Writing Music Playlist Summer 2010
I'm a big fan of writing while listening to music, with the right music it can keep me going, and focused on the job. It was so effective last night I didn't stop writing until 4am, which was nice. Fortunately I'm on a week off, (yes, I know I had one of those this time last month as well, my colleague likes to tell me that I've got "More holidays than Judith Chalmers"), so I'm free to write at all the odd hours. Its quite liberating waking up at 2pm, and writing until 4am - or whatever other time feels right.
So, yes writing with music really does help me. Of course it has to be the right music, it can't be too exciting, or too catchy, and anything below three and a half minutes should be considered carefully - if the songs are changing too much you'll pay more attention to the change. Or I would anyway, but I am easily distrac...
Ooooh Diet Coke, thanks.
Where was I? Oh yes, I'm easily distracted. Back last year, I had planned to do monthly ten song playlists - but I got distracted, I also got writers block, so it never really happened. What I've done this time, now I'm writing again, is to make a longer playlist, and call it a seasonal writing playlist.
I've got quite a mix of music in my summer version, it’s mostly easy listening, rock, and alternative, with a touch of pop - it works well as background music, while still giving pace to help put fire into the writing process.
If you other suggestions for a playlist for writing music, long or short, feel free to add them to the comments.
Since I got Spotify, it allows me to share my playlist with people - so if you want to have a listen to my summer playlist, just click here.
Click more to see the playlist without Spotify
Aha! Found You!
My muses have elected to return to me it seems. I suddenly have the ability to write again, and am doing so with gusto working on a new project. I know, I have lots of unfinished projects I should be working on, but I'm just enjoying writing right now.
So the new project, it’s currently titled Journals of a Space Corsair, and is a sci-fi piece. Inspired by the concept of the Bio of a Space Tyrant novels by Piers Anthony, which I read recently, and once I finished reading those books, I also read Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes, between the two of them, this whole science fiction universe of mine was inspired and created in my mind. What’s more is I've been able to put it into words, something I’ve struggled to do for the past eighteen months.
It’s a nice feeling, not too many words just yet, but just passed the 20,000 mark in two weeks so that’s a comfort.
The way I'm doing this project is blog posts, it’s an auto-biography, so I'm going to write it as a series of confessionals, the man's story in his own words, detailing his good deeds, but mostly his crimes, the lifestyle he led, and the suffering he brought and received. The hardest part is not giving in to my tendency to make the character a flawed good guy, or to have the character swing from bad to good. I'm trying to write something that reflects a man, and not an archetype from a TV series. That isn't to say there isn't an arc, in fact there's a pretty big one, and my aim is the character goes from illegality to legitimacy, and then back to illegality. Times are turbulent, wars rise up and allegiances change.
I do feel the need to acknowledge Piers Anthony, and Michael Crichton, as their books are a massive influence on this story, it was their books that really lit my imagination on fire.
From Michael Crichton I tried to take a sense of how pirates actually operated, and in many ways how the new world worked, the trade routes between the colonial lands, the stopping off points like Jamaica, which I've tried to translate the spirit of into worlds and space stations.
From Piers Anthony, obviously I've tried to take the format, the fictional autobiography of a significant figure in future history, I'm also borrowing some of the technology he mentions in his books, the travelling via a beam of light, over massive distances, which is as reasonable a way to explain interstellar travel as any. Of course it is fraught with its own difficulties in a story that takes place in real time, with politics, wars, and tactics - I can't really afford it taking decades to travel from one planet to the other. Instead, I shall embellish the idea with faster than light energy - so it takes days and weeks to travel between the stars.
I think it is important to acknowledge where a story comes from - it is not my intention to plagiarise these amazing authors, but they have inspired within me a tale which I think is unique and distinct in its own right. Besides when it comes to science fiction, it’s never easy to come up with easy ideas for propulsion, and story telling in general tends to form into archetypes. I think that’s one of the advantages of writing an account of a self confessed bad guy, while not ground breaking or unique, it is a point of view that is carried far less often than that of a hero, heroically battling to save the world.
