The Writings and Musings of B.A. Matthews

Theme Songs

It’s only been a few days since I last blogged, but I figured another one certainly couldn’t hurt. Especially since it’s been a pretty good week for me and my writing. I haven’t moved ahead in my novel yet (I’m really good at procrastinating) but I know where I need to go in it. What I have been doing is writing a lot this week on my D&D characters. While most of this writing won’t ever see a publishing world, it is very relaxing for me to try and write about characters that I’m intimately involved in.

That’s actually what today’s topic is… not D&D and how it influences my writing though. That topic has been gone over to death.  Instead I’ll talk about the newest thing that me and my fellow geeks are doing is actually a really good idea, both for the game and for writing in general. Theme Songs! I may be getting ahead of myself though. Let me start at the beginning and explain.

Years ago (a good three years ago, maybe four, if memory serves) I started running a D&D game for my husband and friends. It wasn’t the first game I’d run but I decided that I wanted to do something different than the usual type of game. What I decided to run instead was an evil game. We’re playing D&D like we normally would but instead of just having evil alignments or being jerk’s (though they are that as well, quite often), they had a semi-firm goal. Go from being nobody’s at third level to running an evil empire before level 20. Rather early in this game one of my players was pleased enough that he was thinking about it all the time. He was listening to music and suddenly realized that the game as a whole has a “theme song”.  The whole group agreed and Nightwish’s “I Wish I Had an Angel” got the passing grade. Although the whole song applies to the game, for me it’s the line “Burning Angel Wings to Dust” that really makes the song match the game for me.

Recently the evil fighter in the group realized he was “Indestructable” (Note: It has a really 45 second beginning before the song starts) and claimed that as his individual characters theme song. It’s now at the point where all of the PC’s (player characters) and most of the important NPC’s (non-player characters) have themes for themselves. We’re doing it for most of the games we play in at this point.

As with anything that takes up my time, I eventually start wondering exactly how I can use this in my writing. To be fair, this idea was easier to implement than you would think. I have started looking at my novel and characters in my story and have been trying to figure out what their songs are. I can see a few of you out there are looking at me as if I’m an idiot now. “How hard can it be to find a song that means something to your characters?” Quite a bit harder than you’d expect actually.

First you need to know about the character, their motivations, how they view the world and why they view it the way they do. Then you need to find a style of music that matches the character. Having a folk song done to acoustic guitar for a tattooed insane woman, like ”Jack” off of Mass Effect 2, just wouldn’t feel like it matched the character. After music type, you need to pay attention to the lyrics. Simply because a character is a pyro-maniac does not mean that the song that applies to that character will be about burning something. In fact, I usually find it more true if it doesn’t. Third, you have to be willing to accept that sometimes it will be the song that you least expected it to be.

As an example, I am playing a Cat-Folk battle dancer in one of my games. She is pretty much a caffeine kitty… She only sleeps two hours a day, and she is always either on the move running around or she is completely at rest and almost cat-napping. She is a happy, pleasant woman, who speaks with a slight accent. She always looks for the best in a situation. I originally thought that her song would show off her nearly inexhaustible energy and pleasure, but in doing so, I forgot about her past. I forgot to ask why she forced herself to look for the bright side. Unsurprisingly, while I was ignoring this, I couldn’t find a song for her.

The perfect song came about when I was listening to an artist that I normally don’t listen to. Avril Lavigne’s Innocence (shown below) encompassed not only my caffeine kitty’s predilection to ignoring unhappy things, but also took into account her tortured past as a sex slave (by the way, the answer is “Yes, my characters never have happy histories.”). The song is below and suits her to a ‘T’.

So, now I’m doing this and  every song I listen to has the potential to be a song for a character in my book. “Tear you Apart” by She Wants Revenge is now the theme song for Zack, Xiam’s boyfriend in my Vampire Fiction “Falling through the Threshold”. Listen to the song and tell me that doesn’t make him that much creepier as you read through “The White Citadel”. I dare ya.

So, do you have a theme song? Do you use theme songs for characters? Do you think that you’ll be using it in your own writing?

