Music Moves the Savage Writer

I'll be the first to admit it--I was never someone who could listen to music all day, while studying, while working, while waiting around--I found it far too distracting.

Nevertheless, music is a convenient writer's tool. For the small cost of a few megabytes on your laptop or mp3 player, it's always at hand. It can transport you to a different place or a different time. It can block out extraneous noises by playing different noises in your ear. (I guess.) My doctoral dissertation soundtrack consisted of 17 songs on one CD, which I played on an endless loop while I was drudging away underground (basement lab). I even thanked "die neue deutsche Härte" band OOMPH! in my dissertation acknowledgements.

Would I have been able to block out the loud phone conversations that echoed from the office next door without my music? Maybe, but it was certainly easier with the beautiful, husky voice of OOMPH! frontman Dero Goi in my ears. "Jede Nacht genau der selbe Traum...such mich tief im Abgrund deines Traums, ich liege sechs Fuss tiefer...du suchst mich doch ich bin längst am Ziel..."

Ah...

Ahem. Yes, music is more than art, noise, or a diversion, if you're a writer. While working on The Fracture of a Dream, I sometimes struggled to see the world through the eyes of my characters. The character of Mer Pampero posed a problem, especially. Once just an average woman, she's embittered by the life she's led--rational, most of the time, a mother and wife fiercely protecting her family--but nevertheless filled with built-up resentment and hate. Of all of my characters, she was the one I could characterize the most easily, yet she remained the one whose thoughts I least understood.

I started using music as a way of getting inside her head, of finding her voice. Using the same song every time I wrote her dialogue helped me stay consistent for her character. But, no spoilers! I can't tell you what her song is. Eventually, I began ferreting out perfect songs for each of the protagonists.

Have you read The Fracture of a Dream? What do you think? Which songs best embody Dek Sundowner, Shanna Tramontane, and Mer Pampero? And if you're a writer, how do you use music in your own work? Leave your suggestions below!

Tune in next time,
Ren D. ;)

When Your Characters Have Become Real

To take a page from Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit, specifically, a small part of the beautiful and oft-quoted passage about becoming Real:

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled. 

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.” 

The characters of The Fracture of a Dream have been real to me for quite some time now.  Sometimes I'll see a photograph of a woman and think, "Ah, that's Shanna!" or hear a song that resonates perfectly with their storylines.

In fact, this painting by Myles Sullivan immediately drew my attention a few months ago:

Myles Sullivan, Rendezvous

"That's Dek! And Shanna...slightly leggier and more bombshell than I'd envisioned her, but definitely still Shanna. They look like they're having one of their intense (and silly) debates at their favorite bistro."

It was a reminder that I needed to continue their story.

Returning to them, telling more of their story, is like catching sight of a beloved friend you haven't seen for quite some time.  I feel a warmth and happiness to be reunited with my characters and wonder how their unwritten lives have passed since I last worked with them.

The only awkward part is that Dek and Shanna seem so real to me that, in the rewriting stage, adding new parts to their story felt like telling a lie. The way I told the story the first time -- to me, that was how all the events had come to pass.  It couldn't be altered.

I have to remind myself that reality is not black-and-white, as we like to think. We each perceive and interpret events, behaviors, and words in different ways.  And from Elizabeth Loftus' extensive work on the fallibility of memory, we also know that we mis-remember our own lives constantly.  Aside from these mundane "alternate" realities that occur normally, there are also the moments of our lives which simply aren't chronicled -- because that would be dull -- and introducing new scenes might just mean I'm telling the reader something that hadn't seemed important before.

Taking heart from the Skin Horse's words to the Rabbit, however, I like the idea that my characters continue to live on, even when I'm away from them, the threads of their lives rolling, looping, and knotting in new ways that I haven't yet imagined. I guess that's why there are sequels.

And I'm pretty sure Shanna's got a few secrets that are going to come out.  They usually do...eventually.

Stay curious,
Ren D.

My NaNoWriMo 2013 Metrics

Testing these widgets out.  Who doesn't love widgets?

Hope I'll be a "winner" this year. ;)


My month shown via widget.  You can see if I've been good or not.


This year, I'm also partnered up with writing buddy A Silent Spectre, so you can see how we're doing here.