My 2005 NaNoWriMo Music Playlist

As I mentioned yesterday, I usually put together a playlist to inspire my writing as I attempt to finish NaNoWriMo. Recently, I found my 2005 NaNoWriMo novel and included in the manuscript I found the following description of my playlist:

Technologic by Daft Punk. I just really like this song. It feels like a beginning. A twisted, wonderful beginning full of various methods of communication. Afterall, when you start a relationship, you have do learn how to communicate with the new person in your life. Being able to communicate effectively will give you plenty of hours of joy and hopefully less hours of sorrow. Technology gives you many ways to learn how to communicate. Electronics can be fun.

Born Slippy by Underworld. This is my dance bar song. I love the beats and the rythms. It is an early relationship song, when the energy is raw and love hasn't become a "problem" yet. Learning how to please your lover is intoxicating, invigorating and wicked.

Master and Servant by Depeche Mode. Early on in a relationship each person is trying to figure out their roll. Each person can try on the rolls of master and servant. It's a feeling of exploration.

Number One Crush by Garbage. "I would die for you, I would kill for you" continues on the servant tanget. Perhaps love may blossom at this point, or the subservant person will believe they are in love with their master. And then switch it up again.

The Old Apartment by Barenaked Ladies. The story's muse. Why is he breaking in? What is his purpose? Did she no longer love him? The truth is she never loved him. She just got tired of having him around, and when she discovers that he's cheated, and her servant is now gone, then she pitches a hissy fit and moves out of the apartment before he gets home. Where does she go? Far away, where he can't find her. She will never take him back. Or maybe something else...

Sour Times by Portishead. "Nobody Loves Me" He is remorseful for having cheated on his beloved, and not being a good lover. "Not like you do.." well, she doesn't really love him, does she? She just enjoys the fact that he was in love with her.

Life In Mono by Mono. Just a pretty song. For a pause in emotion.

Who's That Girl? by Eurythmics. Jealousy. She's so jealous, wants to know who the hell he's been with?

The Chauffeur by Duran Duran. Poetic. An after the major fight song. Deep pounding voice makes things so much better. Especially for the woman.

Roads by Portishead. Depression once again. She's on an up and down battle with her emotions. She curses him one moment, misses him the next then cries herself to sleep. Get a grip girl! Why are you so miserable? Don't be down, you are the one in control and you need to remember that.

Cloudbusting by Kate Bush. Whimsical. Remembering how it once was. Remembering the good times. Trying to forget the bad times. But the bad times keep rolling around in her brain, causing her to get more upset as the time goes on.

Sadness Part I by Enigma. Sadness turing to hatred turning to fights that will bring our wonderful couple to their knees. Whatever comes in the future will not be good. It will be sad, bad and really really nasty.

Firestarter by Prodigy. Yes, at the end of the story there will be a fire. But I'm not certain yet if it will be his house or hers. Will somebody die? They must. Insanity. This song is about pure insanity. No control over your actions.

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I'm not sure if the final draft of the novel will include the emotions generated by these songs, but I do know I will continue to listen to music as I write.

What are your favorite songs to listen to when you write?

2005 NaNo Novel Inspired by The Barenaked Ladies

A couple of days ago I admitted that I won't be writing NaNoWriMo again as the process of churning out a fast, unedited 50,000 words in a month has stopped working for me. I need to learn to edit. So late last night I went rummaging through my files and I found an old NaNo Novel from 2005 called "The Old Apartment." All I can say is WOW, I can actually write!

Unfortunately, I have lost the text file due to a computer crash, but I am lucky enough to have a printed copy. My plan now is to spend some time re-typing the manuscript back into the computer. While I'm typing I hope that inspiration will strike and I'll do some editing at the same time. This is all new to me, and I hope I'm going to learn how to edit as I go through this process. If I ever hope to have a finished novel, I must do this.

