Megan Trennett's Blog, page 15

Thursday Tunes – Kate Voegele

 

katevoegele.com

I love discovering an artist that isn't necessarily mainstream (as in a Lady Gage, Britney, Christina, etc). And considering I'd never heard of Kate Voegele before hearing her voice on Mariana's Trench's Good to You, I would say she's not heavily played (I also don't listen to a lot of radio, forgive me).

She's got a fantastically emotional voice, and you feel what she sings in her words, which is great for getting some inspiration, and getting into the mood of your scene. Maybe not so much if you're doing an epic war novel, Sci-fi, or Fantasy, but hey, people listen to different things for different reasons.

Songs to check out:

Forever and Almost Always
Say Anything
Beg You to Fall
Say You're Mine


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Fear the Blank Page!

While working on my latest work in progress, I noticed something early on that I'm only really getting around to facing. My project is going through the four years my characters from another work had spent together, and the events that transpired to get them to where they were in the start of the other story. Straight forward, simple, and I actually have a solid background for things I already know happened. They did, after all, speak liberally of their past together, which gave me plenty of antidotes to develop upon, and also some of the main events that shaped their relationship. That being said, I had a timeline in which these events occurred, and as I was laying them out, a glaringly obvious thing popped out at me: They say absolutely nothing of what happened in year three.

Zip. Zero. Zilch.

It's the only year that nothing is spoken of, and this brings me great fear. Why? Because this is where I could really, really screw this up. My problem from the start of this project was how I loved these characters so much that I wanted to re-write their ending. Which, of course, would be bad. But now I'm facing something that could be just as harmful: the chance that I may accidently re-write their past.

A blank slate, a year that they never recall an event from. What horrible, unspeakable things could have happened? What beautiful, magical things could have happened between them that they don't dare to recall? I have some ideas, but I've already had many more I had to squash because they affected continuity (and I mourned those ideas like you wouldn't believe).

It's scary business, this whole creativity thing. Especially when you're working with a story or characters you're already intimately involved with. It's like going off the beaten path to see what wonders might be beyond the line of trees you're so familiar with. Maybe it's a beautiful brook where the birds chirp louder and the sun gleams brighter. Or, maybe it's a grizzly bear's hunting territory where no animal survives once it enters the dark, shadow grove. The only real way to find out is taking a deep breath, walk around the trees, and hope you have a steak you can throw at the scary beast before turning back and running for the path, hoping that the next adventure of discovery proves less of a hazard to your health.

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What I'm listening to – Mariana's Trench

Album: "Master Piece Theater"

I had heard of this band for years, but I never had a taste of them until a friend of mine had it on, what another friend of ours would call, his "cry baby bull shit" CD. Well, I don't know if I agree with the CD nickname, but I liked the song "All to myself" enough that I bought it and gave it a whirl without the red-haired guy belting it from the driver's seat. Then another friend of mine posted how Mariana's Trench had a new single that she absolutely had to stay in the car and listen too. So, I tested that one (by now I have a Napster subscription, music can be expensive) and next thing you know, I'm downloading more and more of them. They're now on my WIP playlist, and they'll probably stay on my MP3 player well after the story's done.

Songs to preview:

All to Myself
Good to you (Featuring Jessica Lee or Kate Voegele {two versions})
Beside you
Haven't had enough

Blonde, Brunette, or ginger kid: what attracts you to someone?

I asked this question on Facebook, and I wanted to share it on here. It may be a while before a create a brand-new, fresh frame scratch character for a brand new lady to fall for (My next couple of lined up projects are using previous characters), but I was wondering what the attraction consensus is. I want to know:

View This Poll

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The battle of the Cake (and how it made me reconsider my writings fails)

 

It's my husband's birthday, and as I do every year, I'm making his birthday cake.

But this year, because of lack of favorite flavor cake mix being available, I decided I would make it from scratch. And I was going to decorate it with an image that combined two of his favorite things: tux the penguin (Linux OS Mascot) dressed as Link from the The Legend Of Zelda series. Oh, and I was going to do this before I did the homemade pizza made from a special kit my mother mailed us from Nova Scotia.

Did I mention I was going to do all this in the nine hours he's at the office?

AND I was going to work on my current work-in-progress in between tasks?

Yeah, a little ambitious. Especially for a Monday. Oh, and I started this before I had my morning coffee.

After having discovered that cake batter #1 was actually made with too much butter (that's why it's the consistency of dough), and batter #2 managing to make its way to the floor (I'm still trying to figure out how the cake pan fell off the counter) and batter #3 being made from a white cake mix I was about to give up. He wanted marble cake, and I surprised and epic cake design, and there I stood in my kitchen with the wrong flavor cake mix in hand, and cracked concentrated food coloring in the other, wondering how I was going to raise the white flag of defeat.