My intention is to post up a chapter (and if I write it right, it will be more of a self contained short story, which feeds into the overall tale), every fortnight, detailing a significant memory of this space corsair. I won't be launching it right away, as I want to build up four or five chapters ahead, this gives me a nice cushion with which to edit the stories (because while the muse does flow, it tends not to check the grammar for me, nor does it worry about the annoying inconsistencies of writing large pieces of work in small bits). Also, my sister's baby is due next month, I'm on holiday in Prague in August, and I'm off to the British Science Festival in Birmingham this September, so there’s plenty to interrupt my schedule.
Speaking of the British Science Festival, I’m really looking forward to it, it feeds a lot of knowledge in my science fiction, such as the power system for the ships in my story – I learned that from a presentation I went to on fusion energy, I always favoured the methodology employed in the tokamak fusion generators, rather than the method involving lasers, purely because it seems to me that once such devices as ITER are operational and producing massive quantities of energy, we would be able to learn from this and scale the process down to have a device that can sit aboard a starship and produce the kind of energy I need for propulsion, FTL (faster than light) travel, and of course the staple of most space based science fiction, the weapons.
I am genuinely excited to be writing again, and long may it continue. Nanowrimo is in November (it’s always in November, hardly a surprise there), and this year I'm going to ace it. Mark my words.
A Neighbourhood To Call My Own…
Nostalgia is a funny thing - it's always there, and so much seems better than it really was, in memory, but when you actually sit down and examine in it, suddenly it's not so rosy. Like watching that old television show you remember as a kid, it might have seemed fantastic, amazing plots, brilliant characters - but in the light of day it was actually pretty shit. Of course, this is not always the case, and when it is not, it is a wonderful thing.
Right now, I am watching Magnum P.I., which let’s face it, is crass populist television, but at its best. I remember watching this show as a kid, and I've got to admit the Ferrari helped (I loved cars as a kid, mechanics son and all that), but even now it seems quite fun. It has aged better than say Knightrider.
That is not the reason for this post however, I am sure I could fire up a poem - but I ended up watching it after flicking through the channels in the mood for something nostalgic. It all started with an email, from Yahoo, they are closing down Geocities, and it was their umpteenth reminder that I should go and download my website there, or transfer it to their paid for hosting service.
Spider Poem
As promised, however late I am, here is my spider poem - probably not the best thing I have ever written, but I'm just grateful to be writing again. Besides, I kind of like it, I like the bumbling nature of the poem, the over simplified complex structure couple with an end rhyme that has some very stretched rules.
If you enjoy it, let me know - but likewise if you have constructive feedback I'd welcome that too.
Later, I'll be using this poem as one of the sources for a post about editing poetry, so you never know, I may be back with a better version yet - but I still love this one.
Still struggling…
I'm still struggling with writers block. It's spread from my ability to write fiction, to my ability to write poetry, and write here. It is having a decidedly melancholy affect. I'd hoped a bit of travelling might snap me out of it, but no such luck.
I think I need a crisis, I had a crisis this time last year, and coming out of that crisis I started writing again. However, the new improved me deals with problems a lot better, so few even get close to a minor crisis, never mind the life altering ones from last year.
I am now quite scared of NaNoWriMo looming over me, I've got the ideas, but without the ability to actually write, it's fairly meaningless.
I could create a crisis, however that doesn't fit with the new me that works hard not to get life in a state. I've gotten into pretty bad financial trouble this year (after years of owing no more than £400 at anyone time), however I've even dealt with that so that I'll be debt free again in by this time next year, and am comfortable with that.
I could quit my job, which does have double benefits, it would be a major crisis, I wouldn't be able to fix easily, and I would have time to write. However, I'd have nothing to write on, never mind anywhere to actually write - so possibly a level of crisis too far.
Likely, it's still temporary, and that once November hits, I'll be flying. I'm actually planning on doing something insane for NaNoWriMo (assuming I can find the ability to write again), and that is enter NaNoWriMo twice. That's right, I'm aiming for the 100,000 words in a month bracket. I'll be doing it with two different stories - however I personally feel that 100,000 in a month, on one story, that could retain 75% to 85% of it's words after editing, might be worth pursuing. I was tempted to do it one story, however, I worry that I'll balk under the challenge and settle for 50,000, I don't want to settle. With two entries, settling is still a win and a failure, to have a true win, have to achieve both.
What I'll aim to do, is get the first one complete in the first fortnight, and the second in the second fortnight, so I'm not having to switch between stories (which I can do, but might cause problems).
