Alone in a Ruined House

I discovered a desktop background that inspires me to work on my book whenever I see it. That might not be a bad idea for finding a story's voice in general. Some writers, such as Quentin Tarantino, use music, playing the same song over and over to set the tone of a scene. I do that in short fiction, but I find there's too much going on in a novel. A short story is like a song: singular of purpose, effect. Stephen King says it's like a kiss in the dark. I don't like that quote. The narrative purpose of a short story is one powerful feeling, swift and sharp. And if a short story is a song, a novel is a symphony.

My novel is very much lead by a single character. This picture is Ashby all over:

Many thanks to the photographer. I just nabbed this off Google and now I wish I'd made a note of his/her name to post it here. I tried looking up "Piano with a rose" and suchlike, but only got a bunch of foofie smeg. My apologies.

Every time I look at this I feel all the things that make my story happen, which is everything in Ashby's head. Playing alone in a ruined house hits the symbolic nail, and I'm glad to have it hammered home every time I'm tempted to play a chess game or check my email in the morning (he says while making a blog post while he should be writing). Anyway, back to work!