On Inspiration and How To Use It

Over at the Retreat, I wrote a post in praise of Sabaton's cover of Manowar's "Kingdom Come". I said I would follow up here.

Here we are.

For my part, listening to that song gave me the idea to structure the series I have in my head. The serial here, and Taking, are early episodes to set up the big action and give the master villain his establishment via the deeds of subordinates. In short, a big plot needs big build-up, and that's best done by making it the subplot in a series of adventures meant to tie events together.

Well, one thing leads to another.

Which leads to something more concrete. While Crisis is me shaking things down prior to the big production, so I'm not that worried about making mistakes, Taking is where I'm going in with a clear plan. Thanks to that Sabaton cover, I've gotten that plan, and it began coming together when I listened to the soundtrack to one of my favorite movies.

Because when you hear that you feel goddamn invincible, fires of passion fueling your fighting spirit and driving you to go rescue the damsel and put right what's gone wrong. For the sort of story Taking is about, you need to find whatever means you can garner to bring that mood into your brain when writing the keen points so that you use the right words in the right way to get the desired effect across to the reader. That is the lawful function of inspiration It's not called a "Muse" for nothing.

Speaking of which, this entire soundtrack is also key for me to hit the right tone:

The point to inspiration is not just to have breakthrough moments on dealing with the work of narrative construction, but also to give you a direction to follow when it's time to put in the perspiration required to actually get the job done. That direction then tells you what to prepare to do, and how to go about doing it; it fills in the context between "Idea!" and "Complete Manuscript!" that so many writers require- and the Usual Suspects routinely failed to deliver, playing their part in the creation of the Pink Slime Problem killing Tradpub.