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I know I’ve written here about the fact that I choose specific music per book. Thursday proved how invaluable the habit can be for me. I was only going to organize a few notes for Merry 5, but to do it I turned on the musical I’d been listening to for the last Merry book, A STROKE OF MIDNIGHT. The musical was Jekyll and Hyde. I didn’t really want to work. I wasn’t in the mood to work, but as soon as the singing/talking introduction finished I was suddenly thrown back into the world, the character’s, all of it. My subconscious associates this music with this story, apparently, because I began to remember some of the scenes I’d cut to save for this book. I began to remember the new characters that had only barely been on stage last time and the plans I had for them. Plot points; mythology; so much came back, as if the music was some kind of magic key. I had spent weeks listening to this music while I wrote MIDNIGHT, until I was so tired of the music I couldn’t bear to listen to it. Then I put it away and didn’t listen to it again until today. Part of it is the right music for the right character, or world, truly brings it alive for me. But also, it’s that I had conditioned myself that when this music plays, this book and world is being written. I’d almost convinced myself that I could fudge on music between Anita and Merry and carry over between the two, but this incident proved that that might be hazardous. I have empirical evidence now on how my creative process uses music.
I also now have over a hundred pages of recovered material. One large section and several smaller scenes that furthered the plot last time, but would have forced me to leave some really big plot threads hanging and almost cliff hanging storylines. Not fair to the readers and not a complete enough book for my tastes.
So, over a hundred pages in hand and this is still the musical for Merry.