There is nothing quite like manual labor to spur a writing epiphany.

Usually hand-washing dishes is my go-to method for getting through any sort of creative block.  Over the years I’ve solved plot holes, genetics experiment design flaws, and complex data review workflows while scrubbing glassware and pots, my hands emersed in hot, soapy water.  Tonight’s, came via laundry, though, and took me completely by surprise.

I was listening to the playlist for my WIP, the second book in my contemporary romance series (which shall heretofore be Book 2) and folding one of the many, many post-holiday travel loads.  I thought I’d take advantage of a quiet moment to try and get ye olde creative subconscious percolating in anticipation of doing some post-bedtime writing. (As you can see from this blog, I am not a visual person. But playlists are a big part of my process.)  Book 2 has been slow going for a variety of reasons, but it has picked up in the last few weeks as I’ve both quit querying Book 1 and slowly made my peace with  not querying  Book 1 anymore.  (If I stick with this blog thing, no guarantee there, there will definitely be an eleventy-million word post on all of that at some point down the line.)

Since I do like a consistent theme, Book 2’s playlist has also been slow-going.  I’ve been struggling to find songs that capture the characters or the vibe and, at the moment, it’s quite short.  Spotify likes to antagonize me by adding songs to playlists on the mobile app if it deems the list “too short.” After flying into a rage one too many times on my walk to get the kid from school because I was suddenly assaulted by a song or a band I loathed, I threw a handful of songs from Book 1’s playlist on to meet the minimum so that I might know peace. (Side Bar: Spotify. Babe.  If I have specifically curated a list of songs, why in God’s name would I want your suggestions?  In what universe does that make sense? Also, your suggestions are so bad as to be insulting.)

The track that has become Book 2’s theme song had just finished when Cyril Hahn’s Open started up.  Open is one of the Book 1 placeholder songs. It’s lovely, down-tempo, almost ethereal electronic track with essentially only 7 lyrics: “Should I leave my heart wide open?” Open was a major track for Book 1.  I listened to it a LOT to get in the right headspace for that story.  Since there’s so little to it, I thought it would be an innocuous addition to the Book 2 playlist, but it has always felt jarringly discordant in the context of Book 2.  Tonight, it felt desperately out of place. And suddenly, while folding t-shirts and hanging school uniforms, I knew exactly why. 

One of the issues that tied the main characters in Book 1 was that they both fundamentally feared being vulnerable; showing their whole selves to other people.  Each of them had to work through some variant of that fear to get to their HEA.  “Should I leave my heart wide open?” was a weighty and frightening question for both of them, especially the FMC. 

Vulnerability is not a problem for the idiots in Book 2.  Their first real conversation involves them sharing their worst secrets.  I think they learn the thing the other is agonizing over but has never shared with another soul before they learn each other’s names.  “Tell me another dark secret,” is a reoccurring theme and a game they play throughout the story.  “Should I leave my heart wide open?” is not a difficult question for them.  They’d both pretty much be like, “Sure, why not? The other MC already knows the worst of it.”  The fundamental issue that unites these two isn’t that they are afraid to trust other people; it’s that they are afraid to trust themselves.  The FMC has had her confidence in her own judgement and perceptions shaken by a bad relationship.  The MMC is afraid to examine how dissatisfied he is with the path he’s been on his entire life because he doesn’t think he has it in him to forge a new one.  That’s why this song fails so badly for the new Book.

And just like that, half-way through the basket of warm laundry, a major theme and driver of both character’s actions for Book 2, and a major theme from completed Book 1 suddenly crystalized like purified water flash-frozen in a polar vortex.  When I wasn’t even thinking about it. Creativity so weird.  Also, do your laundry I guess?