Tuesday, December 1, 2009

New Music Tuesday: My current writing soundtrack

Yesterday on the MTV Books blog, I posted about what motivates me to write and I also mentioned that I'm currently having a big old problem with focusing (you'll find all the details here), so I may be staying off the internetz over the next couple weeks aside from my regularly scheduled group blogs (and I'm over at the Teen Fiction Cafe today talking about my all time favorite vegan recipe site so check that blog out for good eats!), my Women Who Rock Wednesday features (it's charity month on WWRW, details here. Hope you'll check those out and be involved in my contest!) and of course the random, often frustrated Twitter updates on my writing progress, which you can follow here.

I've been kinda having blog burnout lately. I was trying to post four times a week, which might be too much for me to do and for you guys to keep up with. Sometimes I have the burning desire to blog about something (I do still view this as an online journal to a degree which is why I may get more personal than some people do on their blogs) and I do like to share my pictures on here (and those are the posts you all seem to like best according to the statistics Google gives me) as well as my news. And I know you all like Women Who Rock Wednesday interviews/contests, but sometimes I wonder if it's even interesting, my other random babble about writing and music and whatever else. I don't know, feel free to let me know what kinds of posts you like to read and maybe it will inspire me. But I really do feel a bit of a blog vacation coming up for this month so I can whip this new novel idea into shape because it's kicking my ass.

However, I do like the new music Tuesday blog post idea for the first Tuesday of the month (and hopefully you do too), so I wanted to do that.

Except I realized that I'm not really listening to anything new. I'm still all hooked on The Loved Ones from last month, but the main band that I can't stop listening to right now is an old favorite, Rise Against. That seems to be *the* band for the book I'm working on. And I've been getting the hankering for Hole's Pretty On the Inside album and The Distillers' self-titled album. My main character is a really angry, grief-stricken girl, but she's also a survivor. As I mentioned in my Music For The Muse post last week (which I'd really hoped more people would be interested in. oh well. *shrugs* maybe we all have blog burnout), "Survive" by Rise Against is pretty much her theme song, but I've also been listening to my personal survival anthem from my teenage years, AKA the song that I have lyrics from tattooed on my arm, "Firefly" by Heavens to Betsy.

Anyway, as usual, I've begun to create a playlist for this new book. It's part a procrastination tool and part an inspiration thing. There are select songs on it (the first four) that I seem to listen to a few times every day to get the writing going. Some of these songs don't really feel like they apply any more because the book is evolving and I have a feeling there are some songs that are going to sneak on to the playlist soon (early Hole and Distillers). But let's record it for posterity as it is right now. It will be interesting to look at once the book is done (if it's ever done.... yeah I'm in that kind of bad place now writing-wise. Ugh, but it is always darkest before dawn. Hopefully the huge breakthrough is right around the corner.)

So here is the the playlist for my WIP (and yes it has a title, but I'm not sharing the title just yet. I don't mean to be such a secretive tease about what I'm working on, I just don't want to jinx things.):

Survive- Rise Against
Gone Away- The Offspring
The '59 Sound- The Gaslight Anthem
Radio- Alkaline Trio
Worth Dying For- Rise Against
Son of A Bitch- Civet
Iris- The Breeders
Rape Me- Nirvana
I Hate Danger- Bikini Kill
Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated- Rise Against
Firefly- Heavens To Betsy
Boomboxes and Dictionaries- The Gaslight Anthem
Radio- Hot Water Music (bc sometimes I like this cover better than the original & so does my character)
Hell Hath No Fury- Civet
I Am A Revenant- The Distillers
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle- Nirvana
Marianne- Tori Amos

So yeah, don't know if that gives you a sense of the book at all, but it does for me :) And it's basically all I've been listening too lately. What songs have you been totally stuck on, whether they are new to you or old? And got any angry revenge songs or good grief coping songs to recommend as I'm willing to expand my character's horizons.

Okay, that's all for now. But I'll be back for Women Who Rock Wednesday soon.

