Love Actually

I'm listening to the soundtrack of Love Actually (2003) as I write a particularly melancholy section of my novel, Searching for Rachel Edelstein.

I wonder what music I will have to find for the more uplifting portions of the book. Can't be this, although I do like it a lot. Plus, as I think about it, the ending is very uplifting. So maybe I can stick with this.

We will see.

I'm ahead of schedule and at this pace will reach 50,000 words well before Nov. 30. That's the main goal. But I haven't matched my secret writing goals, the ones I try not to mention aloud. If I grunt it out today, perhaps I will get close. Like I said, we will see.

Writing is work and I am lazy. But I have to get back to it. The novel won't write itself.

Thanks for reading.

Posting problems

Sorry I haven't posted anything in about a week. I had intended to post earlier this week -- on Monday, to be frank -- but as many of you know, I am somewhat tech-challenged. For some reason I couldn't log on to my blog, except on my iPhone. And the screen is far too small for me to write a post on that.

I held my breath this evening and tried logging on and so here I am.

Just so you know, my next post is going to be on writing effective endings to short stories. A member of my critique group recently brought in an article on the subject of short story engings and it had what I belief are, at best, controversial suggestions, and at worst, just plain wrong suggestions.

But that should be for tomorrow.

For now, I just want to add to my list of enjoyable items to listen to as I write. (I mentioned the subject in a blog two weeks ago.) On YouTube I found a tape of an orchestra concert with uber-composer John Williams in piano playing the theme from the film Sabrina, the Harrison Ford version in the 1990s. Say what you will about this remake -- and a lot of people, including my wife, don't care for it -- the music, however, is great. The Williams score, with Sting singing the song Moonlight at the end, is just wonderful.

I like the story and I enjoy the Harrison Ford version as much as the 1954 version with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. (Although Julia Ormond is beautiful, she doesn't hold a candle to Helpburn in the title role. Hepburn was the personification of frail beauty as Sabrina.)

Anyway, I am at this moment enjoying listening to John Williams playing the theme to the film. It's good music and good writing. And I love good writing no matter what type it is.

Makes me want to work harder to be better.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and get back to the laptop and write.

What are you listening to?

I meant to write this on Friday but I had a writing assignment due and I just ran out of time.

For some time now, I have been listening to a single piece of music as I write. It's been about six weeks. The music is from Meet Joe Black, the thoroughly pedantic 1998 film starring Brad Pitt, who plays an extremely handsome Death, and Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays an extremely rich businessman whom Death is about to take. (Yes, it does sound like a remake of the 1933 film, Death Takes a Holiday.)

Now, I like the idea of both movies -- death taking a day or two off. But Joe Black is maddeningly slow and a painful three hours in length. But I love the film. Yet for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. Finally, it dawned on me. It's the music. Thomas Newman's soundtrack draws me in and makes the emotional connection that action on the screen often doesn't seem to do.

Specifically, I love That Next Place, the music that plays at the end of the film. The full version is more than 10 minutes long and I can play it comfortably in the background as I write. I can hear it but it doesn't distract.

Oddly enough, another shorter piece (not from the film) that I enjoy is -- wait for it! -- The Mission by John Williams. It is the theme for the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, although you only hear a few seconds of it at the end of broadcasts.

I like the music, for some reason, and can easily write when it is playing. Who knew?

What do you like to listen to when you write, or when you need something playing in the background? I'd love to know.

Thanks for reading. Hope you come back.

Music

Not much to say today. It's been raining and I have been inside most of the day attending to some freelance work. (I did take my mom to a viewing of a woman who attended my mom's church. We mostly got in, signed the book, sat for a few minutes and got out, though I did say a few words to the poor woman's grieving husband.)

Since it has been gloomy outside all day and I didn't have any sunlight through the window to brighten my day, playing music while I work has been very important. I have been going between One of a Kind, a CD by Dave Grusin, and a recording of The Planets by Gustav Holst, with two selections by John Williams tacked on at the end.

I am especially fond of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter on Grusin's CD. It is probably my favorite music. It lifts my spirits when I am happy or, if I'm sad, leaves me feeling melancholy. It's such a great melody for either end of my emotional scale. (I also love the book of the same name, which was made into a film with that name in 1967. Grusin wrote music for the film.)

The Planets is a seven-movement composition and perhaps the Brit's most famous work. I particularly like Jupiter: the Bringer of Jollity, and Neptune: the Mystic. But it is one of the two pieces tacked on at the end of the CD that I listen to the most. It is a full orchestral suite for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It is great, uplifting music that I can play in the background as company and that I can enjoy without it distracting me.

So, what do you listen to when you write? Whatever it is, keep listening to it and keep writing.

Thanks for reading and don't give up.

Listening to music

I can't remember if I have written about this before but I love listening to music when I write. It puts me in the mood. Generally I go for instrumental music so that the vocals don't intrude and distract me. But there are some vocals I love to hear even when I write. They set a good mood without being distracting.

One of those selections is "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn. I love the song. It is imaginative and creative. And it makes me want to write better, to be better.

There are some art forms that inspire me to do better. Good writing is one, of course. Paintings, particularly Impressionism, can have that affect. But the thing that gets me going the most is music. The genius is so apparent, particularly for someone as thick as me.

So right now I am listening to "Walking" because it is a beautiful song. And it reminds me of my only visit to Memphis four years ago. I attended an NABJ regional convention and monitored a debate between candidates for president of NABJ.

But what was so wonderful about the trip is that I drove down to Memphis with a very special young college student whose name is a perfect description of her -- Special.

Though Special was attending college in suburban Indianapolis and I met her when I went there to talk to a group of communication students, she is from Memphis. And during the time I was there, Special and her mom drove me around one afternoon and showed me the sights. Graceland. The Lorraine Motel. The old Stax studio. Beale Street. We even went into Mississippi.

So when I listen to "Walking in Memphis" I think of the time I was walking in Memphis. The song touches me in some ways that others do not.

I feel inspired and write faster than normal. And right now, as I am working on finishing a first draft of THE DEATH OF ART, writing fast and getting it all down is the primary goal. Making it good is the goal of later drafts.

That is what music does for me. What does it do for you?

Thanks for reading. Listen to music and keep writing.