For now though, I'd settle for some good writing for the rest of September, and through October.
Another problem with writers block, it forces you to analyse every idea, as you seek the in roads to it, that will allow you to translate imagination to words on a page.
I just had a brilliant idea for a poem, for about a second, before I realised it's a subject that's been more than adequately covered in myth and legend.
There was tiny spider (but with long thin legs) in the bath, and it was stuck, but kept trying to get up the sides. It'd get so far, and then fall, but used it's web to limit it's fall, then tried again, then the web broke - so it started over, and nearly gets to the top, and then falls again.
Eventually, it drifts along the length of the path, trying to find a decent climb, and it makes it! I actually felt quite happy for it (even as I don't have any like for spiders after being bitten by one, yuck). Then the damned thing, not satisfied with it's monumental climb (they're not after all known for escaping baths), then proceeded to climb a shampoo bottle. It must have realised it was disappointing when it get to the top, as it got back down again. Teetered on the edge of going back in the both, but instead choose to use the grouting to climb up to the ceiling instead.
It was amazing to watch. Unfortunately, it's already a well observed phenomeon, kind of - Robert the Bruce famously is supposed to have seen a spider trying, and failing, then trying again, to get a web from one side of a cave to another, and it inspired him to try again and rebel against Edward. He still failed, but the moral is no less true.
As I said, it was amazing to watch - even more amazing, aside from this ickle spider, there was a much bigger spider (where the ickle one had legs no thicker than a hair, this had legs that were like 0.5mm - and a much bigger body and mandibles that were very visible (shudders). To be fair, I suspect they were the same breed, but probably the bigger one was considerably older (I believe a week might be descriptive enough of age in the life cycle of a spider - but I'm no arachnologist afterall), just sat there watching. I couldn't decide if it was keeping the little spider as an emergency meal for later, or not. After the little spider escaped the bath, it turned and was facing the wall (it had been facing the length of the bath for the entire time little spider had been trying to escape), so I wonder if it was thinking, damn - if only I were smaller, and lighter, with legs that could find every tiny bump and gap to get me up - I could make it. Or maybe it was just cursing it's luck, as the little spider succeeded, while it had sat and done bugger all.
Well there you go, like Robert the Bruce (allegedly), that little spider has inspired me too - because I've written a few words. Maybe I will write a poem about the two spiders... it's a subject that may have been covered, (but then, lets face it what hasn't?), but it was a pretty major thing for me.
I love moments like that, I once wrote down a few pages about a pigeon with a clubbed foot that I saw at the train station while travelling to work once. Still have it, might share that too. In fact, I think I might share inspirational animal stories everyday next week, I'm feeling well and truly inspired.
Thanks for reading, if you did 
JL Legend
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Imagination: Worlds of My Creation
Writing is a truly amazing thing for me, it allows me to dump my big random imagination, and allows to keep it for all time. Even if I don't get far into a novel, anytime I want to relive that imagination I just read what I've got.
I'm one of those writers that are blessed with hardcore imagination. Ideas come easy to me, anything can trigger an idea. There isn't any work involved in shaping the imagination, if I let it just run wild, and I can reconjure an imaginar episode with just a few mental or physical prompts.
Of course if I want to shape this into a story I have to harness it, and that requires a great deal if force.
I imagine whole world's in my head, a litany of characters, intensive situations, there's detail o'plenty, as a character slams into a building, I'll be stood at the bus stop opposite, I'll see every half broken brick, and bits of mortar. As the protagonists of my imagination move closer for that all but inevitable kiss, I can see it happening, I can see the lines in the woman,s lips, I can see the guys forced face as he struggles not to go too fast, he wants to project a certain image with that kiss, and I see the car speeding towards them, the one who'll brake hard, and speed away, the moment spoiled. The driver by the way has brown hair, a blue denim jacket, and was smoking - he's actually fleeing the scene of a crime, which he had nothing to do with, but he's got form and doesn't want to go back to jail on a mistake.
The reason it needs to be strong armed is two-fold, firstly my imagination can run rampant at the worst time, I can easily switch between genre's, decades (even centuries), and characters, it takes practice to keep it on track. The second reason is writing for a mythical readership, I love my imagination - most of the time it's better than TV, but it's to my tastes (most of the time, there are occaisionally things I can't stand, and even offend me), however whether it's to the taste of a reading audience I'm less sure. Therefore if I want to write an imaginary scene it has to be guided, and then censored and modified further as it flows from the pen.
