Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts

Genius writing advice, or why my friend B is brilliant

Text conversation:

Me: This page is very white and blank. *glares at it*

B: Quick! Type your favorite word on it.

Me: *does*

B: See?  You can't glare at your favorite word.

And she's right.  And the page isn't blank anymore.  And I can probably just do a "Find/Delete" on all instances of "defenestration" before I call this manuscript done.

The no-longer-blank page now has 200 words it didn't have 20 minutes ago.  Only one of them refers to throwing someone out of a window.

Music Monday is full of luuuurve this week

I was going to celebrate the 80's this week, which probably tells you how much attention I pay to Valentine's Day, but I remembered this morning that it's tomorrow, so here we are.  The following is one of my "Swoons" playlists, which take turns going on repeat when I need characters to look all starry-eyed at each other  Some of these may be a little on the morbid side, but this is, you know, me.


  • The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned):  Random fact: there are 572 songs in my iTunes library with "love" in the title, and this one may be the swooniest.  If "With this long last rush of air/let's speak our vows in starry whisper/and when the waves came crashing down/he closed his eyes and softly kissed her" isn't the prettiest love-lyric ever written, it's close.  
  • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Brompton Oratory
  • Nick Drake - Northern Sky
  • Ryan Adams - Desire
  • Feist - Secret Heart
  • The Civil Wars - Dance Me to the End of Love (Leonard Cohen cover)
  • The Swell Season - In These Arms
  • Army of Me - Love Song
  • Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life
  • Okkervil River - Mermaid:  Another contender for swooniest lyric.  "My hands meet, and they press to a point in the air/but my mouth fills with more panic than prayer/and my skull fills with more color than care/and my heart fills with love, with too much love to bear."
  • The National - Slow Show
  • Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
  • The Smiths - There is a Light That Never Goes Out
  • The Cure - Lovesong
  • Suede - By the Sea
What song makes you swoon?



In honor of Record Store Day

As with my first post, this one is going to be focused on music.  You're going to find that a lot on this blog, because it's about me and my identity - along with writer and various other things - is music nerd to a degree that embarrasses her friends.  As discussed in the first post, I can't separate the two in my head.  They're kind of the mischievous twins who rule my life.

Today, as some of you may know, is Record Store Day.  This is an international event aimed at celebrating independent record stores and reminding people what awesome resources they are.  Many bands are offering exclusive, special RSD releases, so check out www.recordstoreday.com and find your nearest participating store.  Me, I'll be heading down to mine soon in the hopes of snagging the new Panda Bear (otherwise known as Noah Lennox) on vinyl, crossing my fingers that it's as amazingly good as his last, Person Pitch.

On that note, I'm going to share one of the "mood music" playlists I put on when I'm trying to evoke a specific mood or tone from a scene.  I have many of them, and as long as it doesn't make readers throw whatever the web equivalent of rotten tomatoes is at my blog, I'll share them with some degree of regularity. 

And because I'm excited about the new Panda Bear, I'm sharing one he makes a few appearances on - as a solo artist, a guest vocalist, and with his main group, the incredible Animal Collective.

This is a playlist for characters sitting on a beach on a summer night, swinging on the swings in the park at 3 am, floating in dreams, or not hurrying that walk in the rain - at least, that's what it does for me.  Your mileage may vary, but hopefully the trip will go somewhere fun.

  • Atlas Sound - Walkabout (ft. Noah Lennox)
  • Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky
  • Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
  • Delorean - Simple Graces
  • Caribou - Odessa
  • Beach House - Take Care
  • Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire
  • Panda Bear - Take Pills
  • Avey Tare - Lucky 1
  • The Faint - Fish in a Womb
  • Phantogram - Running from the Cops