Goodreads asked Mark Philip Alger:

How do you get inspired to write?

Mark Philip Alger I don't really need to "get inspired." I more often have to deal with the frustration of having inspiration bop me on the forehead while I'm in line at the grocery, sitting in traffic at a stoplight, in the shower, working on something intense at my day job, or the like, and have no time or attention to pay to the muse screaming in my ear. THAT can get to be maddenly frustrating.

If I want to set a mood to write a particular scene, I usually use music -- mostly a single tune or song set on repeat. For example, at the climax of my novel, _Geppetto's_Log_, I listened over and over to David Lance's "The Setting of Two Suns" from the Firedance Suite album. For a funeral scene in _A_Doll's_Odyssey_, I listened over and over to Sara McLachlan's "Full of Grace" until it choked me up and brought tears. But mostly, I use music for background noise. For example, a good one is "Custard Pie" from Led Zeppelin's _Physical_Graffiti_. It's a loud rocker, with lots of fuzz and driving power chords on guitar. Easy to convert to white noise in your mind and block out all the distractions.

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