The Voice of the Guide Vocal

Well, I’m back into the cycle of not being able to sleep, as I find myself awake for about two hours now, and it’s 3:40 AM as I write this, so it’s safe to say I’m not sleeping well–again.  The only good thing about this is being able to see some of the demented crap showing up on my Facebook page this early in the morning.  These people are my friends?  How did that happen?

So I’m awake, starting to write (but only here; my head isn’t clean enough to work on my story), and listening to music.  Later I need to do a Skype test, because tomorrow I need to speak with someone via that medium, and I have a new mic I want to try.

Yesterday was a whole day of writing.  Besides the blog post, I managed a little over fifteen hundred words on Chapter Four, which is starting to become a monster chapter.  The big scene in it is coming up today, so I’ll get that dusted off and written, and perhaps get into Chapter Five after that.  I think I can finished Chapter Four in a thousand words–I think.  I have to see where the story is going.

Really, this story is going off wildly in some ways.  For the current chapter I only had two images in mind, but so far I’ve covered one of those, a list of fetishes, and some swearing in Latin.  I’ve yet to get to the second image, and once I do I wonder if another will come to mind–

Probably not.  The voice in my head that is pointing me down this path seems to feel that after the last image is written, the chapter is finished.

That voice is my muse, but it could also be something more mysterious, like The Guide Vocal, which is from a song, in case you didn’t know.  The Guide Vocal doesn’t say much, but it’s first stanza speaks volumes:

 

I am the one who guided you this far
All you know and all you feel
Nobody must know my name
For nobody would understand
And you kill what you fear

 

I’m down with killing what you fear, because I finally understand that concept from the point of the writing game.  That’s, to me, the killing of your dream–because like it or not, writers fear their dream.  We wonder what will come of this exercise some of us do daily; we think about what would happen if we make it; we consider the possibility that we’ll write and write and write, and little will come out of it save fifty thousand a year and the satisfaction of getting to do what you like doing.

But there is a dark side here, oh yes.  It’s the always-with-you-fear that nothing will happen, that we’ll write and write, and at the end of it all we’ll have a hard drive full of stories and a lot of postings that show up on free sites.  It’s the fear that we’ll have wasted enormous quantities of time, and we’ll remain hidden in the shadows.

I struggle with this every day.  I always wonder if, with the stories I have on my computer, I should bother writing anymore, because I’ve only published two things, and they’ve not really went anywhere.

Ah, but this guide vocal is not my Muse.  I’m not sure what it is, but it’s a completely different creature.  For now it’s there pulling me along, showing me a path.  I know, however, that in time the following will occur:

 

I call you for I must leave
You’re on your own until the end
There was a choice but now it’s gone
I said you wouldn’t understand
Take what’s yours and be damned

 

Of those last few lines, I have my own ideas what they mean.

Your mileage, however, will likely vary a hell of a lot.

 

 

Guide Vocal lyrics by Tony Banks, copyright 1979.

The Future Epiphany

Readers of this blog know that I like to listen to music.  Not so much the music that is pandered about these days, but rather the music of my youth—which is to say, strange music.  I was into a lot of things from the late 1960’s to the early 1980’s, but for a while, in the middle there, I was heavily into progressive rock.

One of the groups I listened to quite a lot was Genesis.  Foxtrot was the first album of note that I remember (because it was played on the radio), but I remember having Selling England By the Pound, and then on to Wind and Wuthering and Seconds Out, skipping The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and A Trick of the Tail.  After the various breakups I also bought And Then There Were Three . . . and Duke—

And it’s last that has me wondering what sort of things are going on in my mind.

See, back in 1979 we didn’t have an Internet.  No, don’t tell me we did:  I know what you’re trying to say, and I’m talking about an Internet I could access without having NORAD.  Chill, okay?  Back to my point . . . It was difficult, at best, to get news about certain things that we today take for granted.  Today if you want to know about albums and tours, you hop online and just about anything you want is at your Google-capable fingertips.  Back in my day, if you wanted to get the lowdown on stuff like, say, lyrics, you had to get the album and read the liner notes, or you bought a—gasp!—magazine.

I like the Duke album a lot, though I didn’t play it as much as I could as I was going to school at the time, and most of my days and nights were caught up with working and studying.  I never had the chance to see Genesis in concert, so when they were touring in support of Duke, I missed the story Phil Collins told at the start of the six-song Duke Suite:  The Story of Albert.

