Blog Post #3 - Creativity is a Ninja

You never know when the solutions will come, so be open and be ready.

As a music fan, it's been a week of keen despair.  Queensryche, the prog-metal masters who recently celebrated their 30^th year together, announced that they would continue on without lead singer Geoff Tate. Holy crap. Much like people who were alive during the Kennedy assassination and the attack on the towers of the World Trade Center, I'll never forget where I was when I heard the news.  My son and I were driving back from the bowling alley when a DJ blurted a cryptic comment about the band having a new singer. No, I must have heard wrong. Geoff Tate is one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time, surely his band mates wouldn't kick him out.  

I drove home in a numb haze of denial, assuring myself that this disaster couldn't possibly be true. Queensryche's music has always been there for me, helping me through the myriad highs and lows that life has thrown at me. In essence, they've provided the soundtrack to my life.

Alas, I Googled and found the truth. The band will never be the same. For good or ill, all members are moving forward into an unknown future and I wish them all well. 

As a writer, though, it's been an amazing week. I've been trying to figure things out, flesh out the details for the overall story arc of my Knights Elementalis series. I wrote the first book on a basic premise, but now I need more…more details, more design, just more. I've come up with a lot of groovy ideas, but none that spiked my thermometer into the red until…

After the Queensryche bombshell, I sat on the couch. Numb, not ready to accept the truth, I stared mindlessly at the TV. The kids from one of those inane Nickelodeon shows pranced around on the screen. With a tween daughter I learned to tune those shows out a long time ago, but in the chirpy, happy background noise that it provided…

Blammo. I got it. I know what happens. The final scene of book four came to me as clear as if I were watching the movie adaptation.  One by one, the info for the blanks I needed to fill came to me. Revelation.

Creativity is a ninja, sneaks up and attacks at improbable moments. I've been attacked in the shower, on the throne, driving, shooting hoops with the kids.  And now, while looking the other way at the Queensryche deal, I took a shuriken to the temple, which unlocked the secrets I've been looking for.

Rock on, Ninja, rock on.

Have fun,

Scott
Against the Shadow, burns a noble light.