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Writer's pictureAzura Fontane

It starts with music

Music is the first step to my writing process.

I hear a song that inspires me, and I listen to it enough times that if I wasn’t using earbuds, or doing it while alone in my car, other people would be begging me to please, please, please play something else. Then I find more songs which speak to me in the same way, and start building a playlist.


In my mind, these are not just songs, though. They have become so much more. They are epic scenes, music videos, character studies, narrative maps, and emotional landscapes. I listen to my tunes until the hint of an idea fully evolves into a complete concept, and that is when the next phase begins.


Writing in chaotic anachronistic wild bursts.


Whenever the inspiration builds to the point of boiling over, my fingers start to move. I usually write on my phone, because my creative juices must flow. It matters not where I am, or what I am doing: the need to release the idea builds, and next thing I know, I am text typing a few words at a time while making dinner, or sneaking off at work during a quiet moment to jot a couple sentences down. I might be pausing mid-walk, while the dogs look at me impatiently, or grabbing my phone in the middle of the night, because I won’t be able to sleep until I’ve freed the thoughts rattling in my head.


It is during this phase that I feel out what the story wants to be, and develop my characters the most. I do a lot of writing that won’t make the Final Cut, but every word is vital. It is while doing this that I do the most world building. Blurbing is how I figure out my characters, and it is during this phase that I learn what I am writing about. Eventually, the ideas I write want to be stitched together, though, and that takes me to phase three.


Now I need to get my brain involved. I take the beautiful disaster of scenes I’ve made and sew them into an outline, rough at first, because I know things will change as I actually start writing. Then armed with a rudimentary road map, I begin drafting from start to finish. As I come to scenes I already wrote, I do light edits, full rewrites, or, if the scene doesn’t add to the story, I lovingly bundle it up, archive it for later, and move on.


After the first draft, come the usual phases. Edit. Draw illustrations. Find test readers. Format.


By this point, I am already listening to new songs, and gearing up for the next round. Like a sculptor, I hunt for fresh clay (music) ready to be shaped, crudely at first, and then more carefully with each pass, until I have a finished piece I can be proud of.


It is by doing this that I was able to finish my first fully edited novel, and it is by doing this that I am well into drafting my next. It took me a long time to find an approach that works for me, but when I reflect back, I realize there is one thing that has always been the same.


The music.


It always started with music.



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