Today I know about this story because I’ve watched, more than a few times, the recording made at the Lyceum Ballroom, London, on 7 May, 1980.  It’s out on YouTube, so watch it if you have a couple of hours and you want to hear some historic music, and see the way people used to perform.  I’ve even heard the Story of Albert many times as well, though I didn’t feel a connection until the other day—

The story starts out, “Albert . . . was a born loser . . .” He never did anything right, he was one of life’s failures.  There was a problem, however:  “Albert fell in love with a lady:  The Duchess.”  There were problems here, though, ‘cause “The Duchess was a domineering lady:  she was into S and M.”  And this led to other problems because Albert didn’t speak Spanish, so The Duchess kicked his ass out.  Poor Albert.

So where is this going?

About the thirtieth time I’d heard this story, the light went on, and I was blinded by the following revelation:  in my story Transporting, one of the main characters is named Albert, and he is pretty much a born loser as well.  Not only that, but he meets a woman who kidnaps him and hauls his butt off to the future.  That woman is used to getting her way, because she was Cytheria, also known by her title:  The Duchess.

And once in the future, Albert couldn’t help but fall in love . . .

I didn’t begin writing Transporting until 1989, so ten years had passed between the time I put words to computer and the moments when The Story of Albert was being told in concert halls around the world.  I never saw those concerts, nor did I even know of this story until last year.

Was there some kind of connection there, my mind somehow picking up a bit of creativity floating about that decided to impart this knowledge, and make is serve as the basis for a story that was going to consume a large part of my life for the last couple of decades?  I have no idea.  But now I do wonder about how it is we come up with ideas such as mine, which seemed to have been influenced by a story I’d never heard until 2012.

Or maybe . . .

It sets up an interesting scene I want to do for a story now.  Since Cytheria and Albert can travel about in time, and since the dates of the Lyceum Ballroom concerts are so close to the time of their birthdays (I don’t even want to consider the coincidences there), they go back to stand in the crowd and hear the concert.  And when Phil gets to telling the Story of Albert, my Albert turns to his lady love and reiterates how he was a born loser, but eventually he fell in love with The Duchess . . . and Cytheria reminds him, “But you don’t know Spanish, so I’ll have to throw you out.”

And then they’ll laugh and spend the next thirty minutes holding each other as the music plays.

Sometimes I amaze myself with these things.

Pure and Easy

I’m on a semi-crazy bend today.  Don’t know why, but even with all the irritating stuff that’s coming up and hitting me this morning, I’m still optimistic.  Why is that, you say?

Hell, man.  If I knew, I’d tell you.

Part of it just looking around and seeing the hilarity of what others are doing.  Not naming any name–no, I’d never do that–but this struck me as a bit of hilarity today, so I had to get Morpheus in on the action:

 

 

Yes, that’s me, getting all snarky about someone using NaNoWriMo as sort of a launching pad for everything but writing.  I mean, I’ve just edged over twenty-eight thousand words this morning, on my way to thirty thousand, because I want to do this story, I want to write this novel, and I get sorta . . . irritated when I see others who say they’re writing not bothering to make an effort.

I know:  First World Problems, right?  Screw it.  I know people in the NaNo game who are breaking their butts to get it done, and there’s nary a note of discord from them.  But you know people:  sometimes drama is more important than actually doing something, and more power to them if that’s their bag.

It’s not mine, so don’t be too offended when I go all funing on ya.

The other thing that’s making me feel good is related to the title of the post.  Pure and Easy is, and always has been, one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands.  The song arose out of what was going to be The Who’s followup to Tommy, a rock opera called Lifehouse, about a world where music, particularly rock music, didn’t exist.  It was a hell of a concept to put to music, and because of–shall we say “creative differences” between the members of The Who–the album, as envisioned, never came to be.

(Though if you are really interested to see what this may have become, you can slap together the play list found in the link above, or consider checking out Lifehouse Chronicles, the six CD box set Pete Townshend put together in 2000.  I should get this; I really should.)

Pure and Easy struck a chord with me today, which is what the song is about:  finding the note inside that will liberate each of us to find our own dreams and make them real.  Or, as Pete wrote:

 

We all know success when we all find our own dreams
And our love is enough to knock down any wall
And the future’s been seen as men try to realize
The simple secret of the note in us all

 

That’s a powerful statement, one that is pushing me today.  Again, I know not why, but the song feels like liberation, and the sings of the ability to bring forth something that is within–

All you have to do if find it, become one with it, and making it part of your life until you die.

