don't know about you, but I can't write a book until I meet the character and he or she has to haunt me somehow. So three weeks ago, while dealing with my own personal crises(plural), Marisa(my main character) appeared in my mind. She was not at a cross roads by choice. You know what I mean? She's placed in this position of distress. She doesn't know who she is anymore or that all that she has done with her adult life so far has been in vain...I saw Marisa standing on a podium in front of a press corp unsure of herself and angry about her life. I saw her. One of my author buddies, Olympia Vernon often talked about her authors taking over her life and not letting her go until she wrote her story. Marisa is doing that to me. When I heard Whitney Houston's new song--again-- Marisa cried. THIS IS HER SONG!! I almost stopped the car mid school car pool dropoff lane. LOL. As I begin to write a new day in Marisa's life, while playing this song for inspiration of course, I wonder what tools inspire you to know your novel character better? Is it pictures, music, smells, the people in your life... What helps you bring your character's story to life for you?
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