Immerse Yourself in Inspiration

I am getting more excited as each day passes because I recently completed the latest draft of my contemporary YA novel, and after several years of fits and starts, I feel like I finally may have found my main character's voice. If you're a writer, you know that hearing someone talk about "voice" can make you want to rip your hair out. It's difficult to describe what a great voice in literature would sound like--you just sort of know it when you read it (or hear it).

While writing this latest draft of my book I immersed myself in images and music to help create my story. I have a board on Pinterest that I use when I want to visualize what a character or place might look like. Here's an example of what I have on that board. I also created a playlist in my iTunes Library that I turned on every time I sat down to work on the story.

Renee's Writing Playlist:
The Story by Brandi Carlile
Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson
Comes and Goes (In Waves) by Greg Laswell
Losing My Religion by R.E.M.
Satellite Call by Sara Bareilles
Baker Baker by Tori Amos
Goodbye by Patty Griffin
Pendulum by Pearl Jam
Fear by OneRepublic
Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead

How do you create a writing environment that helps you set the mood for your fiction? Is there specific music you listen to or a certain place you have to go to write?

It's Been a Zoo Around Here!

A photo from our recent trip to the North Carolina Zoo, which I wrote about for an article about North Carolina day trips.

Wow! It's been a crazy past month. I apologize for being scarce around here. But here is a peek at a few things I've been working on:

I've been playing around with ways writers can use Pinterest to promote their work and aid in the creative process. You can read more about that here.

I helped author Jennifer Richardson launch her memoir Americashire: A Field Guide to Marriage through a WOW! Women on Writing blog tour and am working on organizing a new tour for another author as we speak. Learn more about Jennifer's book at her website.

I turned in two new articles for Lake Norman CURRENTS and am getting ready to begin work on an assignment for July.

We have frantically been working to put out the latest issue of Little Ones magazine, the bi-monthly parenting publication in Charlotte I help write content for and edit.

I'm taking an online children's writing class and diligently revising my YA work-in-progress. Fun and tough!

My family has been traveling a lot, mostly for conference and writing assignment purposes. It's always fun to mix business with pleasure, but I'm looking forward to some lazy June weekends really soon.

What have you all been up to?