How many times had I wanted to do this when working on a manuscript? And how many times had I actually don't it? A couple days ago, when talking to a writer friend of mine, I went into my *cough* incomplete folder of writing and discovered eighteen files and folders of story. Eighteen! I've abandoned ship on a story eighteen times since I really started to save stuff, which is when I got my first computer at fifteen. So, in ten years (with a five year hiatus in the writing venture) I walked away from more projects than I completed (which, including first drafts, adds up to nine).  

How sad.

Then I remembered that of those nine completed more than one has had its share of, shall we say, trying moments. Like when my computer fries and I loose chapters I had yet to back up, or the corrupted file that somehow managed to happen and, therefore, I would have to OCR scan entire manuscripts so I wouldn't have to type words again, and stubborn characters who wouldn't tell me what I screwed up so I could get over a bout of writer's block. I got through it, I refused to raise the white flag, and each one of those nine completed manuscripts give me some level of satisfaction.

So trudge on with the cake I did. I added coco to part of the batter and made a successful marble cake. Then, despite broke icing bags, spilt food coloring, and super propelling decorating tips I managed to actually make this cake look have pretty good.

Makes me wonder if I should go back after NaNoWriMo and take a look at some of those abandon stories and see if there's something that could survive the odds and make a good story. After all, if the I can conquer the cake, I can probably make one of my failed stories work.

 

A link to the Linux... Or is it The OS of Zelda?

It's kind of scratch. I had to make the chocolate part of it.

 

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What I'm listening to – Ingrid Michaelson

Album: Be Ok

It's a 2008 album, which makes me feel I'm a tad bit behind especially when her music has been featured on some pretty popular television shows. Even still, Ingrid Michaelson has crept her way onto my playlists a few times though would never make what I call the "official" cut. Not until I finished draft one of my last WIP, when one of her enchanting melodies inspired images of the last scene.

Now she's doing it again with my latest WIP, and I just felt that the album Be OK, where most of the songs come from, deserved to be highlighted.

Songs to preview:

Can't help falling in love
Be Ok
Keep Breathing
You and I

Prequel anxiety and why writers need fellow writers as friends (Or a therapist)

When I decided to write a prequel to a manuscript I wrote a while ago I thought it would be a great way to get all the extra story about the characters I had out. Sort of a creative cleansing, if you will. After all, if these characters were still floating around in my idea pool then there must be more to their tale that needs to be told.

I'm wondering if Snoopy could benefit from Lucy's advice as well

I had no idea what a frustrating, challenging, and rage-inducing project this would become.

There are a few things that I knew up front would be a challenge. Of course, this being a prequel, I am restricted as to what can happen. I know how it ends, and I know what will never be. There is no discovery there, no journey to follow, and since I like to think of myself as a 'fly by the seat of my pants' kind of writer I do miss those aspects. It's like watching a movie series backwards, it's not as fun when you know how it ends.

I also knew that I would have to be meticulous about continuity. I have to be careful that I don't make the characters say or do something that contradicts a memory they had in the other tale for fear of a "Butterfly Effect" in my own work. After all, one small gesture could make it predecessor seem improbable.

What I didn't expect was how all this would leave me seething, and thinking about the book made me angry.

"Hulk Smash" angry. Ok, maybe not 'smash', but the rage is there.

Maybe I should have explored their relationship a little more than I had when I wrote my other one, and then maybe I would be in the continuous loop of "how does it start, why does it end this way, what the frig am I going to do about the middle?"

When I was ranting about this to my wonderful, patient, and understanding friend, she gave me solid advice. Like, say, writing the novel as if there was never a first one. Fantastic idea, except I would re-write the ending.

"Well why don't you write up to {insert pre-determined ending here} and then stop?" I came up with what seemed like a million more reasons as to why that wouldn't work.

Then I realize that that she had a point… to a point.

I had tones of great plot ideas (that she loved, yay), and talking them through, she made me realize that the ending was there, I just had to dig my way through the frustration (and, let's face it, love for my characters) to see why it goes the way it goes. And the middle? I have it; I have some great content in my head waiting to be typed out. All I have to do is stop whining long enough to do it.

As for the beginning, we still haven't worked through my angst for that. At this rate, she should charge me an hourly rate and doodle on a note pad while pretending to listen while I talk it out with myself.

The Thinking Game

A professional writer will tell you there is no such thing as writer's block. Well, I'm not quite a "professional" yet, because I do still

I swear, I get better results with novel plotting than I do playing the game iteself.

get that blockage. I'm learning it's more derived from my fear of "Oh my god, how the heck am I going to start this" or "Holy crap, there's a story here but I have no idea how to get it to work."

