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Sunday, February 27, 2011
Guilty Pleasures and Inspirations
For my birthday, I got an amazing array of gifts. Friends, of course, and laughter; great food at The Rome and lots of laughter and good times. I’m very grateful to have friends so close at hand who are willing to celebrate your birthday even if it’s not a monumental one. But I also got some tangible gifts, like some movies I’d been wanting and a Taylor Swift CD.
Taylor Swift is one of my guilty pleasures rather like Michael Bolton. (Come on! I was a child of the 80s and Michael Bolton’s love songs were a part of that. I can’t help but turn up the radio at the strains of When a Man Loves a Woman.) Taylor is all the things I normally avoid in my music listening preferences: blonde, upbeat, so cute she makes puppies look ugly, and big doe eyes that say “I’m so helpless, I need a big strong man to drag my luggage through the airport” and of course, a hundred line up to do it. She’s the type of woman I can’t stand, at least surface-wise. However, then I saw her on SNL and I thought she was a hoot. And she was rather hilarious in Valentine’s Day with her ill-fated romance, Taylor Lautner. She grew on me. She’s young and beautiful, sure, but she seems to know how to laugh at herself too, and I can respect that.
I no sooner had the CD that I tore into it and immediately began playing it in my car. After about the third song, I began laughing because I was spending half my time singing along with the songs and trying to figure out who she was singing about. We all know it, don’t we? Taylor Swift writes from her own life, and there are these songs “in print” immortalizing a love gone wrong that we’ve read about in the scandal rags.
Back to December was easy to figure out. Dear John, even easier—and even more hilarious. If anyone in the music world needs a set down, it’s John Meyer. Jerk. I was just laughing and thinking, Go, Taylor!
I listen to country a lot; and I know Brad Paisley writes from his life (or draws inspiration from his life). I believe Keith Urban does too. Some of Alan Jackson’s seem rather autobiographical. And there are many, many more I’m sure others can name.
As writers we’re always drawing on our lives and things we read or hear about, our friends, our family (my co-workers are constantly trying to get me to write a book about my dysfunctional family), our enemies, and just anything that inspires us. It’s just a fact you can’t write in a void and make up something completely out of nothing. I’m pretty sure this applies to all things; it’s scientifically impossible I believe to make anything out of “nothing”. Even the universe constructed itself out of something that was already there. But I’m not sure; I’m not scientist. But I know as a writer, I’m not making stuff out of nothing. Even the stories that are least like me or anything I have experienced at least draw on emotions and situations similar to the ones I’m writing.
You may not have ever lost a child; however, you have a child and you can imagine the horrific-ness of such a situation. Or you have lost someone important to you—and you can draw on that grief to write about a parent who has lost a child. I’ve never been married, but I have friends who are married and I have seen how they’ve behaved. Plus I’ve picked up on some central themes that married people fight over: money and how to load the dishwasher (or how to fold the towels.) Generally people work out the dishwasher or towel problem, but money almost always causes a problem. It even caused a problem in my own parents married. Dad was always complaining to mom about how much money she spent at the grocery store, saying she got needless items and junk no one ever wanted to eat. (Dad was against weird stuff. Like kiwi fruit or spaghetti.) Mom finally had enough of it and said he could do the shopping—and Dad did. Actually I remember him asking her if she wanted to go shopping again, in that sort of male-pleading voice of “Please go, I don’t know what to buy” and she refused. Funniest thing I ever saw. In the end, Dad used to bring home the weirdest junk food. He was worse. And if I begged hard enough, I could still get kiwi and spaghetti.
In my stories, I tend to write about what I know: neuroses, good friends who stand by you, modest means (rather than opulent ones), and stern and stoic family members. The heroes are as I know men—good-hearted, brave and a little reckless at times, fond of a dirty joke, and can turn just about anything into a sexual proposition. (Even my father jested with me once when I told him about a Scottish battle called Battle of the Shirts, where the Scotsmen stripped and just fought “naked”. “Are you sure it wasn’t a battle of the sexes? And are you sure they were fighting?” Which coming from my deacon elder father was quite the dirty joke.)
Right now, my story is a crazy quilt of some comedies I’ve seen, reality TV, things I believe about marriage that are true and false, my church upbringing and my heretic nature about fundamentalist things, and the type of hero who is madly in love with his wife and always has been because that’s the kind of hero I want to believe in. These are all things that have been written about before, explored before, sung about and produced on Broadway—but this is just my attempt at making order out of the chaos.