A little on the novel. The novel was inspired by the song "The Old Apartment" by The Barenaked Ladies. I just love the lyrics, as they tell a story themselves. I find music to be a great inspiration for writing and I usually have a certain playlist that I use for each NaNo novel that I write. I'll publish my 2005 list tomorrow so you all can see where my musical mind was in November of 2005. Until tomorrow, check out the Barenaked Ladies video below.

Why NaNoWriMo Isn't Working For Me

I knew this would happen sooner or later. I can no longer complete a NaNoWriMo writing session and I think I know why.

This past June I attempted Camp NaNo with some of my writer friends. I could only get 15,000 words out before I just plum gave up. Camp NaNoWriMo is held in June or August and is the smaller cousin of NaNoWriMo held in November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month. It is suppose to be a fun way to get a novel (or novella if you are counting words) out of the writer's head and on to the page, ready for editing. But I have failed yet again.

I have lost my desire to forcefully push words out of my head, through my typing hands, and into my open office document. One month of hard writing, ignoring the dishes, and being grumpy for lack of sleep has finally lost it's appeal. And why is that? After more than 11 attempts of going through this crazy writing process, I have discovered that I have a hard time completing the next step. I have a hard time with EDITING. And I'm fairly sure it's because the NaNo novels are pure crap writing. Not nearly polished enough to even be considered a first draft. They are more of a zero draft.

One of my NaNo novels has a good chance at becoming a finished product. The story is good. It keeps me amused enough that I could see myself spending countless hours editing the heck out of the sentences to get them worthy of publishing. But my major problem is I have a hard time getting down to editing. Oh sure, I know what needs to be done. It's sort of like an overweight person who knows how to keep a food diary, and how to exercise, but she just doesn't do the work to lose the weight.

So what is holding me back? Is it fear of success? Fear of failure? Fear that I am not a good enough writer and that I'm wasting my time piecing together enough words to form a complete novel?

And there it is: my greatest pet peeve. Wasting Time.

The funny thing is that the more I procrastinate about editing my work, the more time I am wasting. So in truth, I am doing the exact thing I hate most. This realization has given me new motivation to get moving on my novel projects. No more NaNoWriMo. From now on it's all about editing. This next year I am going to prove to myself that I can complete a novel and it will be worthy of publishing.

How are you doing with your writing?

"Remember Newvember" is published!

I've just completed a great project with a dear friend of mine, Jennifer Bogart. I helped her get her cover designed and prepared for Amazon Kindle. It is very exciting and I've just popped in to show it off.

Presenting:
Remember Newvember!

The cool thing about this Kindle cover, is that Jennifer created a "real collage" and then sent me the scanned image to create the cover. I feel this adds a very personal touch to the work. I loved doing this work and I can't wait to get to more of the same.

Illustration and Paintings

Illustration and Paintings, a set on Flickr.

Some of my ACEO art cards and mixed media paintings I've been working on.

Process of Writing my Ebook

I’ve been watching the success of many authors on the Amazon Kindle ebook website and in truth I’ve been envious. I want to have a book available for the world to read as well. So I’ve finally made that promise to myself that I will have an ebook available at Amazon by the end of this year. No more excuses. No more procrastination. I will do this. And it will be fun!

I’ve created this blog to document as I go along. I expect I may go off on tangents, as I have many artistic interests that sometimes get in the way of writing. For instance, I am a graphic designer by day, and even though my book is not fully polished (nor fully written for that matter) I am dreaming of what kind of cover I am going to design. I see that many ebook authors are trying to save money by creating their book covers themselves. Since many do not have graphics training, some of those covers are, to say the least, ugly. With a capital “U”. And some are very good. I hope that mine will be in the very good category. We will have to see.

As for the topic of my novel, I have chosen a classic story to retell in my way. I love the theme of Cinderella and that is what I’ll be taking on for this novel. I kept thinking about the earthquakes in Japan and the problems they are having with the nuclear plant, and I kept thinking that if I had been exposed to fatal amounts of radiation, and I only had a few months to live, what kind of book would I like to read to help pass the time until death? That is the book I am writing. My own feel-good book that would satisfy the happy side.

Wish me luck. I’m sure this is going to be a learning process.