Posted in Blogs on January 23rd, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | 1 Comment »

The Best Intentions

It always happens that way, doesn’t it?  We say something with the best intentions.  Then a man by the name of Murphy walks by and screws it all up.  He apparently has a law that he says we have to follow and he’s pretty strict about it.  Personally, I think we should find this guy and punch him a few times in the gut until he learns not to impose his will on everyone else.  That’s only my suggestion though.  If anyone has a less violent option (I’d even be willing to listen to less violent ones), please let me know.

But you may ask, ‘Mrs. Matthews, why are you threatening violence on Murphy’s Law?’

Well, I’ll give you the simple answer.  I said at the beginning on the year, a bare two weeks ago that I hoped that I would be able to post more often on my blog and that I would be writing more in the new year and that I would be working out more often and trying to be healthier.  Of course, I have now had varying degrees of success and failure on each of these.

First off, my Blog.  I said that I hoped that I would be able to blog more often.  Mr. Murphy couldn’t leave well enough alone and I suddenly became ill and busy.  It’s never easy to write when you’re sick and exhausted.  Still I wanted to keep my resolution, so I have been writing, I just haven’t been writing blogs. However, now I’m healthy and back.  I do apologize though and promise that I’ll continue to try to work on this throughout the year.

My second item was my fiction writing.  This I have only two small complaints with.  I have been writing quite a bit of fiction this year and, in fact, I’ve actually succeeded at making my resolution of writing some fiction every day… though I did only make 680 words instead of 750 one day.  The other annoyance on this is that I have only written on my novel twice since the beginning of the year.  I had sort of hoped that I would have my rough draft finished on it by the end of January.  Instead, I find myself only another thousand or so words ahead on it.  Still, every other day has been fiction writing and I’m going to count this one a success, even if it’s not complete.  The whole point of a resolution is that it isn’t easy, right?

The third item is the one that I’ve been really lax on.  After I got sick, I didn’t want to exercise at all.  This would have been a complete waste had I not noticed some reasonably concrete improvements over last year already.  The first point is that I did not gain weight this holiday season.  For some this is easy, but for most, it is common to put on a few pounds.  So it’s a small success, meaning that even though I wasn’t trying to stick to a diet during the holidays, I still managed to keep myself from eating unhealthy foods.  I bought a new blender to make fruit shakes and weight shakes with (an Oster, one of the better brands).  Third, I finally started working out today and earlier this week I started taking the stairs most days at work.  So a partial success here as well!

This is carrying on a bit longer than I thought it would, so I’ll move on here.  The other thing I’ve been thinking about is something that Dan Well’s has said time and again.  To Paraphrase, “I always thought that I would write Epic Fantasy, but they always flopped.  Then I wrote a Horror and found my true calling.”  I’ve been thinking about this phrase and wondering if it might apply to me as well.  I have tried writing epic fantasy and it didn’t work wonderfully.  I’ve also tried working on strict romances with only a light fantasy touch and also had problems with them.  I tried to understand why and have finally come to an understanding.  My most successful and popular stories all seem to have a touch of Horror to them.  When I try to write without using Horror/Dark Fantasy genre elements, I always feel as though I’m holding back, and that affects my writing.  It may just be that I’m not skilled enough in my craft to write strictly to a single genre yet.  What am I to do if this is the case?  Well, Nothing.  Firstly I think I need to improve on my craft more before I can make a firm decision.  It will probably end up being a mix of both preference and skill when everything is said and done.

The one good thing that I’ve realized about my writing in the last week though? It’s that no matter how badly I’m writing or how silly a scene may seem, I should keep trying to write.  After all… I’m still a very new player to this writing game.  I still need to make my mistakes so that I can learn how not to do them in the future.  If that makes any sense, at least.

Once again, I would love to hear your ideas on these topics… advice, criticisms, or just comments about what you think are always appreciated

Posted in Short Stories on January 16th, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | 6 Comments »

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011!

That’s right, 2010 has passed and 2011 is here!  This year is going to be a good one, if only because I make it so.  I think today we need to talk about a few things… loosely connected with the new year.  First off, looking back.  How/Where have I improved in the past year, any truly intelligent lasting wisdom I’ve gained, that sort of stuff.  I feel that before I can truly make any lasting resolutions for the coming year, I first need to understand where I’ve been.  So, what has happened in the last year?