What life experiences do you draw inspiration from? Or do you believe you can make something out of nothing? What do you think of Taylor Swift? Michael Bolton? What are you most looking forward to doing this week?
Taylor Swift is one of my guilty pleasures rather like Michael Bolton. (Come on! I was a child of the 80s and Michael Bolton’s love songs were a part of that. I can’t help but turn up the radio at the strains of When a Man Loves a Woman.) Taylor is all the things I normally avoid in my music listening preferences: blonde, upbeat, so cute she makes puppies look ugly, and big doe eyes that say “I’m so helpless, I need a big strong man to drag my luggage through the airport” and of course, a hundred line up to do it. She’s the type of woman I can’t stand, at least surface-wise. However, then I saw her on SNL and I thought she was a hoot. And she was rather hilarious in Valentine’s Day with her ill-fated romance, Taylor Lautner. She grew on me. She’s young and beautiful, sure, but she seems to know how to laugh at herself too, and I can respect that.
I no sooner had the CD that I tore into it and immediately began playing it in my car. After about the third song, I began laughing because I was spending half my time singing along with the songs and trying to figure out who she was singing about. We all know it, don’t we? Taylor Swift writes from her own life, and there are these songs “in print” immortalizing a love gone wrong that we’ve read about in the scandal rags.
Back to December was easy to figure out. Dear John, even easier—and even more hilarious. If anyone in the music world needs a set down, it’s John Meyer. Jerk. I was just laughing and thinking, Go, Taylor!
I listen to country a lot; and I know Brad Paisley writes from his life (or draws inspiration from his life). I believe Keith Urban does too. Some of Alan Jackson’s seem rather autobiographical. And there are many, many more I’m sure others can name.
As writers we’re always drawing on our lives and things we read or hear about, our friends, our family (my co-workers are constantly trying to get me to write a book about my dysfunctional family), our enemies, and just anything that inspires us. It’s just a fact you can’t write in a void and make up something completely out of nothing. I’m pretty sure this applies to all things; it’s scientifically impossible I believe to make anything out of “nothing”. Even the universe constructed itself out of something that was already there. But I’m not sure; I’m not scientist. But I know as a writer, I’m not making stuff out of nothing. Even the stories that are least like me or anything I have experienced at least draw on emotions and situations similar to the ones I’m writing.
You may not have ever lost a child; however, you have a child and you can imagine the horrific-ness of such a situation. Or you have lost someone important to you—and you can draw on that grief to write about a parent who has lost a child. I’ve never been married, but I have friends who are married and I have seen how they’ve behaved. Plus I’ve picked up on some central themes that married people fight over: money and how to load the dishwasher (or how to fold the towels.) Generally people work out the dishwasher or towel problem, but money almost always causes a problem. It even caused a problem in my own parents married. Dad was always complaining to mom about how much money she spent at the grocery store, saying she got needless items and junk no one ever wanted to eat. (Dad was against weird stuff. Like kiwi fruit or spaghetti.) Mom finally had enough of it and said he could do the shopping—and Dad did. Actually I remember him asking her if she wanted to go shopping again, in that sort of male-pleading voice of “Please go, I don’t know what to buy” and she refused. Funniest thing I ever saw. In the end, Dad used to bring home the weirdest junk food. He was worse. And if I begged hard enough, I could still get kiwi and spaghetti.
In my stories, I tend to write about what I know: neuroses, good friends who stand by you, modest means (rather than opulent ones), and stern and stoic family members. The heroes are as I know men—good-hearted, brave and a little reckless at times, fond of a dirty joke, and can turn just about anything into a sexual proposition. (Even my father jested with me once when I told him about a Scottish battle called Battle of the Shirts, where the Scotsmen stripped and just fought “naked”. “Are you sure it wasn’t a battle of the sexes? And are you sure they were fighting?” Which coming from my deacon elder father was quite the dirty joke.)
Right now, my story is a crazy quilt of some comedies I’ve seen, reality TV, things I believe about marriage that are true and false, my church upbringing and my heretic nature about fundamentalist things, and the type of hero who is madly in love with his wife and always has been because that’s the kind of hero I want to believe in. These are all things that have been written about before, explored before, sung about and produced on Broadway—but this is just my attempt at making order out of the chaos.
What life experiences do you draw inspiration from? Or do you believe you can make something out of nothing? What do you think of Taylor Swift? Michael Bolton? What are you most looking forward to doing this week?
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32 comments:
This week...I want to write. I've been working on edits, and then promo items for RT for far too long. And the catch up on doctor's appointments and physical therapy... I just want to sit at Starbucks, have it rain outside or be cool enough that I can leave Bonni in the van for at least three hours and write at least two solid hours of those three hours.
