15 posts tagged “nine”
People talk about having playlists while they write or songs that make a soundtrack of a certain book. WS doesn't have a soundtrack. I used a lot of classical music while I wrote WS b/c I like to use period music and when I wrote the early drafts, it's not like I could get evocative 1930s music. I did use some contemporary stuffto write certain scenes, stuff that made a reaction in me that translated to paper. I also listened to a lot of Tori Amos when I wrote the diary bit, which helped give it a different feel than the parts Jake narrates.
"Nine" is being written almost exclusively to "American Idiot." I don't know how that started. Probably b/c it was the CD in the laptop. I'm branching out now and when it's complete, I'll post a "soundtrack."
This evening I was supposed to get my hair done and I didn't get the phone call canceling the appointment (hairdresser had a wreck & is fine but had no transportation). As I walked back out to the car, I thought, "Well what shall I do w/ my free evening?" When I got in the car and the radio came on, the song playing was "Don't Bring Me Down." The Great Mother was giving me an answer to the question I posed inside my head; "Don't Bring Me Down" is the "theme song" of RFM (which I may have mentioned here). BTW: When I told Hawk this story and I got to the song title he said, "So you robbed a convenience store?" Yes: that's how RFM opens. And no I did not.
So just now I thought, "Hey, I could put the RFM 'soundtrack' on my writing blog b/c I've made a rough playlist." Keep in mind I didn't use iTunes or anything while I wrote RFM. I just put CDs on. I then got a little free mp3 player and I put some music on it and I've since added to it. These are most of the songs that helped me create RFM. Music, especially lyric, figures heavily into the symbolic structure of the story.
The ones before the little break actually figure into the story and I listed them here in the order in which they appear. The other songs I think came up alpha by artist. See if you can tell offhand in what what year RFM is set.
Don't Bring Me Down ELO
867-5309/Jenny Tommy Tutone
Bodies Sex Pistols
Baba O'Riley The Who
Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana
April Come She Will (live) Simon & Garfunkel
Enter Sandman Metallica
I'm Too Sexy Right Said Fred
Rockin In The Free World Neil Young
Drain You Nirvana
One U2
Purple Rain Prince
Silent All These Years Tori Amos
God Only Knows The Beach Boys
With Or Without You U2
All Along The Watchtower Jimi Hendrix
The Wind Cat Stevens
How Soon Is Now The Smiths
Been Caught Stealing Jane's Addiction
Atlantic City Bruce Springsteen
London Calling The Clash
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For U2
I Will Follow U2
About A Girl Nirvana
So Lonely The Police
Behind Blue Eyes The Who
The Chain Fleetwood Mac
America (live) Simon & Garfunkel
King Of Pain The Police
Girl Tori Amos
Crucify Tori Amos
Redemption Song Bob Marley
Absolute Beginners The Jam
Nothing Else Matters Metallica
In Bloom Nirvana
Come As You Are Nirvana
Breed Nirvana
Lithium Nirvana
Polly Nirvana
On A Plain Nirvana
Something In The Way Nirvana
Down By The Water PJ Harvey
I'll Stand By You The Pretenders
Brass In Pocket The Pretenders
Losing My Religion R.E.M.
Beat On The Brat The Ramones
You Can't Always Get What You Want The Rolling Stones
I wrote about 2500 words today, a little over 900 on a lark of a First Line story. It doesn't feel much like me but it is this style that I do from time to time. I don't know what it is. It feels tell-y but it's not completely telling.
But 1600, I did on Nine, including finally getting something to happen in this scene I've been putting off. Well, the scene is happening but I'm just not moving forward. Well now I am. I had to break Danny's arm. And I said to Hawk this evening, "I broke someone's arm." Alarmed, he says, "What?" I tapped the computer screen. "Oh," he said.
But now that Danny has a broken arm, he's come up with a way possibly to escape. And I think that was why I was stuck. B/c no matter what was going to happen, there was no end for the scene. B/c he's strapped to a table, surrounded by Eamon's goons (and Eamon), and there was just no escape. So I came up with a way for him to get the building (not just the room) cleared and it does fit in with what I've established. So now it's just him (with a broken arm), Madeline (still restrained) and Eamon (armed). But I have a cunning plan...
