Procrastination Idea #4 - music again
Joshua Radin - Closer
So I’m not writing but listening to a lot of music. I like to think of it as research. And anyway, I figured how to use the audio plug-in and it would be a shame to waste it.
How does one keep a blog about writing if one doesn’t write?
Let’s not talk about NaNo lets talk about music, since NaNo (at least my NaNo) appears to be dying on its arse. This afternoon I was watching Grey’s Anatomy (a recent addiction and no, I’m not seeking help) and a song came on in the background which I am also now addicted to. A quick search on Google led me to a song called ‘Scratch’ by Kendall Payne. A quick tour on Amazon and a quick download on iTunes and it’s been playing ever since.
I’ve never heard of Kendall Payne, which is surprising since she was involved in the whole Lilith Fair thing that defined so many fantastic female singer songwriters (not least, Sarah Mclachlan) and I thought I’d heard pretty much everyone involved. Clearly not. It turns out that Kendall is a christian singer which, to be honest, would put me off had I not heard her amazing voice already. Fortunately she seems to be one of those people who has other stuff to write about as well as religion. I have nothing against religon, it’s just not my thing thank you very much.
Anyway, on her website, Kendall explains the ‘meaning’ of the song:
I hung up the phone with him, not comforted in the least. I opted to call my boyfriend, who was even less comforting. He gave me the line, “We need to talk, it’s not bad, but it’s not good.” Which in guy code means, “I want to break up with you, but I don’t want you to make me feel bad about it.” And to top it off, I heard voices in the background at his house. I asked him who was there. He said some girls had just stopped by and they were going to watch a movie. The hot tears flooded my eyes.
I felt totally alone in that San Francisco hotel room. The first lyric literally poured out of me, “It’s a big girl world now, full of big girl things. And every day I wish I was small.”
So maybe it’s a love song, maybe it’s a song crying out to God, maybe it’s song for jaded grownups who have bought into the sham. I think the finds a different meaning for me every time I sing it.
Enough said - try the album.
NaNo ShMaNo
Today’s the day and how many words have I written? Huh? Huh?
Five hundred. Five out of sixteen hundred is not good. Five hundred SUCKS. No excuses, my head just isn’t there. So tomorrow I must write 2800 words … yeah right. Are we sensing that this isn’t going to work out? *nods*
All systems NaNo
OK, so I think I’ve decided that I’ll go ahead and at least start NaNoWriMo, although the closer it gets, the less convinced I am about my idea and I’m certainly not sure that it has the potential for 50,000 words.
It will require a complete change in my routine, such that that is. No more coming home from work and collapsing in front of the TV, or random hours surfing the Net for sparks of imagination and originality. I need to get organised…focussed. Hmmm. Could be tricky.
Is it just me, or is the WHOLE INTERNET slow tonight? Maybe it’s my ISP, or maybe I need some more memory for my lovely MacBook - I’d guess it’s the latter, I can hear the poor thing sigh when I open the thirty-ninth browser window in a session. Maybe Father Christmas will bring a nice slice of memory and someone to fit it, preferably in the form of Jude Law.
I can’t lick my nose but Boots can
I mean, she can lick her OWN nose, not mine - d’oh!
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My cat can lick her nose which shows such great endeavour I have tried to do the same alas I’m not so clever |
When I used to write…
This is a poem wot I wrote.
The Touch of Rain
Falling softly from the night
indigo sky
gentle yet profound
melancholy
but still hope.
Look out of the window
for a reflection
of my soul
and I will show you
the touch of rain.(c) Me - 2005
Procrastination Idea #3 - books
No writing but plenty of faffing.
Scroll down and admire my new book list, courtesty of Miller’s Now Reading plugin. Rather splendid I think.
To NaNo or not to Nano?
Decisions decisions!
Why am I even contemplating this? I’ve spent the last six months moaning about the shackles of my OU course and now I’m considering putting myself through the trials and tribulations of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Actually, I am a little further along the path than just considering - I am registered and playing with an idea, vaguely gearing myself up for when it starts on November 1st.
I’ve never done it before and actually know very little about it. They have a very professional website but frankly, all the ra-ra-ra-cliquey-club-forum approach is a turn off; I’m far too cynical for these things, which was possibly my downfall as far as the OU course was concerned. I hate groups and clubs (be they realtime or somewhere in the ether) which are founded on the premise of self congratulation and sycophantic praise.
To be fair, online groups are the worst, where posters have special signatures with rows of kisses and smiley faces and have bizarre conversations about sharing chocolate and wine because they are the only people in the world who are in front of their computers at midnight. Woo hoo! IT’S THE INTERNET FOR GOD’S SAKE!! YOU CAN’T SHARE FOOD OR DRINK AND BEING UP AT MIDNIGHT DOES NOT MAKE YOU A TORTURED ARTIST!
Ahem, sorry…I never realised I felt quite so strongly about that until I started writing.So anyway, I will make my NaNoWriMo decision this weekend.
My cat likes Question Time
OK, strictly speaking this is not a writing-related post but nevertheless, worth a mention. I just watched her wake up, stretch, realise the TV was on, obviously twig that it was Question Time and then settle to watch intently. You can’t beat a socially aware moggie.
Thou shalt know thy characters
Yesterday I went along to a novel writing workshop, given by author Harry Bingham as part of the Guildford Book Festival. It was useful, in that highlighted a couple of things that I already knew from the many books on writing that I’ve read, but had long since forgotten. Consequently I have to go back and re-visit the few chapters that I’ve written of my novel.
One of the things that he touched on, was the need to know your characters inside out. Somebody should be able to fire questions about your character, and you should always have the answers. This might seem obvious, but to prove a point he made us go around the room and ask the person next to us a question about their character. There were many that you’d expect - what do they look like, what do they do, do they have children, etc. But what if someone asked you (as someone asked me) - what did your character last dream about? - you might struggle, as did I. Harry said that we should have a list of questions - as many as one hundred - about characters. You might not use this information, but the fact that you are aware of it will make the characters richer and more believable.
It made me think about some of the questions I should be asking. I’m one of those people who needs to plan before writing, and I usually make some effort to write character profiles, but inevitably I get bored trying to think of questions. So, today I’ve started to define a template for these questions, which I’ve attached to this post. Feel free to have a look and use it if you like.
But can you think of any useful questions? The more unusual, the better!