When I am writing, I am usually listening to something. I find it helps me drown out the noises around me, and locks me into the world I am creating. Previously, when I was writing my Primorlen novels, epic music was the genre of choice. Thomas Bergensen's Illusions album has some of the most beautiful, sweeping, epic, but not overly intense music I've ever heard. Movie soundtracks are also sometimes helpful, though if I am quite familiar with the movie the music reminds me of the scenes during which it plays, rather than whatever I'm writing at the moment. However, as I began writing The Trust Hole, I found that epic music I had been listening to didn't quite cut it when helping me focus in.
Sweeping orchestras did not fit in with the grungy, dystopian, off-kilter world I was creating. So I broadened my musical horizons, searching for soundtracks and other music that would fit. For instrumental, I rediscovered the Inception and Dark Knight soundtracks (which I already had), and found the gem of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. These had the slightly electronic, deep and brooding but still epic feel I was looking for. For vocal music, I found Red's Until We Have Faces to have the same qualities, especially their quieter tracks. And the lyrics fit spot on... every song seemed to mirror a theme in Trust Hole. Feed the Machine, Not Alone, Who We Are, Hymn For The Missing; each spoke to one of the threads I was weaving together.
At the same time, a few nights I simply turned the music off and wrote in silence. Ten o'clock at night is usually pretty quiet, so the only sounds were the tapping of my keys. It was curiously epic in itself, just throwing the story forward on the wings of silence.
Try it sometime, turn off your carefully constructed playlist of writing music, and find a quiet place to just write. You might be surprised by the results.
December 21, 2011
December 19, 2011
Musings
Note: In the following weeks, Monday posts will be about The Trust Hole, simply because that's what I'll be working on rather than anything in Primorlen.
Why The Trust Hole? What was so enticing about the little business card I made up that sent me speeding away on the express train of NaNoWriMo, far away from my previous ideas? What caused me to ditch weeks of careful plotting and re-plotting, character outlines, my preferred genre, and a character I was thrilled to be writing about again? What about Alen and his dystopian world grabbed my attention and held it securely for an entire month of frantic noveling?
Just that. Alen himself and his off-kilter world. There was something wonderfully appealing in the idea of a completely normal boy thrust into a not-so-normal world. But a familiar world. And perhaps that is what caught me. Alen and Molson City exist in the modern world. There are Russians, and Poles, and Swedes; shotguns, grenade launchers, and Glocks; old cars, squeaking screen doors, muddy streets and broken street lamps. But at the same time they exist somewhere beyond time and space. There's a talking tiger, a man with a bionic eye, fighting robots, an entire complex that operates night after night without attracting police attention.
And in the cross-section of normal and not-so-normal I found something wonderful. In the conflux, there arrives the question: what makes normal? And as a extrapolation, what makes different? In a place where freaks fight robots for a living, what defines freakishness? What defines specialness? And that is the key to the entire riddle.
For the minute I wrote Alen's first lines, I knew he was special. He was unlike any other character I had written before, far more introspective and quiet. Pride was something he struggled with only occasionally. Whereas in my last novel, Freeborn and Freegiven, each character struggled to realize they couldn't go it alone, and had to face their pride and do what they did not want to, Alen's struggle delved into the very depths of worth and purpose.
And in the theme of worth I found my greatest message yet told. Being in our own world, Christ was real and tangible, and in the filth and grime of the Hole, His light shone out clear and cold.
Why The Trust Hole? What was so enticing about the little business card I made up that sent me speeding away on the express train of NaNoWriMo, far away from my previous ideas? What caused me to ditch weeks of careful plotting and re-plotting, character outlines, my preferred genre, and a character I was thrilled to be writing about again? What about Alen and his dystopian world grabbed my attention and held it securely for an entire month of frantic noveling?
Just that. Alen himself and his off-kilter world. There was something wonderfully appealing in the idea of a completely normal boy thrust into a not-so-normal world. But a familiar world. And perhaps that is what caught me. Alen and Molson City exist in the modern world. There are Russians, and Poles, and Swedes; shotguns, grenade launchers, and Glocks; old cars, squeaking screen doors, muddy streets and broken street lamps. But at the same time they exist somewhere beyond time and space. There's a talking tiger, a man with a bionic eye, fighting robots, an entire complex that operates night after night without attracting police attention.
And in the cross-section of normal and not-so-normal I found something wonderful. In the conflux, there arrives the question: what makes normal? And as a extrapolation, what makes different? In a place where freaks fight robots for a living, what defines freakishness? What defines specialness? And that is the key to the entire riddle.
For the minute I wrote Alen's first lines, I knew he was special. He was unlike any other character I had written before, far more introspective and quiet. Pride was something he struggled with only occasionally. Whereas in my last novel, Freeborn and Freegiven, each character struggled to realize they couldn't go it alone, and had to face their pride and do what they did not want to, Alen's struggle delved into the very depths of worth and purpose.
