Writing theme songs

All of my projects have at least one theme song attached to them, be it the whole book or an aspect of it.  I thought it might be interesting to list what they are and why.

Pirouette – all drafts (3rd draft in progress now):
 “Space Dye Vest” by Dream Theater.  I used this as Alisia and Lucien’s main “fighting” song.  It’s sad and torturous, and it brings up all kinds of heart-wrenching images in my head.  It just seemed perfect.

“Walk in the Shadows” by Queensryche – Raelan and Alisia’s theme.  In the last third of the book, [something spoilery happens] and for a time, Alisia and Raelan (who’s the villain) are….aligned.  This song, which talks about walking on the dark side of life, giving ino the darkness, fits the feeling of those scenes perfectly.

“The Killing Words” by Queensryche – Alisia and Lucien’s theme.  Just screams tragic, love, betrayal, heartbreaking stuff.  Sniff.

Flamebound (currently in revision):
“Take Hold of the Flame” by Queensryche.  The entire story is based on the song — or rather, my interpretation of it.  So many things tie to the world and story.

Survivor (recently finished first draft):
Operation: Mindcrime by Queensryche.  Yes, the entire album.  The book pretty much wrote itself to this awesome, magnificent album.  Since alot of the themes ran parallel to my story, it was almost eerie how the entire thing seemed like a metaphor for Survivor.  Some of it, like the brainwashing and mind control, were literal.

“Eyes of a Stranger” by Queensryche (on Operation:Mindcrime) – Amber’s theme.  Amber is the main character, and as she goes through some painful, traumatic stuff, she’s kind of transformed….and thus truly has the “eyes of a stranger.”

Requiem in Blue (2007 project)
“The Hands” by Queensryche – Meredith’s theme.  Meredith, the main character, is saved by someone.  “The Hands” makes me think of that, and salvation in general.

“Suite Sister Mary” by Queensryche – Some of the story was inspired by this song.  Especially one part about two people joining together to “make it through the night.”

Broken (currently in progress):
“Broken” by Lifehouse.  Also the why of the title, at least for now.  The song talks about being broken, and Amara, the main character, and the antagonist are both broken in a sense.

“Unbreakable” by Fireflight.  New band that I just discovered.  Totally Amara’s theme.  I realize that the songs seem contradictory, but it works, I swear!

Eowyn (perc’ing project for future):
“Ordinary World” by Duran Duran.  Theme of the book.  Because we’re dealing with quantum mechanics and alternate universes, and a “home” universe, it seems appropriate.

MindBound (future project):
“Lightning Field” by the Sneaker Pimps.  I saw a video of it and HAD to have the song, even though I’m not into that type of music.  Went on a wild goose chase and finally just today got ahold of it.  It’s THAT close to what this story is to me.  It (the story) has to do with an empath and pain and brainwashing, and the song is so perfect.  First words are “Strike me down…”  Can we say perfect?  Literal or figurative, it works. 

Soulfire (The Nano That Never Was):
“Lady Strange by Def Leppard.  Liana’s theme.  She’s the main character, and she isn’t exactly human and has non-human goals and wishes and such.  She’s a bit offbeat in her own way.

“Baba O’Riley” by The Who.  Book’s theme.  Completely encapsulates the dystopic future-Earth setting and the insidious reach of the New Regime.

Hereafter (Nano ’08):
“Women” by Def Leppard.  For no other reason than it gave me some compelling images inside my head, and somehow spawned plotty things.  This one I don’t really understand, but don’t question it, either.

At the moment, that’s all I can think of.  Will add more if I remember anything.

Getting back on track, finally.

Had a few days I lost to a personal issue that made concentrating difficult, and writing just wasn’t in the cards.  Happily, things worked out okay and I’m getting back into the swing.  I rewrote the current scene, changing where it needed to be changed and weaving in some new stuff.  I need to backtrack and rewrite the previous scene.  Currently, it’s in two pieces and needs to be combined.  In a coherent manner.  Why am I doing this?  Well, the scene didn’t feel right, the emotions all fuzzy, and it was just wrong.  I usually just know when this happens.  Something feels off.  And I can’t move on if it’s like this.  Only reason why I went to the next scene was to bring up my wordcount for MayNoWriMo.  Normally, I’d fix it and move on, but I was 2 days behind.  I’m still hoping to get my 12k.

Soooooooo that needs doing.  But yay, I’m on the last 25k of the book.  109k rewritten/revised.  I have high hopes of finishing it this month, leaving June free to take off.  Possibly.  I don’t know yet, because momentum is important. 

This little mini-break felt all wrong.  It was 2 days, but it felt like 2 months.  I don’t like stopping when I’m going strong.  But trust me when I say that I wasn’t in a very good headspace.  So, recognizing that, I backed off.  Sometimes you need to, despite what your pain in the ass Inner Slave Driver might say.

But I’m only 1 day behind now, so we’re getting there.

On the Surrender front, I’ve got the major stuff figured out.  The part that’s killing me is the main characters’ names. Because the names of the characters are being used for Darkweaver (if you recall, the plot was split) and they work for that book better, I need to come up with new names.  And with names, it has to at least feel somewhat right.  Maybe not perfect, because a few names I’ve used I came up with on the fly, and they ended up working (whereas normally I’d give it some thought first) but they have to feel okay.  Original name was Wynd.  Well, Wynd was a vampire and now she’s Fae, so she needs a different name.  Although Wynd could work because of the whole nature thing, but I need Wynd for Darkweaver.  Decisions, decisions.  I’ve been looking at Irish names.  There are some beautiful names.  Siobhan is one of them, but the pronounciation is killing me (I pronounce it See-oh-ben and the correct pronunciation is Shee-vaughn.  Does not work for me).  Alas, I can’t do anything without the name.  With the male lead, same story.  Only one that’s staying the same is Ashe, the other main character.  And that I considered for a long time.  Thought about switching them: making my Fae Ashe and the other MC something else, but Ashe is Ashe.  She’s always been Ashe from day 1.  So it stays.

