A New Obsession with the Old

I was fourteen when Buffy the Vampire Slayer started on TV.  I wasn't really interested, so I didn't watch it.

But now that I'm older and insane, I discovered that Netflix made the whole series available to watch instantly, so guess what I've been doing? (And if you have an iPhone, download the new Netflix app that lets you watch instantly anywhere :) 

I've barreled through 2.5 seasons of Buffy over the past couple of weeks, and it's making me a bit wacky... my mind is filled with monsters and vamps (and Angel... swoon).  Even when I pump gas or walk in a parking lot, I've got my eye out for, well, whatever.  I feel a really strong desire to learn martial arts now, too.  My Netflix queue is lined up with instructional DVDs.  haha.

There's something about getting wrapped up in a show (or a good book) that inspires me to write.  Do you find that happening to you?  I suppose a near constant immersion in a heightened reality would tend to do that to any creative mind.  

Happy Thursday :)   

Weekend Inspiration

I'm sure many of you subscribe to Writer's Digest, but I wanted to highlight a point of interest from the latest issue--from the article Why Inspiration Matters by Fred White.

This article got me thinking about all the places I find inspiration. Paintings, song lyrics, the music itself, books, overheard conversations [White says "People are walking, talking stories." So true!]. I always keep a small notebook with me so I can jot down what pops into my head. Even if I don't use it, I like to see what came from my brain because of an encounter with something.

"Inspiration turns reading into creative reading."

How true is that statement?! As writers, we can't help but get inspired by the words on a page. As we read, our creative juices get stirred and we itch to tell a story of our own.
How many times have you dog-eared a page so you could come back to it later? I even find myself doing that to my library books so I can write a passage down before I have to return it. I have those little Post-It sticky tabs that I use to mark truly inspiring pages, and I refer to them when I'm writing. If I need to get in a sad mood, I find a section I remember to be particularly heartbreaking or emotional and re-read it. Books like A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks, or Love Story by Erich Segal are heartbreaking in places. If I need to write a kissing scene--well, I have lots of books marked for those. Teehee. Some of my favorite kissy-type scenes can be found in Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick [hello Patch, hello tension], Austenland by Shannon Hale [take-your-breath-away romantic dialogue], and believe it or not, I marked a scene in Eclipse [Twilight #3] by Stephenie Meyer [I know, I know, but it gets your heart pumping].

What books do you turn to to get a boost for your own writing? Is it for the language, the tone, certain actions you struggle to put into words?

Felice venerdi!