There is of course another downside, an overly rampant imagination can completely change tracts, starting a whole new story when your only part way through the current one. This does happen frequently, and usually coincides with me losing the will to write. You put all that effort in, and lose the zone for that story, it's a terrible thing, you're not interest in the new scene unfolding - or rather not interested in writing. I have to find a way back to the original imaginary story, if I want to continue. That's one of the things I had to learn during NaNoWriMo last year.
Most of the time, me and the left side of brain are usually on excellent terms, feeding things between us. Living the ideal life, the scary life, the exciting life, the romantic life, and the mysterious life.
The final great thing is I find it wasy to roll into an imaginary story details from research and such.I'm a sponge for information, and I can squeeze me out and spread them over my stories. So if I've read something about a theoretical form of space travel, and find myself in need of a mechanism to travel through space, (in my story, if only I could craft the real world as easily as my story ones), I draw through the details, and give my world a touch of realism that sets it shooting for wherever it needs to go.
My imagination is my most treasured asset as a writer, were I to lose that, were I to go in life without that - I honestly would rather be dead.
Where’s the Inspiration?
A man walks onto the scene, he strolls with forced assuredness, yet you can read in his body language he's not as confident as he'd like to be, he eyes the megaphone in his hand cautiously, before coming to a step. He lifts the megaphone up, taps the small end, then raises it to his mouth, before clearing his throat, "Ahem!", then he queries, "Is this thing on?", his words boom out of the megaphone's big end. He laughs nervously in response to the annoyed stairs he receives.
The man stands there a few moments before finally seeming to get the confidence to raise the microphone to his mouth again, as he megaphone reaches position this time his cheeks take on a bit of velour, and his eyes seem ablaze, he takes a deep meaningful breath, and speaks into the megaphone,
"Right, listen up," now all eyes are on him, only they're attentive rather than annoyed, "I demand to know where my inspiration is! I think it's wholly unfair that you've abandoned me right now. I need you, I can't write without you. Without you these pages are blank, and what words come are empty.
"Inspiration I've never needed you so bad, I've got all these things to do, and you've abandoned me, given up the fight, and now I stand alone against the tide of battle.
"I beg you return to me your charm, your talent. Words are meaningless without you!"
The audience looks rapt, his words have moved them, they feel his desperation, and they ponder borrowing the megaphone.
The man looks down upon his audience, upon their swept up faces, he watches the emotions play across their faces. Then a thought dawns in his mind, a realisation, maybe even epiphany.
What the man realised was this - inspiration is hard to achieve, but it can hit at the strangest moments, and all you can do is find the nearest waiting apparatus and take advantage.
Everyone has different things that inspires them to write, and inspires what to write. For myself these are most often two different events, for others they might be most often the same.
There is also another possibility one without the other, which can either be liberating or frustrating, for example:
- I may have a brilliant idea what to write, but no inspiration (will) to write it - so it all plays out in my head because try as I might I can't convert it into words. Obviously a form of writers block.
- Something may give me inspiration (the will) to write, but without any inspiration. Here my mind, and the paper is ab empty canvas, and I can just let my thoughts flow freely. Probably doesn't make for great reading, but it's fun and liberating for me.
Everybody is different when it comes to inspiration, I know all too well what holds true for me, is complete gibberish to another. In broad strokes, I have probably captured the general forms of inspiration.
In terms of what inspires me to write (gives me the will), it falls down to three categories: the outdoors (nature, weather, scenery, architecture, etc...), other people's creativity (a book, a film, a piece of music, also biographical information about a creative person, or someone who's faced adversity in their life), and challenges (nothing gets my creative juices better than a bit of competition).
Sadly these things aren't guaranteed to get me writing, but most often once I start writing it's because I was inspired to by one of the above.
In terms of my inspiration what to write, it's usually something close to hand, something I've imagined happening, my emotional state (yes, I can be a bit emo in my poetry), or a need to impress others so I can belong, and validate myself.
I've written about many things, from religion to coke cans, from fantasyic tales to mundane moments of life, and from historical events to nature.
