Week 27 - Wet Sounds

One morning this week I made my regular sojourn through a city still largely in the arms of Morpheus, on my way to Starbucks.

It was cold, it was raining and my motivation was not at an all time high. As I opened the door to the coffee shop, a particularly well aimed drop of rain ran down my back. Things were not going well.

Then I heard the Beach Boys.

Now the music normally played in Starbucks is nothing if not appropriate to the season. Christmas means crooners, Sundays see smooth jazz gently caressing your ears and most mornings classic seventies’ rock with a bit of singer songwriter thrown into the mix is deemed the perfect accompaniment to your coffee and cake.

But the Beach Boys...in March?

Now lest I get the staff into trouble with the Starbucks bean counters (I couldn’t resist that pun, sorry), I will not give clues to which store I was in. I am sure that going off the official corporate playlist could well end up with the Barista in front of a Barrister for flagrant abuse of the AMC (apposite music clause).

I was so surprised to be musically asked to go surfin’ at 7.30am in a landlocked city that I made mention of the fact to the lady behind the counter.

“The weather’s so depressing,” she said, “I thought what the hell! We need cheering up.”

And that was just what she did.

It’s not that I am a massive fan of the band, in fact I seldom hear whatever music is playing once I begin to work, but what cheered me up was that one little rebellion in a world all too happy to spend its days on auto pilot.

It also got me thinking that sticking too rigidly to a plan, when the conditions seem far from appropriate, may not always be the best idea.

So this week, I have put my own plan on hold for a few days and spent the mornings organising the mountain of notes that I have amassed over the past six months.

They are “stored” in a Moleskin wallet that looks like a mini version of one of those concertina files. The problem is that they are written on a wide variety of items. Among the expected post-it notes and box file cards, I counted five till receipts, ten car park stickers (still considerably stickier that the post-it notes), two passport photos and a folded up flyer for “A Night in Bed” (don’t ask).

I was partly inspired by Kate Mosse’s Tip 27 that I had read the previous night: http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/27.asp but most of all I was inspired by tales of California Girls and Hot Rods (what or whoever that is).

I am now back on track and about to start my second draft; but I feel a whole lot better for the small change in routine. I have also got rid of a job I have been putting off for months and best of all, I have found a great plot idea that judging from the handwriting, must have been jotted down when I was researching one of my character’s liking for malt whisky.

All this due to someone who decided to rage against the coffee machine and go surfin’ in March.