My Beast, Harry Potter and 80's music

11/16/2011 10:54:00 PM Giovanna 3 Comments

Today I decided to revisit my blog. Since I am now writing again (my first book is coming out in Winter of 2013), I thought not only would this be a good exercise in putting my thoughts to paper, but would also be a good way to allow all you to get a glimpse of me: the artist chick; who decided it was time to let her inner novelist out. Funny thing is, I don't think I could have taken this journey, to be an author, without having been a somewhat successful artist first. You see, I have always been a writer. Writing was my first source of self expression. Many of the artists I know, grew up with a constant supply of crayons and paints. I grew up with typewriter keys (Really. I did.*) Those that have known me most of my life, found it quite surprising that I grew up to be a professional artist. Not that I didn't draw/paint back in the day, but they were surprised that this secondary outlet for me, became my main source of creative expression. Well, you know what they say, “ when you let sleeping beasts lay, another more ferocious one will appear”. Okay, I just made that up. But I do believe it.

My beast has been laying very dormant in this brain of mine for too long now and has now begun to emerge. As I decided to lay aside my artist self, this beast took over and became a powerful force. Although, I can't say my beast had been completely silent all these years. Recently, the more I began to let my words spill out onto paper, the more my beast rose up and took charge; kicking the arse of my artsy waif muse along the way, sometimes at in opportune moments. Mostly, while I had been working on my book that is under contract. I have continued to do as I have always done over the years, whenever a story idea entered my head. Writing it down and saving it for later. I send myself an email, or write it on a corner of watercolor paper, or even further back, on old high school notebooks written in a language that even the best scholar would never be able to decipher. Now that I have given into my beast, I am having moments that look as if straight from a scene in Harry Potter. The one where he is in a room full of keys that are flying all around him, only my keys are pieces of paper with random plot lines and occasional lyrics from a Modern English song.

By now you are asking “what do beasts, harry potter and 80's music have to do with writing?”. Well, I am not entirely sure really. It is just my process and my way of unpacking what I seem to have put away for so long.

So, this week as I finished up my manuscript, right on time for my publisher, I sat back, relaxed and began to plan how to spend the next few grueling weeks awaiting my 1^st set of rewrites. While my beast sits across from me smiling, with a sheet of paper, and a pile of old albums.