As most anyone who reads this would know, I had to drop out of NaNo2008 b/c of my husband's health crisis.I had gotten to about 20k by the 8th so I was well on track to "win." Which is one thing I hate about NaNo -- the "win" aspect. God forbid life happens.
So now that he's home & getting better, I'm back working NaNo style. But one of the luxuries of that is that there's no word count or time deadline and I can take a minute to blog.
Nine is out of control.
Not that that's bad.
Like I said to Hawk, it's gone all Jason Bourne on me. There are conspiracies and groups of people and my MC has gone from a shiftless drunk to a man on the run... but for no reason. He doesn't know anything, he hasn't done anything but the bad guy (his brother) believes he has and apparently that's enough.
Even he doesn't know why he's running except that if his brother catches him, to quote Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters, it would be bad. And he's about to catch him. He keeps making stops though & I think I'm delaying getting him caught, even though it will be delicious to write. And I'm as lost as Danny is in all this mess. Maybe it'll straighten itself out. Maybe not. In any case, it is a great deal of fun.
I'm at 9669 on my NaNo project so far. It's the second part of Nine and it seems to be spiraling almost out of my control. I had one very simple idea for the end. One person who was going to turn out to be someone other than who Dan thought. And now it turns out there are two (yes two) groups of people dressed in black. One of them has Dan and he just found out that they're not Eamon's group b/c this group is looking for Eamon.
Wha? I feel about like Dan feels right now. I'm like, "Wait, what's going on here? How did I get mixed up in this? When did this happen? And what about Naomi? Oh right. She's dead.
Now I'm thinking that what is going to happen is that this group is going to try & set up a sting/trap for Eamon using Dan is bait. Of course it will go horribly, horribly wrong. I'm also thinking that this group are the original vigilante group and that Eamon's is better funded, has more intelligence (a la spy, not IQ) more resources and has eclipsed the other while masquerading as it. I'm thinking that Eamon's group is part 2 of the Conspiracy Plan. Part 1 being that extermination. Part 2 is to cover up and exterminate the lowest level people (the ones who did the dirty work). I'm thinking that in this organization, you'd want to scurry to the top ASAP b/c those on the bottom are 100% expendable.
But why did Eamon kill Anna? And why am I still unhappy with that character's name even though she's dead? I honestly think he killed her just b/c he could. As a warning or a scare for Dan? Maybe. So Dan would blame Chris and do something in retaliation? Maybe. Will it matter for the story? Most likely. Does it matter right now? No.
Of course no one reading this (except me) would have of any idea what this is about but it's a blog about my writing and my thought processes during that and stuff like this is why I keep it separate from my regular digs.
I did about 1k on my NaNo on Saturday and about 3k today. So far today one person (my narrator) has been attacked and another person has been killed. It's a continuation of last year's NaNo so I'm kind of picking up in the middle of the action but still.
On Saturday I wrote a memory scene where he was watching a snake and a cat in the aftermath of a fight. Then today he's been having memories of the aftermath of the man-made Armageddon (gruesome). So between that and the "live" violence, I figured I needed a break and decided to play Flood-it. Last year's distraction was Mah-Johng.
The journal that published "Nine" is ceasing publication. Ah, the fickle world of publishing.
"Nine" is up at Northpoint. Here's the permalink.
I finished putting in the changes to Nine and along the way I lost about 5400 words (current WC around 47k). I made one of the cuts I was hoping to do but I didn't make any huge changes to the general storyline. Now I think I'm going to have to reread w/o working on it if I want to figure out what happens next.
Or of course I can do a harsh edit on RFM but since it's still in the hands of one agent, I think I'll hold off. Plus I'm totally digging the book I'm reading that I didn't write and I want to finish it.
| 8:45 PM |
|
Holy shit is right. I just passed 48k. I'm really having fun writing this part. Does it show? ;)
I want to keep working but I'm taking a break. I need to come with some torture methods but I want them to be specific.
It's so funny the stuff you "need" when you're writing. Earlier today I needed Catholic prayers and now I need torture methods.
I know there's a joke there somewhere.
