"Old" People Writing for Teens V

jtrylch13 · Nov 26, 2014

Go Sage!

As to music, I am looking for a mix of movie soundtrack (no words) and some eclectic rock/pop. I like Passenger and Lorde but also Taylor Swift and dare I say it, some One Direction. I want this WIP to be beautiful in the scenery (Last of the Mof=hicans soundtrack) but gritty and gutsy in the emotion and action. I've really enjoyed the Hunger Games, Catching Fire and MJI soundtracks that are inspired by the movie. So, not really sure what I'm looking for, and I don;t really listen to music much so it's hard to know what's out there. Just if anyone has suggestions for what they listen to, I can try it and see if it works for me.

I'd like to take a research road trip too, Becca. I suggested we go hiking in the Adirondacks and hubby was all for it. But that's next summer, so I'd have to wait, and it might be hard to take kids on that. We'll see.

Sage · Nov 26, 2014

I was considering the MJ1 soundtrack, since I was paying attention to the background music in certain parts.

So Doctor Who has a great variety of music throughout the seasons, mostly non-vocal. If you want a smaller selection, I suggest season 3 or the Christmas Carol special (total I have about 400 DW songs, but that does include a few vocal tracks I added that were used in the series). Some is quite beautiful and some very epic sounding.

Maybe try some Motion City Soundtrack. They have some good lyrics, including what may be considered gritty at times, and their songs might appeal to the more alternative side of you. I get much inspiration from Maroon 5, which is definitely rock/pop. More fun lyrics can be found from Jason Mraz. I always see it as a personal victory if I can get a JM song in there.

Is this for I Have No Name? I'm better with music suggestions if I know themes

ETA: Beautiful scenery: I think my Cool and Easy playlist or Fireflies soundtrack. A lot of Owl City on the latter, which is my most poppy suggestion in this ETA. Some "beautiful scenery" feeling suggestions: Loreena McKennitt (new age); Pure Moods (new age); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe soundtrack; Dar Williams (folk, different lyrics could lead to inspiration too);

JFitchett92 · Nov 27, 2014

If you want beautiful and awe-inspiring soundtrack to listen to, try the Skyrim soundtrack. It's incredible, mixture of different instruments (mostly orchestral) with different directions in the songs. One minute your listening to the lute-driven melodies of Whiterun, the next your listening to the smashing drums of a battle against a Frost Dragon.

And it's approximately 4 hours long, so you don't need to keep switching albums

Probably better for fantasy, but it's worked well with my Sci-fi. I'd also recommend the soundtrack to The Host, very electronic in places and has some nice peaceful tracks towards the end.

Sage · Nov 27, 2014

H/V2 is done!

Bing Z · Nov 27, 2014

Happy Turkey Day, folks (and OMG canz I not have turkey again weekend) !!!!!

And for those not in the US, happy beer/suds drinking day.

Sage said:
Yes, that's why I love it when I get to drive to east Ohio or Indiana. I'm almost certainly going to be straight down I-70 for a few hours. Driving back is even better because I don't even need the GPS or to worry when I'm getting off the freeway.

Doesn't your library system offer free audio books?

Oh, and congratz & hugz for finishing H/V2. *submits application for celebration beer money*

Sage · Nov 27, 2014

Audiobook driving is the same time as plotting driving. Too much GPS means that I can't hear what the book is saying most of the time, so when the GPS is giving me lots of instructions, it's time to listen to music I know very very well.

Hapax Legomenon · Nov 27, 2014

@JTR, for music.

Uh...

Though it's not "wordless," but her voice is difficult to make out, maybe for beautiful scenery Sea Oleena's Sleeplessness? You can get it on Bandcamp for free, so it's not like there's much commitment... In the same vein (though you can tell what they're saying) I'd recommend Shearwater's Animal Joy. Both of these evoke pretty places for me. For places less pretty and possibly more awe-inspiring, I recommend Plazmataz's Medium -- it's all instrumental. For more cool instrumental stuff I'd also recommend The Glitch Mob's Drink The Sea.

