For J. Mark Scearce, everything starts with a pocket-size notebook. He jots in a softcover journal filled with five-line staff, sketching the music that is inside his head.

Then he waits. Weeks, sometimes months, just "keep phrasing a question."

And one day, when he knows he is ready, he calls in to his job and asks for a few vacation days.

"I work quickly; I wrote the last symphony in three days," says Scearce, the director of the music department at N.C. State University. "When inspiration strikes, it means that the idea you had is pronounced worthy."

The Raleigh composer says he is in "learned trance" when he writes. He says his musical education makes the process move faster, but the fire -- the things that make the music succeed or fail -- is completely external.

"You are trying to tap into something that is larger than yourself," he says.

And no need to articulate how inspiration arrives.

"It is a mystery, and if we demystify the process in order to understand the art, we are losing the best part of ourselves," he says.

Scearce, 47, has a big season ahead. The Raleigh Chamber Music Guild (Oct. 26), Carolina Ballet with the Ciompi Quartet (Feb. 26-March 1), N.C. Symphony (April 2-4) and N.C. Master Chorale (April 11) will perform his work.

He hopes the performances will encourage audiences to listen to music made in the community. It will be part of Raleigh's growth, he says.