Writing, Passion and All That Jazz

I've been pondering my love of music. I enjoy all different kinds. I listen to more styles than anyone I've ever heard of. And there's something kinda cool about Indie bands, untapped musicians who are trying to make it, playing their hearts out, writing because they're passionate about the art they create. Some indie musicians, like writers, are truly awful, but in the vast sea of sludge there are some true gems to be found. And when you discover one, your day feels a little bit brighter.

Kris Allen's unlabeled CD Brand New Shoes for instance, features songs that are quite lowkey and James Taylorish but definitely awesome in their own right. And I'm not trying to knock him, but his new album with 19, entitled Kris Allen, lacks something.

I'll attach the singles Beautiful Moon and Live Like We're Dying so you can see what I mean.

Beautiful Moon



Live Like We're Dying



Beautiful Moon is gorgeous, right? Live is a good song too, but it's a little too commercial, a little too polished. You know what I mean? See how bluesy and free and sung-from-the-heart Beautiful Moon is? And sure he sings Live full gusto, but Kris's unique style gets lost in all the gloss.

And take jazz on another note. Yeah, you can listen to those greats like Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis and his glorious sextet with the amazing John Coltrane, all remastered on CD, stripped of all grit with the tracks separated and then remixed the way Scotty at the controls thinks they should be, but you end up with much less than what you had before.

You see, there's something amazing and enjoyable about kicking back and listening to old music on LPs a.k.a. records. (Those vinyl discs with the holes in the middle for all you sprouts who've never seen them outside of Flickr.) Vinyl showcases more. The crackles. Vocal glitches. That one part where the sax rules the room. I love those imperfections, as though the musicians are just jammin' in a room somewhere. And you can picture your grandma or great grandma swinging on her porch and sipping lemonade as she daydreams of dancing with her true love who's off at war.

The glossed-over, perfectly mixed, auto-tuned music of today is slapped together for mass consumption, but it's vastly empty. It lacks substance and, more often than not, fails to move people.

1960's tunes, on the other hand, encapsulate history. Pick up nearly any album and you'll get a stance on war, drug culture, loss of innocence, civil rights or free love. Where is that today? Sure, you get the occasional Linkin Park song or whatever, but where is the urgency, the fury, the fire, the passion, the drive to sing about the things that matter, the things that affect our world and threaten out freedom?

And sometimes when you write, what comes out of you first, all raw and passionate, IS what's best. You CAN over-edit, where your work ends up so very pretty on the outside but a shell of what it once was. Taking the advice of too many critters can strip your work of its original rawness, of its best stuff. Use your judgment. Only you can tell your story and know the best way to tell it.

I think I've done this with Kings & Queens to a degree. Don't get me wrong, the novel did need major help, I was way too wordy and used too many be-verbs, but I inadvertently removed some of my best stuff. I let others alter my voice and scrub my work too much. My stupid drive for excellence! It's too late really to go back now, and I am liking the way it is, but it gives me something to keep in mind as I go forward.

For future novels, I'm going to handle the red pen a little more delicately and not be quite so vicious. I don't want a work to lose ALL its rawness and the passion with which I wrote it. Because just like camps of CD listeners versus LP, someone will notice the difference.

Write on, rock on and listen to your soul.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Passionate Writers Wanted: No Posers Allowed

Yesterday, I read a first chapter on a critique forum I belong to where a male character—position not given—gave a just-hired guidance counselor a tour at his new employ. The whole chapter was empty. The dialogue was stilted, the characters non-existent, the narrative completely absent of voice, tone, texture, description and pertinent action. Plus, it brimmed with dialogue tags. Obviously, this word-waster’s a beginner, but even worse than that, a poser…not just someone who wants to write and has no clue where to start or how to bring words to life…this is someone who’s writing without passion. Clearly.

When people are passionate about something, no matter what it is, there’s an undeniable spark you can see, a hint of potential and desire underneath the rubble, and you know, aha, a diamond in the rough...which ultimately leads to dedication, persistence and a stretch for success. But, no matter how hard you try to write fantastic prose, if you don’t have passion for what you’re doing and believe in your ability to tell the story, it’s going to show.

Not that my work is perfect. I’m still in bloom. I’m an unpublished newbie and have so much to learn, but, I need to write, be it short story, poem, flash, novel, doesn't matter. Writing is my dream revealer, my stress release, my thought organizer, my creative breath. I’m driven to put paper to pen and sharpen my knowledge by learning from others and reading books on craft so I can write well. In fact, reading books on technique is what kick-started me to write my first novel.

I love elements about my baby, but I’ve laid it to rest, at least for now. I poured so much emotion into it while writing it. I cried when I killed off my MC, Jenna’s best friend, steamed in fury during heated conflicts, trembled when Jenna was fending off the knife-wielding rapist who killed her BF, and reached for tissues again when she was reading a kiss-off note from her love interest even though I knew it was a practical joke being flipped into a marriage proposal.

As crazy as this emotional rollercoaster seems to you, that’s what passion is, being parked in the shoulder, searching high and low in your car for another crayon because your frantic writing is illegible on Dunkin Donuts napkins in that stupid light green. If you’re writing without experiencing the thrill and emotion of the work and not pouring everything into it, then you’re merely attempting to string words together that you only hope make some sort of sense and entertain.