To be honest I have no idea what you mean by "eclectic pop/punk". If you want an idea of what I listen to, I have a bunch of 8tracks playlists, though some of the assortments are probably not what you're looking for at all. Maybe try this one, this one, and this one, if you have time.

Ellaroni · Nov 27, 2014

Ah, now I get why it's so quiet online... it's Thanksgiving! Happy T, those of you celebrating.

Hapax Legomenon · Nov 27, 2014

wampuscat said:
Thank you, Hap, for posting that notebook indexing thing. I love keeping notebooks, but I feel like I never go back and review that stuff. I also haven't written longhand in a long time. I'd like to try an experiment where I write the first draft of a WIP longhand and then revise as I move it into digital form.

Beware the Wolves was written entirely longhand before being typed up. I used three notebooks for that draft, so yes, something 85k is going to take multiple notebooks. And those were composition-sized notebooks. You're going to need a lot more if you have moleskines or something. A composition book will hold a whole bunch of words (~40k, I think?) but the dinky half-size volants I've used only hold like 15-20k. That means like 3 packs of volants (with 2 notebooks each) for $12 each, you're spending $36 on just paper for one novel.

Anyway I've started bullet journaling. I'm going to see how that goes.

Becca C. · Nov 27, 2014

Woooooooo just hit 45k! And the big finale is over. So I guess this novel will have 5,000 words of dénouement. :/ well, there is a fairly major character who hasn't had any screen time yet, only been talked about, and a cute ending thing I have dreamed up, so I guess I have some valuable things to throw in there.

jtrylch13 · Nov 29, 2014

Congrats Sage on completing H/V2!

Congrats Becca on 45k!

Thanks everyone for the music suggestions. I can't wait to check them all out. Sounds like a lot of stuff I'm going to write.

Sage, this is for my new WIP. I haven't named it yet, but it's going to be a sci-fi inspired by Last of the Mohicans. I want beautiful scenery that has both elements of exotic and familiar, sweeping epic action, a little bit of sci-fi technology, but stranded in a place where much of that technology is useless. What I'm struggling with right now is character development. Cooper's characters were, IMHO, a little flat and characterish. I need to dig deep and create awesome characters, but I haven't found them yet. They'll come, I just need some serious plotting and thinking time.

Becca C. · Nov 29, 2014

I FINISHED NANO!

Well... I got to 48k and that's where the story ended. LOL. But I just copy and pasted some of the story that I'd written pre-November so I could validate it on the site because I like having the shiny badges. The entire first draft is 78k. And... fairly horrible. It's going to be a beast to revise. But for now I'm taking a lot break to read and enjoy myself again!

lenore_x · Nov 29, 2014

Congrats Becca!! Whoo, love that high of OMG I'M DONE followed by the immediate crash of "oh boy, look at this disaster."

jtrylch13 · Nov 29, 2014

Way to go Becca!

Everybody must be really busy with their last two days of NaNo. It's pretty quiet in here right now.

I am so close to the end of reading The Last of the Mohicans and I can't wait for it to be done. I'm taking notes, so that slows me down, and I do love the story, but I feel really bogged down in the details and really just want to feel the story and relay it into something new.

Of course, I have a ton of other research to do, and a lot of time plotting and all that good stuff, but I can't wait to start writing.

Parametric · Nov 29, 2014

jtrylch13 said:
Everybody must be really busy with their last two days of NaNo. It's pretty quiet in here right now.

I scraped over the finish line yesterday, but with limited enthusiasm. I'm trying to recover my excitement for this project so I can gear up for DecNoWriMo. :tongue

Becca C. · Nov 29, 2014

I think my NaNo book might be a thriller. Which is weird. I'm so used to writing straight-up contemp. This one has secrets, lies, long-lost relatives, people who aren't who they say they are, covered-up murders, abuse, etc... and the MC has to unravel it all because it's all been hidden from her. And there's plenty of running from bad guys and being kidnapped and almost killed, etc. SO WEIRD for me.