That’s what I feel with my writing.  I moaned at length about how it seem so many get tons of crap for wanting to follow their dream.  Well, this is why they bitch:  because they can never hear the note.  They will never know the joy and beauty that lay within, that will bring the noise to those who will eventually ride your star.

For them, there is no music within the words.

And they are the worst for it.

The Rhythm of Words

Here is something that’s happened to me sometimes.  I have found myself working on a story, and it doesn’t seem to want to move forward.  It stalls; it digs in like a rented mule.  You go in little lurches until you reach the point where you likely give up, thinking you’ll pick up the story later.

I couldn’t do that, however, because I was working on a chapter that I needed to post today.  Like it or not, I needed to get through this sucker and finish it up.

But something else tends to happen as well.  Maybe it’s a lack of distractions, or I’m comfortable with knowing where the story goes, or perhaps I get into the music I’m playing as I write, but I found my rhythm last night.  I found something, because, just like magic, I headed off into Storyland and wrote like mad.

Originally I thought that I might end up with about twelve hundred to fourteen hundred words total.  By the time I was through, I ended up just short of twenty-four hundred words–about double what I expected.  And those last fourteen hundred words came forth like water bursting from a fire hose.

I’ve had this happen plenty of times before.  It happened with my first published story, and it happened at times when I was writing my NaNo novel.  Maybe it’s the music I play:  I’ve had times when the music seems wrong for what I’m doing, and I can’t plow onward.  Other times the music comes across so uplifting, that I can rip out fifteen to eighteen hundred words in an hour.

Maybe it was the fact that I knew what I wanted to do in the story, and like that–Zoom!  I was off and writing.

I’m a great believer that there should be routines you have for your writing, that if you feel comfortable with the door locked and absolute silence, go with that; or if you need death metal blasting from your speakers so you can come up with something sweet and romantic, then let that be your muse.

I’ve changed my routines a few times, but I do prefer writing early in the morning, recharging, then writing late at night, say from 7 to 10:30 PM.  Don’t know why, but working right up until I’m ready for bed works well for me.  Maybe it’s because I have a “day job”, and the only real time I have for writing are during those hours.

This will be my time for NaNo, and I don’t see myself as doing three thousand words a day like I did last year.  I’m probably going to have moments where I hit the minimum, maybe get two thousand a night, and maybe get three thousand during the weekends, but I would be very surprised if I do better than that.

Now that the Harper Voyager deal is out of the way, I can get to work on plotting for NaNo, and writing the last couple of chapters of my Halloween story (you can find the first chapter here, and the second here), and get a book review finished.

Yeah, yeah, I know:  this is what writers do.

So get busy writing.

Songs in the Key of Writing

Today, Scott Bury is back with me, and we’re talking about songs that describe a novel that you’re writing, or written.  And Scott . . . yeah, he’s got lots of music.

Enjoy.

 

 

 

The soundtrack

 

This week’s topic for the TTC Master Koda Virtual Blog Tour is songs that fit with their book. I have thought for a while that it might be possible to link a soundtrack to an ebook, especially if you’re reading on a tablet.

So, here is my suggestion for a soundtrack for my novel.

The Bones of the Earth begins with a moonlight fertility right led by the village shaman, Vorona. The music for that scene would have to start with a strong, complex and ancient drum-beat. Realistically, that would have to be an ancient Slavic rhythm. But to translate the feeling to today’s audience, Chris Isaak’s In the Heat of the Jungle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7AN3TptvHo does it perfectly (the music does; this video is kind of stupid, but it’s the only one of this song on the ’net). If that’s not long enough, something like Soul Sacrifice (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3Cjr32QyI) by Santana would flow nicely afterward.

Sturm und drang would fit the next chapter, where my main character and his best friend chase Avar horsemen across the meadows at the feet of the Carpathian mountains. The opening of Haydn’s Symphony no. 49 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ9-tYvTTOE) has the stressful, yet quiet tone right for the beginning, while the louder and more rhythmic later movements would be a good accompaniment for the tragedy at the end of the chapter.

Of course, the scene where Javor and Photius encounter Ghastog would be best accompanied by the music of Tom Waits. He’s got exactly the right kind of gravelly, tortured voice for the scene in the monster’s cave. As they approach the cave, something like Yesterday is Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbvzYii3z0I) has just the right tone, and suggests the antiquity of the scene; then in the cave, Way Down in the Hole (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymBaAsSqDE), and finally, Bad as Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Ta3H-ck6s&feature=related).

