The Benefits of Remodeling

I've discovered the sure-fire way to kick the Muse into high gear. Make sure you have something to keep you so busy there is no time at all to write.

We are remodeling one of our bathrooms, and some visitors expected at the end of the month have given us a tight deadline. So yesterday I spent the majority of the day covered in wall-paper stripping chemicals, goopy crud scraped off the walls and three inches of sanding dust. During all of this monotonous work, I had the radio playing in the background and loads of time to let my mind wander (stripping wallpaper requires tons of elbow-grease but zero brain power).

In that time, I fleshed out a new, unexpected character for a current story, worked out her plot, invented not only her future love interest but the character who provides the major source of her immediate issues, and imagined a few rounds of dialogue for good measure.

All of this without a pen at hand or a laptop within easy reach. I'm just hoping and praying that it sticks in my brain solidly enough to come out later. Usually my truly good ideas aren't easily forgotten, so I'm not too awfully worried.

I figure I have a good two weeks worth of work prepping and painting and the like, so I should have a dozen volumes and enough characters to populate a small village by the time the bathroom is finished.

Dang, I think we're going to need a bigger house.