When this happens, I do one of two things: call my best friend in a panic attack (I'll never be able to write this, what am I doing, ahhhh!) or, and this one is more than likely, sit at my desk, listen to a bunch of music, and play a game. Usually it's Solitaire, or more recently the spider version which is really simple on beginner.

It may be a form of procrastination (I'm not afraid to admit this), but it helps me think about the story, the characters, what they'd do, or what they may say. Sometimes I get a flash of pure gold and I take to the word processor with a giant smile, other times I have to change the play list two or three times because if I listen to [insert song name] one more time I may snap and start throwing things (Like tantrums or coffee mugs).

Playing my "thinking game" is actually what gave me the idea to write this post, mostly because I would love to know what others do when they need to throw their mind into their story to move past the imaginary wall that doesn't exist.

So, what do YOU do?

Seeking Advice from the wise- Prequels: How the fudge do I make this fun for me?

I'm a funny kind of writer. I like to keep at least to completed first drafts ahead of myself. So, as a dear friend of mine is checking over one manuscript for errors before I send it off, I have another one ready for editing, and another one to write.

This brings me to my latest WIP, one that I've been kind of putting off starting with the aid of multiple excuses, and really need to start in order to get it off my mind.

 I'm starting a prequel.

Terrifying for me, which is a little baffling. A prequel means that all the characters are there, all developed, the ending I already decided, I even know (more than I do for most of my stories) all the little events that get them to where they are.

The problem? Where's the pay off? I like to discover as I write, living it out right alongside of the character as she discovers little things about herself she didn't know or denied, fall in love, and, in the end, come off a winner in some way. I know how this is going to end, and it's not going to be pretty. And, I think the worst part, I know what's NOT going to happen.

So I seek advice from those wiser than me as to how I can approach this so it's more fun for me (yes, for me, not the audience. I'm selfish this way). Have you written a prequel, either to your own work or someone else's, and how did you manage to get through the journey when you've already seen all the landmarks?

 

Love, it's everywhere! And it makes stories better, really.

Like it or not, romance is actually a constant theme in story. It is everywhere. Go ahead, try and think of something you've watched  or read lately that didn't have some form of romance in it.

A scene from my favorite Cartoon of all time "ReBoot". In this moment, their world is pretty much dead and destroyed, and in what might be the last moments of their lives, the two heros finally reach out for one another. Makes your heart break a little.

Could you think of one? If you did, are you sure there wasn't at least a hint of it there?

When I was growing up, my favorite cartoons were actually aimed more for boys than girls. They had a lot of action, the main plot was often that of war, survival, heroic deeds, thwarting the evil one(s), etc. I loved these stories, and the actual telling of the tales has kept a lot of these favorites a part of my entertainment even in adulthood. But there was always a part of these shows that made their way through my tom-boy shell to my inner girlie girl, and that was the backstory of love.

Yep, even in the shows made for boys, there was that element lingering in the background and I picked up on it, secretly feed off it, and found myself absolutely thrilled when something that was kept purposely off screen was brought forth and put on display even if it was only in the last episode of the series.

Maybe you don't agree, but I think this enhances the story.  Here's why:

1)      It makes the characters more human – So human may not be the best choice of words, because the characters could be something other than human. Still, knowing that they have emotions, that they can become connected to another being is a big booster. I don't care what you say, even the most cold, calculated, creations have some empathy, so form minute form of caring.

2)      It gives the characters something to fight for – Yes, peace, harmony, righting the wrongs of the world, that is something to fight for, but what about hero? What about their needs? Has anyone ever really considered that, no matter how completely awesome the character is they are probably a little selfish on the inside? Maybe the reason they haven't proclaimed their undying devotion is because they just know how to prioritize, and feel they can wait until they win and it's all over. Which brings me to the next point…

3)      It adds to the tragedy – Picture this: You're about to finish off a war that made you join with your enemies because there was the almighty mutual threat lingering over you. It's almost over, you're giving the commands and then BOOM! You're being double crossed. Next thing you know, you're being thrown into enemy territory, forced into being a prisoner in a place that you are never going to be able to escape from, and you have no way to stop it from happening. The only thing you're able to do in those finally is look over at the person you love. You don't even have time to say words; you can only steal a fleeting image. Sure, it would be kind of funny to have the character go 'well this sucks', but it's more heart breaking when there's more of a reason for it to suck than just simply being bested by the enemy.

I could probably find more points as to why romance, an often disliked genre, is actually very enhancing to any story when used in the right amounts and ways.  It doesn't matter how thick your skin, or how much you think it's sappy and gross, deep down inside you get all warm and fuzzy when you see the hero get the girl (or vice versa)even if you don't want to admit it.

Just so you know, "ReBoot" is property of and created by Rainmaker (Formally Mainframe) It's awesome, nerdy, and Canadian, just like me! (Ok, so it's awesomer than I am, but still)