So that’s been bothering me a bit.  Luckily, this one is in perc’ing stage, so there’s no rush.

WTF?

My muse just came up with a really neat, kick-ass way to make Surrender better (and a bit better for today’s market as I wrote the first draft 7 years ago).  And I love it.  And I want to write it.  And now I have yet another book to rewrite.

Someone, stop my muse, please.  This is getting out of hand.

MayNoWriMo

Because I’m crazy, I’ve joined MayNo this year.  Never done it before, but hey, there’s a first time for everything, right?  My goal is 12k, which is just a smidge higher than my highest wordcount all year so far (11k).  It averages to about 400 words a day.  Plan is to finish Pirouette the Third a month early if possible, and if I do finish it before the end of the month, I’ll be working on either Flamebound or Broken or both.  Also, I have some ideas on Pirouette the Third’s opening scene.  So that’s good.

I hit just under 11k for April, and a made my goal for April Fools and then doubled it, and made that too.  So I’m just rolling along.

Made my goal and then doubled it

My original April Fools goal was 5k.  Well, as of today, with one week to go in the month, I have hit 10k.  I’ve had a few really good days with Pirouette the Third.  I’m at a critical plot point, and it’s becoming a bit longer than I planned, but I’m sure I can condense it later.  Forward motion.  That’s the name of the game.

I realized today that I left something important out of the past oh, 10k or so (!!!!??).  Oddly enough, I had the same problem in draft 2, same place, too.  What is my problem?  Well, I’ve been focusing on it scene-by-scene, building as I go and focusing on just that instead of looking at the big picture.  Looking at the bigger picture is overwhelming as hell because there’s still so much to fix.  So yeah, I dropped the ball.  But fear not!  I’ll get it going right.  I may need more passes before the actual revision, but that’s okay.  I’m still on track to finish this draft by the end of June.

Hopefully sooner.

I also seem to have lost the edge of Alisia’s voice.  This is a bit distressing, but I think it has more to do with that whole scene-by-scene thing.  Still it’s something that can be fixed.

Okaaaay.  Other projects are coming along. Lesson 7 on HTRYN is almost done, thank God!  It’s a complex lesson, but helpful.  Broken is hanging there, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it.  And pieces of Eowyn are falling into place.

I also have more ideas for MindBound, book 2 in the Night Guard world.  Still looking to submit it somewhere sometime this year.  I would like to have some ideas in case they want a sequel.  They being the publisher.  I would hope so.

Yeah, so it’s all coming along.  I feel alot better, more productive, and the ISD is *gasp* pretty satisifed with my progress this week alone.  So that’s good.  It’s always good when she’s happy.

Update on things

Survivor  is almost finished, and I have almost 40k done in new words.  Pretty darned cool.  It is on hold for a bit while I’m working on Flamebound.  I needed a breather, so this works.  I will be finishing Survivor up by the end of the year for sure, barring any catastrophies. 

The shoulder/back is still really bad.  Had an MRI (hello, claustrophobia!) and no evidence of a rotator cuff tear or partial tear, which is good news.  I’ve been diagnosed with burstitis.  I can’t believe how painful it is.  I start P.T. sometime in the next week or so.

I started on Flamebound and am halfway done with the first draft.  It’s doing pretty well.  I’m happy with it so far, despite the Block of Doom last night.  I ended up ripping out 2 scenes that just were’t working and rewriting them.  Hopefully, this new stuff will be better.

Since I’m looking at trying to get this published after an edit/revision, my inner editor has been banging me over the head with a lot of insults and taunting, which is not good for drafting.  I’m very hard on myself anyways, but this has been a bit worse.  But I’m moving forward regardless.  I hope to have it done by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Sometime before the end of the year, I’d like to take a crack at Pirouette’s edit/revision.  Which means at minimum, it prolly won’t be done this year.  Which is okay.  I needed the time away, and I believe the story will be better for it.  Maybe 2009 will be the Year of the Agent.  We just never know.

Been also writing poetry for my chapbook, Life as a Moving Target.  I started it in 2004 and it’s basically done, but I wanted to write some new material.  Let’s just say that life has inspired me again.  I’ve shopped it around on and off for the past 4 years with no bites, so my intention is to edit the manuscript again and get it out the door either this year or the beginning of 2009.

The chapbook is about living with fibromyalgia and intractable vertigo.  One of my goals since being diagnosed was to educate the public about both of these conditions.  While fibro is talked about more, there are still people who don’t know it exists, and how it can profoundly affect a person’s life.  And still others don’t believe it even exists, which is so sad.

So that’s what’s going on right now.  Busy, working through this burtitis, trying to get as much done as humanely possible.

Numbers from vacation week: 16k.  Yes, in ONE week.  My personal best ever.  Had a few 3k days that pushed me over the edge there.

Year to date: 187k.  Very happy with those numbers.

Things are good.  I’m pretty happy.  I’m convinced that good things are coming my way.