Sometimes my indpirations puts me on the path to something specific, sometimes it's just the starting point, or catalyst for a cascade of ideas.
I will say this, whatever the idea, I do love it when it happens, it's a veritable joy to let poetry over take me, a joy and love that only falls short of sex.
As I'm getting older, inspiration is getting harder - dry spells last longer, but when the floodgates open, I feel sure the joy is deeper, as I come to appreciate it more.
Still I would live in those moments more if I were able to, giving myself over to the wild abandon of inspiration.
So I feel abandoned when inspiration doesn't come, and call to it from my megaphone, hoping to attract it back. For me my megaphone is going to beautiful places, reading and listening to music, and entering challenges - hoping beyond hope, inspiration heads my call and answers.
That's what inspiration is to me.
Evolution of a Writer
Charmander - beause everyone should be a Pokémon - or something like that
So Charmander gets in a fight, it's against a more powerful Pokémon, though his trainer is sure his Pokémon can handle it.
The battle rages, and indeed in a last ditch effort, Charmander gets the win. The crowds go wild, it's the little pocket monster that could.
Wait, but what's happening now? Why Charmander is glowing, what's going on? Suddenly the glowing shape of a small odd looking lizard is replaced with a larger odd looking glowing lizard, and as the glow fades, Charizard is stood there looking thoroughly chuffed with himself. He's evolved, become a better Pokémon, bigger, stronger, and smarter. Everyone is shocked into a stunned silence. His trainer starts clapping, and soon the auditorium goes nuts.
What's this got to with anything? Well after a fashion I think writers evolution is similar. Certainly my own is, I get stronger very gradually, but every so often I tackle something big - and win. The gradual improvement, the many small lessons learnt, and the sudden influx of effort and challenges pushes me to a new level.
I'll admit, it may be a confidence thing - I'm not a biased judge of my own ability, in the absence of Mr Horobin and Mr Barrand (my English teachers in high school), I can only presume to rate myself.
Every piece I write I get a little better, every review and edit nets me a few more lessons to avoid problems in the future, but every major trial tests everything I've learned, and gives me so many new lessons.
In terms of talent and experience, I evolve into a whole new monster, with new lessons to learn and embrace. I find the end of a piece of work, or project, the most exciting time, and I need to focus on that when the challenge seems too daunting, or I lose the inspiration (will), I have reasons to carry on.
It's true of most things in my life, I'm a far better analyst now than I was four years ago, there are periods of gradual improvement, and those moments where I've jumped to a whole new level.
Now I've turned myself into a fictional firey Japanese lizard, I think the job is done for this post.
P.S. I don't know Pokémon that well, if I've got the evolution wrong, aplogies to the diehard Pokemon fans out there.
Charmander - beause everyone should be a Pokémon - or something like that
Music to Write To
I'm always on a quest for the perfect playlist to write to - but damn it the writing music keeps changing.
I love poetry and writing, and their sibling the song is no different (storytelling is the parent to me), they're all capable of evoking something within us. Sometimes they evoke the writer within, helping to unlock my core creativity.
I find that what music I'm listening to affects what I'm writing, I noticed this during last year's NaNoWriMo, I was in one of those places where I was banging out a few hundred words an hour, and actually progressing towards target. When I read back over my words, there was a pattern, I'd had Pachelbel's Canon in D on repeat, (equally a crap and great piece of music in one - perfect writing music though), my writing had taken on that structure, from number of words per sentence, to roughly where the capitals were placed, and as I read it through, you could kind of feel Canon behind it. You have to be careful though, I would imagine if you're half way through a 75,000 word novel, and feel of the writing suddenly changes, that's going to make it seem disjointed.
My Poetry Writing Process
The fabled writing process, everyone has one, or one they prefer at least.
My own process keeps me sane, keeps me trying, and ultimately makes my work better. That's what I'm going to explore in this entry.
I've found, that in the past spending a few moments considering what my process is has made for better poetry. It prevents me trying to force myself to fit molds that aren't mine, which so far when I've tried has led me down paths of frustration. Having the desire to write a poem, and then destroying the will to write is a terrible thing.
Preface: Before I start exploring, it isn't fair to say I have one writing process, I have several - the aim of this post is explore my writing process for poetry, I will do another blog entry in regards to writing literature.
