Week 6 -- Music

Okay, I'm taking myself down a notch. I'm making this writing journal harder than need be. Often I do this at the start of something new.

You know what is a sad reality? Good storytelling is hard to come by. I think we're still striving for the best and not quite meeting the mark. I think we need innovative people to enlighten us so that we won't settle for garbage. The snobs need to rise up and declare war. I'm tired of going to a film and feeling bored.

The worst criticism for any type of storytelling isn't failure; it's boredom.

I think the key to my writing is listening to music. In the song world, where you are only allotted a handful of minutes to prove yourself, the lyrics, beats, so on and so forth, have to be brilliant to last beyond the cliche of a billboard chart. If you want a timeless tune, it has to speak beyond its own generation; it has to connect with people (duh).

When writing, I listen to just about anything at least once. Depending on what type of setting or mode I'm trying to create, I'll listen to certain genres. If I can't get myself to write, I listen to the worst pop I can find -- although, I think my reservoir for this is on overload and I may just ban myself from public radio for the next year.

Here's the thing, I think the problem with most people, most things, most everything -- is that people are too freaked out to think, and then sometimes they embellish so much that their imagination doesn't know how to chart what's happening and turn what's occurring into something productive, and not just a landscape of unpolished creative ideas. It's important to both be free spirited and responsible. The imagination needs to be carved, not an ambiguous entity.

And leaving thy imagination alone creates dismal settings... the murder of my soul.

I think the first step for the author is to know that characters have lives of their own, and if you try to make them do exactly what you want, they're going to turn into boxed, second rate mess. So what I learned some time ago is that instead of trying to plan out every little piece of a character's life, I should instead listen to music, lay down, make sure there are no distractions, and allow my brain to make a story on the spot with whatever character I decide owns the story at that point, and huzzah -- recipe for success.

You can't truly know your characters until you throw them into the music world and force them to be active, just sitting there and trying to tact qualities is idle's play. What's your barbarian going to do if you turn on a hypnotic hippie song from the 60s?

During this time, I let my mind have a passion draft. If dragons are suddenly in westerns, then so be it. Sometimes I have to fight my mind when it thinks something is playing out rationally; the rational needs to be found later. In fact, if I listen long enough, lets say through a whole album of 12 songs or so, generally speaking a narrative forms itself whether or not I'm forcing it. But the important thing is to give the story to the characters, to let them show you who they are and what needs they have, what makes them vulnerable, and what makes them all around tick. The best advice I've ever been given is this:

"The great thing about advice is that you the listener are the one who decides what you are going to take out of another's advice."

Same goes for this exercise. Take what you can out of it.

Often times the best music is instrumental; I think if you're only trying to think in visuals, taking out the chance for words to preach helps significantly.

Anyway, as someone who fancies film, this not only helps in story building but in thinking visually. The mind should be something that challenges the film industry; it should be capable of making images in thought that we don't have the technology to match, and for whatever reason, music helps me to have a grip on my characters.

Also, music is structured just like any other form of storytelling. It has its beginning lines, its main message, its repetitive nature, and its limited cultural contexts. It works off pattern building, and right down to the second, it has to make everything matter to the ears or it will be turned off.