Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Changing Worlds

I think the main cause for my writer’s block is that I’m not “living” in my WIP. I play my storylines in my head like a movie all the time. Driving in my car, walking around, during lunch…anytime I have a spare moment, I spend it there. My problem is that I’m still currently living in a story which is totally unrelated to my WIP.

I should let it go. I’ve been living there for a looooooong time, but it will never see the outside my imagination.  Ever.

It’s mine, and you can’t have it.

But if I’m never going to make it into a book (and I’m not), then as much as I enjoy that world, I need to let it go. At least for now. At least until I get some other projects finished. I have four half-started short stories and three unfinished novels clamoring for my attention. My negligence is shocking. If there were a social services department for art, they’d revoke my creative license.

At least I’ve made some headway toward living in my current WIP. That’s the only reason why I’m 12,000-words into it. I put that little counter up and now it taunts me. Hateful little widget. I KNOW I haven’t written anything in four days! Leave me alone!

It would help if I could come up with a soundtrack to play while I’m trying to come up with ideas, but everything I like is already associated with either Eyes of Stone, or that other story that you can’t have. It’s hard to reassign them. Thus far, the only songs that I’ve been able to use are “Harder to Breathe” by Maroon 5, which is too fast to perfectly fit the scene but the lyrics work, and “This Night” by Black Lab, which only works for the opening chapters.

It also doesn’t help that I just got the new Lonely Island cd and I’ve had “Ronnie & Clyde” and “Creep” stuck in my head for three days. They’re hilarious and fantastic but they so don’t fit into Anaiiya’s world. “If you wanna make friends at the ATM, do the Creep.” Awesome, but not helpful.

Maybe if I didn’t hate radio so much I could discover new music. But I lack the patience or the inclination to sit through mind-numbing commercial blocks, endless repetitions of the same four terrible songs, and hours of inane radio host chatter about how taxing it is to make a peanut butter sandwich, just to try to catch a snippet of a song I might like. No. It’s all hip-hop or rap now anyway, and unless it’s a song about being on a boat, Mother’s Day, or contains the phrase, “this is not my dad – this is a cell phone,” I can’t stand that stuff.

If you know of some awesome music that might be conducive to fantasy settings (including but not limited to desert worlds, exile, and slavery), I’m taking suggestions.

Also...has anyone else been having trouble logging into Blogger this week, or have I gone insane?

5 comments:

  1. Do you listen to filk? Generally speaking, it's SF/F stories set to music. Some are original stories, some are set in fanfic land.

    This is old stuff, but still one of my faves. It's Divine Intervention and the artist is Julia Ecklar. You can play the entire CD from the site for free.

    One of my very fave songs is on it: "The Temper of Revenge."

    Here's a sample of the chorus:
    So find me a horse, as red as the sun.
    Find me a blade that will make their blood run.
    I will ride out at dawn while the sun's in the sky,
    So the buzzards can see where the bodies will lie...

    If you're a Firefly fan, "Mal's Song" is one of the best -- it riffs off Whedon's lyrics, expanding on them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, heck, the links aren't working in the comment.

    Divine Intervention: http://www.prometheus-music.com/divine.html

    "Mal's Song": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuVdJwClW48&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  3. Holy crap I like that Divine intervention!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've had lots of problems signing in with blogger. I haven't been able to post a comment or follow anyone new in a few days. I'll be pleasantly surprised if this gets one :) Hope it gets fixed soon!

    ReplyDelete
  5. i cant help w/the mood music but maybe you could try adding a setting to your writing space. any pics or figures you could put around your pc?

    (and i love my ipad...call me pretentious =)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.