Writing to Music

Music is a vital part of my life. Although I've never been in a band or played an instrument (besides doodling on the harmonica), I've always been surrounded by musicians. And I get every penny's worth of my Rhapsody subscription by consistently checking out new releases. I even participate in the penultimate annual music dork celebration called Burning Man (not the festival in the Southwest). Each year I get together with about 6 friends (a few of them musicians) and we burn each other CDs of our favorite albums of the year. There is even a presentation portion in which participants make their case for including an album on their best of list.

I do most of my work to music, including writing. The writers I've spoken to about this are divided on the issue. Some find it distracting while others find it inspirational. For those like me whose jobs entail sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day, the right music can make your writing time feel more like unwind time and less like a second job. There are a couple of things I've learned about writing to music to avoid distraction and maximize productivity.

1. Try instrumental or ambient music. Lyrics can be distracting to those trying to compose words into sentences. If you don't like classical or jazz, try an indie band with the right atmospheric feel, like, say Sigur Ros, God Speed You Black Emperor, Tracker, Mogwai, and so on.
2. Try music you know well. If you want to listen to music with lyrics, try playing songs you know so well you barely notice the words. My choice here is Neil Young.
   
3. Find music that matches the tone of the piece. If you're writing a fight scene, try some heavy metal or punk. Or you can play down-tempo songs for more somber moments in your piece.
   
4. Create a giant writing playlist. Switching from album to album and perusing your collection for the next group of songs for your writing session is an easy way to get distracted. Have a go-to playlist you can play quickly to get yourself started. Put it on random if you want to mix it up.
5. Explore new artists. In your down time, use Pandora, Slacker, Last.FM, Rhapsody, or another music-discovery service to find new, inspiring bands and artists.
   

So for what it's worth, here are my top 10 albums for writers.

1. Sparklehorse - "It's a Wonderful Life"
2. Neil Young - "Decade"
3. Portugal, The Man - "It's Complicated Being a Wizard"
4. John Coltrane - "A Love Supreme"
5. Pink Floyd - "Animals"
6. Midlake - "The Trials of Van Occupanther"
7. Bon Iver - "For Emma, Forever"
8. Iron & Wine - "The Shepherd's Dog"
9. Alaska in Winter - "Dance Party in the Balkans"
10. Pretty much anything by Angelo Badalmenti, Bernard Herrmann, or Thomas Newman
    

Finding the Faces of Your Fiction

Currently, I'm engaged in an activity I should have done months ago: Compile more detailed profiles for the characters in my novel (including photos). Being a visual learner, I need to see photographs of my characters in order to bring them to life in my fiction. For "Plainfield" I realized that some of the characters were thin (even the protagonist) because I didn't have a good mental picture of them. Therefore, I scoured through online yearbooks from the period (1950s), Google Images, and family photo albums on Flickr looking for my characters. I had no real criteria other than trusting my gut to match my mental image with a face online. I spent hours doing this, thinking up different (and often random) search criteria. Sometimes I would just search the character's name and find all the people named Walter. Other times I searched a character's profession, such as "teacher," "sheriff," and so on. My thinking is that on some metaphysical level, a teacher out there will match my teacher character (people of a certain physical nature are attracted to certain jobs).

The problem with searching this way is that often I would get images tagged with my keyword, but that didn't show anyone--just a pic of a place, a car, a building, etc. After a little digging, I discovered an article on Ars Technica detailing a cool trick to take advantage of Google Image's facial recognition feature. Basically, do your image search, then append "&imgtype=face" to the end of the result URL. Hit Enter, and the results will be reloaded with only those that contain faces (as in the screenshot of this post). Click here for the full article. This is a pretty cool little trick for fiction writers who want to create in-depth character profiles that include photos (and not those of people you know).

What You Can Learn From Genre Writers

During my MFA program, the mere mention of "genre fiction" sent my fellow writers a-cringin'. There is a feeling of superiority that literary fiction writers have over writers who write mystery, romance, science fiction, erotica, and so on. Even most lit journals clearly specify that genre writers need not apply. I'm not defending genre writing in terms of prose or other artistic considerations (there's the lit snob in me again). But recently I was researching different drafting and editing methods online, and the best advice out there seemed to be from genre writers. Here's one good example from YA writer Holly Lisle.

In terms of productivity, genre writers have literary fiction writers beat. With the exception of a few truly exceptional literary fiction writers (Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, John Steinbeck, Charles Bukowski, Joyce Carol Oates, etc.) genre writers outproduce us about 5 to 1. You could stop me right there and try to slap me down with the "quality over quantity" argument, and in some ways you'd be right. But too often literary fiction writers look at each book as his or her magnum opus, and therefore spend 10 years writing them and often never finish them.

I think many genre writers have a healthy understanding that this is a job as well as a craft. You write a book, then try your damndest to get it published, meanwhile already starting on your second book. You could also say that it's easier for genre writers to write books fast because many write serials starring the same characters or the plots are formulaic to that genre. We lit fiction writers are not as original as we think, however. In fact, if I had a McGriddle sandwich for every "Mom with cancer" short story and half-ass metafiction novel I've read, I'd be fatter than James Gandolfini.