Well, on the topic of writing, I started up my website earlier this year.  In fact my first blog post was on May 29^th.  I defined myself as a Dark Fantasy Writer, which was a very large step for me.  While most of my writing is Dark Fantasy, I’m still working at understanding myself as a writer and I’m certainly not above trying my hand at other genres.  So I’ve learned that I am still finding myself as a writer and that it’s okay to still be settling into my place.

I’ve learned that while I may call myself a writer, I cannot do  it, unless I write.  A writer is someone who writes, payment or not.  This year, I have allowed too many excuses to stop me from writing.  My lesson from this?  That my most dangerous enemy to my dream of being a writer is me.  It’s a harsh lesson, to realize that you could be so much further ahead in your dream, if only you would stop fighting yourself at every turn.

I’ve learned that I am truly self conscious about my work.  Yes, I post short stories and chapters up on my site, but you should see the amount of editing I do to those.  I don’t even like my husband reading my work until I’ve done what I like to call a “First Edit” where I go through my work, edit and then let him read it.  Then I’ll do more editing as it comes up.  I need to get over some of my fear of showing my work to other people.  I’m always saying I have self confidence… Maybe I should start proving it.

I’ve learned that I really need help with editing.  As a child, I learned to edit as I write, correcting things as I go.  Usually, I would have a sheet of schoolwork, with 2 -3 words crossed out here, two sentences changed and otherwise my writing was the same.  Line editing is less of an issue for me, but editing for content is.  I have to learn more about editing and how to do it without destroying my work or my voice in the work.

I’ve learned that I enjoy the challenge of working with/against other people.  To clarify, the idea that I’m competing makes me push that little bit harder to make sure I write  every day and write more.  I also work very well with rewards that I can’t control.  The website 750 words for example.  I can’t cheat my way to 200 days on it… or rather I could, but I’d know that I had cheated and that out there, people were doing it without cheating.  So, I should be signing up for writing groups, so that I always have to have something to turn in.  There is something terrifying to me about the line “We’re not angry, we’re just disappointed” (Thank you, Ivan Coyote).  Don’t you agree?

I can be healthy even if it is really hard and that doing so actually helps me to feel better and more confident about myself.  I must admit, I still look at my weight for the real prize, but I am learning that being healthy is something different than denying myself anything I want.

So, now that I’ve looked at what I’ve learned, I need to discuss what I want to do to continue to grow this year.

1.      I know that if I want to call myself a writer then I must write.  So, I am setting myself a word goal this year.  750 words a day, except in November when 50,000 for the month is in effect.  The total comes out to 301,250 words.  I think I’m going to cut that down to 300,000 words for the year, because it makes for easier math.  However, it’s not just a yearly goal.  What is important is that I write every day, instead of just waiting for the weekends or for when I have “time” to do so.

2.      I know that I eventually want to be a published author.  So, my plan to help me achieve this goal is to finish my novel and start sending it out to publishers by the end of the year.  Which does mean that I need to start reading and writing on it again.  I will take 2-3 days and figure out where I was and where I was going and then I will move on to writing the story again.  My goal is to finish writing the story before the end of January, so that I can let it sit and then I can start doing general line edits in February.  After I have finished with just line edits, then I’ll take a look at content and ways to fix it.

3.      I need to stop being afraid to show people my work.  I will overcome that fear by posting shorter stories more often, even if they don’t actually connect to any of my other writing.  Expect a lot of 750 – 1000 word short stories on a variety of topics here folks, as well as my other writings.

4.      I want to lose weight, get into exercising more regularly and start eating healthier.  To do this, my husband and I have invested in a personal gym.  We now have an elliptical, an Olympic grade weight set, various free weights, a toning machine (think BowFlex type of machine).

5.      I will continue to network and try to meet other writers.  I will do this by continuing to attend writers conferences and making friends within the writing community.

6.      I will continue to improve on my craft of writing.  I will do this with my writing more often, by listening to podcasts like Writing Excuses, by attending writing conferences like SiWC and by taking some university courses on writing.

So, there you have it, my list of what I learned in 2010 and what I hope to learn and how I’ll learn it in 2011.  What do you think of my resolutions and even more importantly, what are yours?

Posted in Blogs on January 3rd, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »

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