7 comments:

Annika said...

I think November is a big blog reading burnout for a lot of people, since so many folks participate in NaBloPoMo (not to mention lots of people working on NaNoWriMo novels). Though I've been noticing blog burnout for ages. It seems to come in waves--I will go weeks with very few comments and low readership (as far as I can tell, anyway, with feed readers and all) and then suddenly I'll post something I don't even think is that interesting and get like 25 comments. It's so unpredictable!

In music news, I am listening to the Horror Pops. It's my comment writing soundtrack. ;)

Punk Rock Girl said...

Great anger songs: "Bad Reputation” Joan Jett, “Violet” Hole, "Why’d Ya Do It” Marianne Faithfull, “Everything’s Fine” Tracy Bonham, “I Hate People” Jemina Pearl, “I Hate Everything About You” Ugly Kid Joe, “Liar” The Rollins Band, "I Wanna Destroy You” the Soft Boys or the Circle Jerks.

Best grief song (except for "59 Sound"): "It's a Shame About Ray" Lemonheads.

Love the blog about music and writing. Just didn't have anything to say but "Yeah!"

John Knowles said...

I hardly ever have time to get on the internet lately, so I miss quite alot of your blogs anymore. I really like the new music tuesday thing for the same obvious reasons why other people do. It would be cool to hear more about the Chicago area and it's history, along with any cool abandoned buildings around. Another cool blog idea would be to do a feature on local bands.

I don't blog anymore because on myspace I had a Horrendous TMI debacle. When blogging about personal things on the internet, one forgets that the internet is not as anonymous as it seems.

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Nice soundtrack. I always try and make one when I'm writing something too...it worked well for one story I did but the one I just wrote...well, I'm still thinking of songs as well. We'll see. I don't really have any ideas coming to me at the moment for your project but I love the soundtrack you DO have and I hope the writing turns out well.

-Lauren

Michael said...

From the looks of your soundtrack, it seems like your book will be very good! I had a chance to see Rise Against this weekend, and i really want to, but during Christmas season I am always low on cash, so I don't think i can fork over the $30 admission. I bet it would have been great to see them when their first 2 albums came out. I love their newer albums too, but the rawness in their early songs like Alive And Well and Everchanging is not as evident in their newer albums.

I can't really get into their newest album, it seems...uninspired. I do like a few songs on it though, in particular, i really enjoy the song Savior. I think it is really beautiful.

You mentioned the Nirvana re-release a few weeks ago, I just got it the other day, it sounds great! Bleach is my favorite album of theirs, so i was very pleased.

Stephanie Kuehnert said...

Annika, you are definitely right about November I think. And yeah, I have no idea the impact feedreaders might have on what I think my views are. (I have no idea how to use a feed reader myself...) But yeah it is totally unpredictable and I just have to blog for blogging's sake like I always used to as opposed to thinking abt audience. Ooh and I love the Horrorpops!

Punk Rock Girl: I'll check into the songs I'm not familiar with, but both Violet and Bad Reputation are perfect for this playlist. Adding them now! Liar and I Wanna Destroy you might work too :) And glad you loved the music blog.

John, yeah you have to remember the internet is a huge audience. I have a hard time remember that too sometimes. Hmm blogs abt Chicago... maybe. I feel like I talked abt the things I love most in the area in Ballads and honestly now it's winter and I hate Chicago in winter and just wanna move. Local bands I do time to time but ppl don't seem that interested.

Thanks Lauren :)

Michael, I saw Rise Against this summer and now they have this icky jock audience following and shows aren't as fun. I missed the chance to see them do a show earlier this year at Metro of just the first two albums which woulda been awesome. personally I love all their stuff though. I think the latest album has taken a wider, global, political feel too it rather than the personal of the songs you mentioned, but I really love it. I like good political music. So I think it's actually really inspired and perfect for changing America. Glad you are enjoying that Bleach re-release :)

prashant said...

. It seems to come in waves--I will go weeks with very few comments and low readership

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