There seems to be a healthy acceptance in the genre world that what you write will be used and eventually end up in the bargain bin or landfill--because it will. Craftspeople like woodworkers, ceramists, and jewelry makers produce artistic products, sell as many as they can, and make more. Every writing instructor will tell you that writing a lot is the only way to make you a better writer. I realized that I was writing my novel particularly slowly because I was afraid of finishing. I didn't know what was next. But after getting some good advice online, I realized that I have to finish this damn book already and start the next one.

Those Who Can't Make Money Writing Teach Writing

Today is my first foray in a long time into the world of teaching. Many of my colleagues from my MFA program took the undergrad route, and most of them are teaching freshman comp 101. I chose to go the adult/continuing ed path, since that was the basis of my teaching experience. The upside is that you get to teach what you want if the program agrees to list your class. The downside is that the class depends on enrollment. If not enough people sign up, you don't teach it.

I'm finding this out the hard way with a couple schools that listed my courses and hardly anyone enrolled. There's a lot more salesmanship that goes into pitching a continuing ed class. You have to make it sound like a one-day conference at the Ramada Inn. "Write That Breakout Novel," "Get Rich With Writing," "Secrets of Fiction," and so on. But in most cases, you get a more interested audience than a bunch of bored business majors taking the required English courses for their degree.

I'm wondering how teaching--even part-time--will affect my writing? Often, I work better when I am busier. But teaching will no doubt detract from my writing time. Anyone out there want to share experiences about balancing teaching and writing? Please post a comment.
Thanks.

Weird Wisconsin: A Trip to Plainfield

Before the holidays, I embarked on a research trip/family and friend visit to Wisconsin. The research portion took me to Plainfield, Wisconsin, the location of my novel. I stayed in the one motel in town, a creepy 10-room place called the R&R. All guests had to register at the Mobil station down the road, and the R&R shared a parking lot with Spice, a franchised trucker-porn shop. Believing I would be killed that very night, I parked my rental call three doors down from my room, #7. The room was dingy, but livable for one night. As I sat on the bed taking off my snow-covered boots, I looked down a saw a purple press-on nail on the carpet. Classy.

During my 24 hours in Plainfield, I scoped the town for more literary locations, as well as landmarks. I found Gein's property out on a lonely wind-swept road containing a field of tall pine trees. I also found the Plainfield Cemetery and the location of Mary Hogan's bar. My last stop before heading back to Milwaukee was meeting with former Wautoma mayor Marv Wagner. We had a three-hour chat over breakfast about local history, politics, and folklore of the area. Wagner has proved an invaluable resource for the book.

So was the trip worth it? I would say yes. But I am in this never-ending mental debate about whether to invent the details to fit the story or try to do as much research as possible and match the story/setting to real-life? Any opinions?

Researching Everyday Life in a Different Time

One of the biggest challenges I am encountering while writing the novel "Plainfield" is finding good, reliable sources that cite the objects of everyday life in the early 1950s. Wikipedia is a good place to start, but I am very apprehensive about basing specific details on this source alone. Recent stories about nefarious editing practices on Wikipedia have further amplified this notion for me.

In some ways, it is easier to write about an earlier historical time, such as the Civil War or the turn of the century, that about the early 50s. The reason for this is that the 1950s were a truly transitional time for American technology and culture. Television, Tupperware, plastics, power tools, processed food, and modern kitchen appliances all came to prominence during this time. And because I'm writing about a small Central Wisconsin town, it is difficult to know the timetable as to the adoption rates of such technologies (or even know on average how many people had such items in their homes in, say, 1953).

Oral history has helped answer some of these questions (more on gathering oral histories coming soon), but many of my interview subjects were very young during the period in question. And it is sometimes risky to make assumptions about an entire group of people based on one subject's memories.

Therefore, I have spent countless hours trolling the Internet for good source material. In the beginning of the novel, I was looking up every detail as I was writing the first draft. But that process became incredibly time-consuming, slowing down the creative process. Now I'm putting in placeholders, then going back in the editing phase to fill in blanks.

Here are some helpful historical sites that I've found so far. But I'd love to get your recommendations and hear about similar challenges for you and how you tackled them.

Infoplease timeline: A good general timeline on big historical events from 1950 to 1999.

PBS Living Center: Although a bit sparse, this interactive exhibit has some useful items, such as a Sears catalog from 1950.

American Social and Cultural History: This Smithsonian Online exhibit has a vast list of links to social, cultural, military, domestic history and more.

Fifties Web: As an alternative to IMDB, this is a good place to find old TV shows. Just watch out for the pop-ups.

The Nifty Fifties: Contains a list of useful 50s links.

Also, I've found that browsing magazine ads from this period is a good indicator of what products were available/popular during this time.