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Sometimes a scene or a melody, a lyric or a bit of conversation is all that is needed to spark the imagination.  Other times it is just simple curiosity asking questions.  And still other times, it is rest and relaxation that renew the ability to create.  This week, I took some time to refresh my imagination.

Timjanisreocrds. “Peaceful Music, Relaxing Music, Instrumental Music “Beautiful World” by Tim Janis.” YouTube. YouTube, 16 Feb. 2017. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.

An exercise I like to do when I come across a lovely piece of music with such gorgeous pictures to accompany it (like the video above), is to add people to the scene.  Is there a delivery boy running down that street with a knapsack on his back, late and fearful of punishment? Is there a girl similar to Miss Morland sitting in the shade of that tree as the house and windmill stand watch in the distance? Is there a child with a basket gathering flowers in the forest? Who waits inside that cottage with the lantern lit and for whom are they waiting? What stories do you see in the pictures and hear in the music as it swells and soften? 

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I freely admit that I struggle with taking time to refresh. I see goals and tasks laid out before me, and I tend to push my wants and desires down beneath the feelings of responsibility.  This enables me to get a good deal of work accomplished even when I do not feel like working, but it also makes it difficult for me to take the time necessary to step back and breath before plunging into the next item on that never-ending to-do list.

However, there comes a time when the mind begins to get weary and the benefit of taking some time to refresh is greater than the need to push on and complete a project (or begin a new one).  I hit that wall at the end of last week.  I have just recently published a book and completed a new manuscript for a short novella.  My brain was tired.  It needed to rest.  I fought the need for a couple of days (I’m no quitter, you see 😉 ), but eventually, I could no longer deny the need to just relax.

What did I do while relaxing?  I watched some tv. I read a book.  I listened to some podcasts and to Sense and Sensibility on audiobook. And as my few days of forced r&r drew to an end, I allowed myself to write a couple of short things — nothing associated with any current projects.   [One of those short things, Love is Patient, has been added to my short stories collection which you can find at this link.]

It was refreshing!  I am certain I could have used a few more days of rest, but those deadlines on the calendar could only be ignored for so long. I have begun work once again on the manuscript that I recently finished.  It needs a second going over before I send it to my first reader to get her feedback on the story’s plot.  I have also continued with my re-read of Listen to Your Heart in preparation for that second anthology of books that I want to make.  I have not started any new projects — or at least, I don’t think I have.  You see, one of the things I wrote this week was an idea I had about a year ago for an alternate scene in Mansfield Park.  As I finished writing that scene, I realized that it might not be just a scene. It might be the beginning of a longer story. How long? I am not certain.  I am not even certain that I feel fit to tackle it at present — I think it needs a bit longer to rattle around in my brain, to grow and shift and expand in form if it thinks it is going to be made into a longer work.

So, that leaves me with the question of what to share today.  First,  there is the link above to a short story for your reading enjoyment. And then there is this. The first chapter of Discovering Mr. Darcy as it currently looks after a second pass through.   Continue reading Music Monday: Beautiful World, Tim Janis