Now, you have to read the book (hint) to get these next few, but Train in Vain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYK7bEo1Z4M) by the Clash fits the next scene.

Part 2 could be accompanied by Bob Dylan’s Things Have Changed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EKqQWPjyo&ob=av2e), Riders on the Storm by the Doors (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_eQGsbHhDo)and then Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01UOKCA2jHY) for the scenes across Dacia.

Later, Lost Together by Blue Rodeo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8JGk6Y6N3Y) works, followed by Like a Hurricane by Neil Young (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obfci1CIqq8). As our characters approach the Roman outpost, Tom Waits steps back to the microphone with A Little Drop of Poison (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aTvELXNXNU).

Then, back to some sturm und drang — more Haydn and Mozart, too, for the most epic scene ever according to one reviewer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lC1lRz5Z_s).

Part 3 could open with It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aklSlMthc). You know I had to get Springsteen in there, somewhere. Then, it could blend into the Boss’s The Angel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnZOjMZaw8c).

Toward the end, I’d put in Love, Reign O’er Me by the Who (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygOaNo3M_Hw). Then we go back to Chris Isaak for Baby did a Bad, Bad Thing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWf7cT8CTDI). Then I would play more Tom Waits: for the arrival of Stuhach and its cronies and then the Kobolds, Raised Right Men (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9uTo_KBBAw) fits just right.

Everything is Broken by Bob Dylan could come next, then One of These Days by Pink Floyd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTrNQCYh70Y).

For the final confrontation, I’d start with the overture to Wagner’s Tannhauser (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgpOctKSwp4), just to make sure the audience gets the myth I’m evoking. The Right Stuff from Brian Ferry’s glory 80s days (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW2cNGs5wnk) would follow nicely — just the right mood here. Then, if that’s not enough, how about Black Magic Woman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4gc8iBDaI) as performed by Santana (are you getting a feeling for my taste in music, yet?)

Finally, some really spooky stuff at the end: maybe Santana’s Jingo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAEcbNzLXiM), followed by Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8).

And for the epilogue: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, by U2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv-lKwOQvE).

But now, I’d like to hear from you: make some suggestions for music to accompany my book (you’ll have to read it, first, though ). Or maybe in the Comments section, tell Raymond and me about some songs you think would accompany your favourite books.

 

Hope to see lots of comments!

 

 

 

Scott Bury is a journalist, editor and writer living in Ottawa. His articles have been published in newspapers and magazines in Canada, the US, UK and Australia.

The Bones of the Earth is his first novel to be published.

He has two sons, an orange cat and a loving wife who puts up with a lot. You can read more of Scott’s writing at Written Words and Scott’s Travel Blog, and on his website, The Written Word. Follow him on Twitter @ScottTheWriter.

 

Links:

 

Blue Rodeo:

Lost Together, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8JGk6Y6N3Y

The Clash:

Train in Vain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYK7bEo1Z4M)

Bob Dylan:

Things Have Changed, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EKqQWPjyo&ob=av2e

The Doors:

Riders on the Storm, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_eQGsbHhDo

Brian Ferry:

The Right Stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW2cNGs5wnk

Josef Haydn:

Symphony no. 45, “Farewell,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm_OLznua6g Symphony no. 49, “The Passion”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ9-tYvTTOE

Chris Isaak:

In the Heat of the Jungle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7AN3TptvHo

Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWf7cT8CTDI

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, performed by the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Neville Mariner

Modeste Mussorgsky:

Night on Bald Mountain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8

Carl Orff:

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi from Carmina Burana, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01UOKCA2jHY

Pink Floyd:

One of These Days http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTrNQCYh70Y

Carlos Santana:

Black Magic Woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4gc8iBDaI Soul Sacrifice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3Cjr32QyI Jingo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAEcbNzLXiM

Bruce Springsteen:

The Angel, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnZOjMZaw8c It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aklSlMthc

U2:

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv-lKwOQvE

Richard Wagner, Tannhauser Overture, performed by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgpOctKSwp4

The Who:

Love, Reign O’er Me, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygOaNo3M_Hw

Tom Waits:

A Little Drop of Poison, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aTvELXNXNU Raised Right Men, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9uTo_KBBAw Yesterday is Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbvzYii3z0I Way Down in the Hole http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymBaAsSqDE Bad as Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Ta3H-ck6s&feature=related

Neil Young, Like a Hurricane, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obfci1CIqq8