And in the theme of worth I found my greatest message yet told. Being in our own world, Christ was real and tangible, and in the filth and grime of the Hole, His light shone out clear and cold.
December 16, 2011
Changed Land
Changed Land
A gentle breeze upon the grass
Rippling the lake, before like glass
Tree boughs swaying rythmically
Verdant leaves fluttering loosely
Hollow wind across the land
All is dead, life is banned
Dead tree's skeleton blasted
Death and decay, all that has lasted
Stately castle upon the hill
Shining out light and good will
Many colored banners flying
Breaths of wind, sighing
Darkness reigns, all is dead
Ruins across the lands do tread
Red stained water speaks of blood
All hope has been ground into the mud
Why this awful change?
Why does such evil range?
Who could have caused such desolation?
What could have created such devastation?
No invading army caused this blight
No usurper came with deadly might
The fault lies with the dwellers, us
We have destroyed our God-given trust
A gentle breeze upon the grass
Rippling the lake, before like glass
Tree boughs swaying rythmically
Verdant leaves fluttering loosely
Hollow wind across the land
All is dead, life is banned
Dead tree's skeleton blasted
Death and decay, all that has lasted
Stately castle upon the hill
Shining out light and good will
Many colored banners flying
Breaths of wind, sighing
Darkness reigns, all is dead
Ruins across the lands do tread
Red stained water speaks of blood
All hope has been ground into the mud
Why this awful change?
Why does such evil range?
Who could have caused such desolation?
What could have created such devastation?
No invading army caused this blight
No usurper came with deadly might
The fault lies with the dwellers, us
We have destroyed our God-given trust
December 12, 2011
Back from Hibernation
*yawn*
*blinks sleepily*
Well, December looks nice! Let's see... how long have I slept? Oh wow, 12 days!
Not really :P I had a final that kept me from sleeping for the first week, but now that that's over... vacation!!
*Sigh of relief*
NaNoWriMo's over, the college semester is over, about to take vacation off of work... what am I going to do with myself?
Write. Lots and lots o' writing. And here's where it begins!
Anyways, I hope to set myself a blogging schedule (not every day), but at least three times a week. Here's how I hope it will work:
Monday- Tales of Primorlen: Posts about my fantasy series (which is what I will be working on mostly as far as writing goes)
Wednesday- Inkspots and Crumpled Papers: Posts about writing in general, editing, various literary techniques, etc. Anything and everything I've learned as a writer. (This is for me just as much as it is for you readers, telling someone else something is one of the best ways to learn it for yourself :P)
Fridays- Poetry: Exactly that! Whatever poetry I've written, whether two days or two years old.
In addition, I'd like to post movie/book reviews, musings on the awesome majesty and epicness of God (who is so epic I have to make up a word to even try to describe Him!), and possibly fun stuff involving all of you readers! (Bear with me on that one, I'm still rather new to this whole blog thing)
Anyways, that's the plan! We'll see how long it lasts! :P
Until next time,
Farjag
*blinks sleepily*
Well, December looks nice! Let's see... how long have I slept? Oh wow, 12 days!
Not really :P I had a final that kept me from sleeping for the first week, but now that that's over... vacation!!
*Sigh of relief*
NaNoWriMo's over, the college semester is over, about to take vacation off of work... what am I going to do with myself?
Write. Lots and lots o' writing. And here's where it begins!
Anyways, I hope to set myself a blogging schedule (not every day), but at least three times a week. Here's how I hope it will work:
Monday- Tales of Primorlen: Posts about my fantasy series (which is what I will be working on mostly as far as writing goes)
Wednesday- Inkspots and Crumpled Papers: Posts about writing in general, editing, various literary techniques, etc. Anything and everything I've learned as a writer. (This is for me just as much as it is for you readers, telling someone else something is one of the best ways to learn it for yourself :P)
Fridays- Poetry: Exactly that! Whatever poetry I've written, whether two days or two years old.
In addition, I'd like to post movie/book reviews, musings on the awesome majesty and epicness of God (who is so epic I have to make up a word to even try to describe Him!), and possibly fun stuff involving all of you readers! (Bear with me on that one, I'm still rather new to this whole blog thing)
Anyways, that's the plan! We'll see how long it lasts! :P
Until next time,
Farjag
November 30, 2011
Finished!!!
I'm done!!! 50,000 words in 30 days, done and did!!
*crazy headbanging and screaming*
Rawwww!
........
*crazy headbanging and screaming*
Rawwww!
........
Anyways, check out my certificate! (Never fear, detailed post to follow, along with a steady blogging routine again)
November 19, 2011
Caught Up!!
I've caught up!! *shouts silently so I don't wake anyone up*
30,139 of 30,00!
Also, a quote to keep you excited:
“Every one is important, not for who they are, but in spite of who they are”
30,139 of 30,00!
Also, a quote to keep you excited:
“Every one is important, not for who they are, but in spite of who they are”
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