Will I do it or get to? Doubtful.
Write from my own life? You bet your sweet hiney! Not so much life experiences as other than my health issues and some wacked out family, I don't have a lot of those that are very interesting or provide a whole lot of plot devices. But my heroines are always me. Some aspect of me, carry my anxieties and phobias...drink what I drink, eat what I eat, etc.
Taylor Swift? I don't know. Sis saw Michael Bolton once and said he was awesome live. I do know Greg Brown and Todd Snyder write music that surely tells a story. If it ain't their story, well, they are good stories anyway!
Glad you had such an awesome b-day. I miss having friends around to do stuff with... But at least I got you guys!
The physical vacuum, which most people think of as nothing, is actually a seething inferno of fluctuations where particles are constantly being created and destroyed. I suspect that our minds are similar, though of course some are more vacuous than others. :lol:
All of experience goes into that subconscious miracle which is at the root of creativity. The mind uses everything and in addition creates new stuff out of nothing. When developing scientific theories the mind takes all the known facts and very occasionally, in a flash of genius, an entirely new idea emerges which makes everything clear. It seems to come out of nothing.
Same applies to story telling.
You feed in all the chaos of your story, and just occasionally in a flash of brilliance a new idea is born and all the disparate plot threads bind together into a coherent whole.
Like you said Helli, its order out of chaos ....... just occasionally! *smile*
I'm glad you had a great birthday celebration, Hellion. :)
I don't think my characters are based on anyone exactly. I do think my brain absorbs different mannerisms and characteristics and stores them away, and then they emerge as needed when I'm writing.
Once, a few months ago, I was at Starbucks and I saw a guy in line do something that made my brain go "Aha!" -- it was a mannerism that was so perfect for a character I was trying to figure out, and his whole personality just clicked from that one thing.
My brain is always analyzing everything--partly out of curiosity, partly out of legal training--so I'm always interested in how humans interpret other people's words, actions, etc. So I'm sure my conclusions and results from observing and analyzing end up in my writing, even when I'm not aware of it. :)
I don't know if I draw inspiration from personal experience so much as I do from my own observations. Granted, there are things about myself that I have definitely written about, but very indirectly.
I think I draw experience from some of my bad relationships, from my good relationship, and from being a mom. Friendships, family relationships. General observations.
I think most writers are watchers. So, everything we see and experience helps shape our stories, I think.
I like a lot of Taylor Swift's music, I think. I was sad she broke up with Taylor Lautner. I thought for sure they'd get back together, he seemed like such a sweetie.
I don't dislike Taylor, but to me she's singing about teen stuff and I'm not the demographic for that. But damn those songs still get stuck in my head. And Kiddo adores her.
I'm not laughing at the Bolton love. Really. I'm not.
My first MS is not autobiographical, but the heroine is very much me and the setting is pretty much my home town. My heroine even has the same address I had growing up. The HS where she teaches is not my school, but when I see it in my head, it's the same hallowed halls.
My new MS is fun because I'm just now developing the characters and the heroine is NOT me. She's a doormat, people pleaser to the Nth degree who has been doing what others want for so long, she's lost the ability to know what she wants.
As for what I'm doing this week, that would be querying agents for the first time. I see MANY more silver hairs on my head before the end of the week.
2nd, I hope for some cooler weather/rain so you can get in your 3 hours of writing. I'm sure you can make it happen; after all, you believe in magic (miracles), right?
My heroines are like that too. *LOL* I'm probably never going to write a heroine who LOVES beets. I'd think it was too weird. I might branch out and make one a Coke drinker though, in the same fashion I might allow one to be a *gasp* Republican.
Q, yes, like you explained--those flashes of brilliance are rare. It's like...do you remember the movie/book The Black Stallion? The boy and the horse were on an island together; and he manages to win the trust of the horse and climb on--and then the horse runs and the boy hangs on--I think that's a brilliant idea when you find it. It's a wild horse you just hang on and ride.
JK, it is always best to write indirectly. Never do you want to be laying in bed and have the person next to you reading your stuff and go, "You wrote about our sex in the hallway?"
Donna, yes, being a people watcher is essential as a writer. I just watch my friends a lot...and my family. *LOL* I guess because it's who I spend most of my time with. I hung around in public, I'd use more observations of perfect strangers.
I think I draw experience from some of my bad relationships, from my good relationship, and from being a mom. Friendships, family relationships. General observations.
Exactly. I hope to be somewhat more general. I'm working on it anyway. *LOL* I don't want my readership to go: She pulled a Taylor!
