Your Guardian Angel:: Inspiration

I found a mix cd I made from iTunes for a book that I wrote a few years ago. It’s hard to believe that I wrote ‘The Last’ in 2007. The story most definitely needs reworked and tightened–I think I know the characters a bit better than I did then, and there’ s always the grace of experience that allows you to look back at something with a clearer eye.

I was originally inspired by this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDEEzS7OV2k. The song is called ‘Almost Lover’ by A Fine Frenzy. The vocals are haunting, and every time I hear this song, my heart goes out to someone who’s been through this. I particularly like:

I’m trying not to think about you
Can’t you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should’ve known you’d bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you’re gone and I’m haunted
And I bet you are just fine
Did I make it that easy
To walk right in and out of my life?

And then I found the perfect song to characterize the relationship between the main character and her protector: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GuX-F08fwI. This song is called ‘Your Guardian Angel’ and it’s by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (weird name, I know).  The lyrics that fit their relationship best are:

Seasons are changing and waves are crashing
And stars are falling all for us
Days grow longer and nights grow shorter
I can show you, I’ll be the one

I will never let you fall
I’ll stand up with you forever
I’ll be there for you through it all
Even if saving you sends me to Heaven

‘Cause you’re my, you’re my, my
My true love, my whole heart
Please don’t throw that away

I don’t know what just prompted me to listen to the cd. I don’t know why I’m interested, all of a sudden, in refining this story, the relationship between these two characters. Resolving their problems seems to be on my mind. But, until they are resolved, do characters tend to live within the minds of the authors who create them?