Check out reviews on Amazon. With experienced, well-known authors, from Dean Koontz to James Patterson, readers can easily spot the difference between novels that were rushed to meet deadline and those birthed out of passion. Plots are weaker, characters are flatter, endings are messy or unsatisfying. Everything’s different and all the worse for the lesser effort. Those writers make big bucks for publishing houses and themselves, so they’re allowed to fudge every now-and-then and hand in something under the gun.

But don’t let that be you—except for raking in the money part of course. ;) No matter where you are or end up in life, or how many awards you win, never lose your soul's fire or consider something finished and great if it didn't stem from it.

You should always strive to add greater depth and make your work better, to hone your skill and find your true voice, to develop characters so rich and full that even you forget they’re not real and care what happens to them during the journey and after THE END. Discover and use your most hidden, ugly, lovely, horrible emotions. Write the best pieces you can, losing sweat, tears and sleep in the process. Because if you don’t, readers will see the shallowness in what you’ve written. They’ll know. Don’t be a poser: a sub-par, mediocre, commonplace wannabe. Be exceptional, a true writer, an author, rushing onward in your drive and love for the craft. Grow and learn and work harder. For personal use, write whatever you want, but for the masses, always write with passion. Always give your best effort. Never less.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Warring Passions

Yep. I figured it would come to this. I finally had to dish out some tough love on myself. My sports addiction has completely trounced and sacked my motivation to write. My slide into a drought occurred over the span of several months.

Last fall, after a 20-year hiatus, I found Celtics games interesting again and then yanked my basketball teammate from high school, who was a HUGE fan back in the day, along with me to kick off a new era of fandom. So in the spring, with the Celts wrapping up the Losers and sending them back to L.A. in their pretty purple bows and my Red Sox starting the season, aiming for another title, and of course, the NFL draft, with my Cowboys picking up the I-can’t-wait-to-see-him-play Felix Jones, my writing completely fell to the wayside and trickled into the gutter.

Even though it's summer, with there being less to watch, I still find plenty of sporty things to swallow my time. As a goal setter, I religiously wrote every day. And now, I’m lucky if I write once a week…or month even. I’m consumed with all things sports. On Sundays, I’m like, don’t even talk to me. If I can’t find a sport I love on TV, I’ll watch some other sport, like golf. GOLF. I actually watch that on purpose sometimes…and I’m interested in the outcome. What the heck is wrong with me?

I used to joke about being a sports addict, but now I really am. Over the course of three months, I’ve written two chapters, and I’ve drafted an outline and scratched some scenes. I could toss it up to needing a break from my manuscript, but who are we kidding?

So, in order for me to get any work done, I had to get tough with myself and lay down the law. Now, I cannot watch a game, turn on WEEI, check stats or click on my Sons of Sam Horn bookmark until I write, write, write, at least 500 words a day, which is approximately one scene. I gave myself Sundays off. I need to get back to my structured ways so I can stay creatively energized and keep my authorial juices flowing. Even if I don’t work on my novel every day, I need to put paper to pen, or fingers to keys or whatever my medium may be at a given moment, sometimes chalk or crayon, depending. And this blog doesn’t count. Sports needs to be a backburner thing, yeah right, but definitely cannot be the consumer of all my free time. Writing is the passion that needs to win here. Sports is something I love, but writing is what makes me, ME. What crazy distractions get in the way of your writing? Spill.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Wielding the Inner Sex Goddess

Even if you’re not writing romance or erotica, sometimes works require intimate physical moments and you can’t always close the bedroom doors and present smiling faces and dragon breath in the morning. For some writers, creating love scenes comes naturally and they can easily spare hesitance and shyness, lacking no detail. For others, they’d rather write about battle or economics or get root canal.

I’m not prudish or inhibited and can easily discuss sex or write a steamy scene, but if I need to have a scene in my work, I will always maintain some restraint because I think readers can get my gist without me providing nitty gritty details. I won’t use crudity nor will I throw in scenes just for the sake of having them. If I include physical scenes, kissing and beyond, my intention is never to be offensive or even to tantalize the reader. There’s always a vital reason for something being there, either to show conflict building up or resolving momentarily or to usher in more emotional turmoil.

For instance, in my latest novel, one of my characters seduces a widower who’s a Christian. I have to write some kind of scene—haven't gotten to that part yet—not to show them getting it on, but rather to show the emotional zigzags that occur during the act. Her reason for wanting him is not about arousal; it stems from selfishness and pain. It’s something she feels she needs. And he feels so guilty for falling into temptation and going against his God's will, that in the middle of it, he changes his mind, leaving her in a heap of rubble. They’re both affected by their actions and I have to show that moment so the rest of their love story makes sense and healing and resolution can come to these wounded souls in the end.

If you’re squeamish and need to write a passionate love scene, it’s best if you just go with the flow and write it as raw, heated, terrible, intimate or loving as it comes to you. If you try to juggle your blushing self with your sexy beast and your mom’s opinion and scripture verses, you won’t end up with a very good scene. It’ll be stilted, cheesy, awkward and icky for readers, like watching a virgin trying to score the big one in some 80's flick. Just write the scene. Then, once you have it, you can scale back and tailor it to fit your audience, your convictions and your purpose. Lovey, touchy moments, be they tasteful or spicy, don't have to be so scary. Write on!

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.