Bo'sun, I somehow think you weren't the demographic when you were a teen. But you have to say that Taylor is better than Beiber. *LOL*
See, I'd say that heroine is still "you" in a sense because when you write her, you'll be "What would be the complete opposite of what I'd do?" You're still using yourself as a frame of reference to build your character.
Good luck on the querying!! I'm sure you'll do great!
I have to admit, I like Beiber's new doo.
You never fail to amaze me. I'm always astonished when we find something in common with each other.
Hey, tangent alert: anyone else been listening to parts of Charlie Sheen's trainwreck interview? OMG.
Because I write thrillers full of spies and guns and car chases, I dont really take from real life. My real life is boring. I've never even touched a handgun. lol. I do take dialog from real life, though. Not word-for-word, but I often use whatever absurd thing that came out of my husband's mouth as dialog for the hero. Or his friends. a lot of the banter I write is whatever was said in our house the night before.
I do generally model heroes after men I know/like. The general characteristics, at least, like you mentioned, Hellie. Their sense of humor, their level of responsibility, etc.
though I have to say, I detest Taylor Swift :) For all the reasons you mentioned. And as terri mentioned, she writes about teenage angst, and teenage angst just annoys me. But I ALWAYS have those songs stuck in my head! I don't understand how I know every word to all of her songs, when I try to change the station every time she comes on (which is like every 20 minutes of course)
Hal - She's on every station! That's the problem. And you do take from real life in that your major line of study fuels your stories. You know things about international affairs and conflict resolution that our uninformed couldn't even imagine.
I think I'd rather listen to Taylor than that Charlie Sheen interview. Someone needs to make that man shut up.
Yes, I can see where you're not taking FBI/CIA episodes from your own life, but dialogue is much more likely, you know? Even for me, who doesn't write thrillers--I write more dialogue that is familiar from my life than anything.
I felt that way about LeAnn Rimes for the longest time, because I couldn't stand her teenage angst. *LOL* But now that I've gotten all caught up in Twilight, I've had some patience for some teenage angst. It may be puppy love, but it's real to the puppy. That's the thing you have to keep in mind with teenage angst.
I was caught watching it on the TODAY show and I finally had to turn it off because I was already running late, but OMG, TRAINWRECK. With nuclear waste on board.
Its real to the puppy - ha! Hilarious, and so true. I remember being 16 and sure that puppy love would last forever.
For anyone who didn't watch the Oscars, which were quite odd this year, there was a weird segment where they took parts of movies and mixed them into songs. There was one with Ron and Hermione from Deathly Hallows that I thought was really good, and then they did one from Twilight they called "He Doesn't Own A Shirt" sung by Edward about Jacob. LOL!
I bet they're already on YouTube somewhere.
I think teenage love is the fairy tale love--I think we can't help but want that at least once.
That reminds me, Bo'sun, I watched Vampires Suck on Friday, which makes fun of the Twilight movies. Hilarious and terrible at the same time. *LOL* But Jacob's character was always running around without a shirt, and when she asked him about it, he said, "It's in my contract to be shirtless every 10 minutes of screen time."
Here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RojAoc1rbyw
Hellie - I saw that in the previews. At least in this case, the gratuitous sexualization is a guy and not some hot chick.
Fine. Ignore me. See if I care.
Hey! I thought that was really funny, too. Trying to drum up more musicals for the awards...
Yeah, the Twilight riff was the funniest. I just felt outraged at the Harry Potter riff. *LOL* But it is sorta ridiculous how often Taylor Lautner is without clothing in these movies. Not that I mind, obviously, but ridiculous just the same.
Speaking of good looking guys, I did watch A-Team this weekend, and Liam Neeson was HAAAAWWWWT. *sing song voice* And Bradley Cooper wasn't bad either. In fact, Murdock was kinda cute when his face lit up like a little kid's, so at one point Holly was saying, "I think I'd sleep with all of them except Mr. T." And I said, "Mr. T isn't bad to look at either--and I kinda like one of the villains, too." Slut. But if I had to be choosy, Liam all the way, no contest.
I'm just happy you used Bradley's name instead of what you usually call him. LOL!
Ferret face.
Oooooh! Are we name calling now?
And Liam Neeson is always hot. Another on my list of wonderfully seasoned men.
Just name-calling Bradley.
I loved Liam in Rob Roy--and High Spirits. *LOL* I've had a crush on him from the late 80s on.
He was best in Love Actually. Loved the conversations between him and Sam.
That was his son, right? That was adorable!
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