Smiley0501 · Nov 29, 2014

Becca C. said:
I think my NaNo book might be a thriller. Which is weird. I'm so used to writing straight-up contemp. This one has secrets, lies, long-lost relatives, people who aren't who they say they are, covered-up murders, abuse, etc... and the MC has to unravel it all because it's all been hidden from her. And there's plenty of running from bad guys and being kidnapped and almost killed, etc. SO WEIRD for me.

That sounds so good. *raises hand to beta* :tongue

Congrats on finishing!

For music-- I listen a lot to Rilo Kiley (which I like to think is angsty but with a slight folk-ish sound plus pop?).

I wrote a short story prequel to my novel. I think I want to turn it into a novella. Anybody ever done that before? I know I need to expand the timeline/plot. Ahhhh. Excited/nervous here.

Hope everyone had a great holiday this week if you celebrate!

JKRowley · Nov 29, 2014

So great to hear about the results of NaNo here. I didn't write a novel, but started revisions at the beginning of the month and sewed them up tonight. Feels good. I think this book is about ready to market. I'd like to give it another read and check notes from Beta readers and critique partners. Right now, I love it.

Sage · Nov 30, 2014

I'm reading H/V2 before I start H/V3 up, but I'm simultaneously excited and scared to write H/V3. It is going to be so damn dark.

CoffeeBeans · Nov 30, 2014

Parametric said:
I scraped over the finish line yesterday, but with limited enthusiasm. I'm trying to recover my excitement for this project so I can gear up for DecNoWriMo.

I can't think of the last time I fell so flat on a project. The last 4 scenes of my nano were the ones that made me want to do the story in the first place. Time to leave the subtle interpersonal drama to more capable hands once again.

Everyone wants to kill one another in the next idea... :snoopy:

Becca C. said:
I FINISHED NANO!

Well... I got to 48k and that's where the story ended. LOL. But I just copy and pasted some of the story that I'd written pre-November so I could validate it on the site because I like having the shiny badges. The entire first draft is 78k. And... fairly horrible. It's going to be a beast to revise. But for now I'm taking a lot break to read and enjoy myself again!

Congrats! Yay to all the folks who are winners!

Sage said:
H/V2 is done!

Congrats! Done is awesome.

A month for beta'ing for me. I'm super excited to be reading for a while. Reading and obsessively plotting the SNI, of course.

Considering I pulled up my plotting doc as soon as I validate and saved my winner goodies, I might be willing to admit I've got a problem.

Also, now that nano is over, and I don't have to stick with my failed project, I can get back to posting since I'll hopefully have something other than whining to say

hopefully.

Hapax Legomenon · Nov 30, 2014

I just saw Big Hero Six and am very tempted to write about friendly robots now.

Parametric · Dec 1, 2014

CoffeeBeans said:
I can't think of the last time I fell so flat on a project. The last 4 scenes of my nano were the ones that made me want to do the story in the first place. Time to leave the subtle interpersonal drama to more capable hands once again.

Everyone wants to kill one another in the next idea...

I don't do subtle. My range as a writer is strictly limited to shootouts and explosions.

CoffeeBeans · Dec 1, 2014

Hapax Legomenon said:
I just saw Big Hero Six and am very tempted to write about friendly robots now.

That might be this week's date-night movie (or Gone Girl, depends on which theatre we go to). My robotics girls made a team trip of it, and I am all in on robots. Glad t hear you liked it too.

Parametric said:
I don't do subtle. My range as a writer is strictly limited to shootouts and explosions.

It would have been easier if they'd just been witches from the start. I wrote the end conflict, since it was when all the secrets got revealed. Otherwise, yeah, I'm sticking to explosions. Someone better than me, however, ought to write the book. It's a good idea and I'd like to read it!

SoCalWriter · Dec 1, 2014

So, I didn't win Nano, but I did manage to write a little over 28k for the month, and since it took me 3 months to write the first 20k of my WIP, I'm pretty proud of myself!

As for Big Hero Six, it looks super cute! I really want to see it!

And as for friendly robots, my WIP is full of them!

jtrylch13 · Dec 1, 2014

paintitreadbooks said:
So, I didn't win Nano, but I did manage to write a little over 28k for the month, and since it took me 3 months to write the first 20k of my WIP, I'm pretty proud of myself!

I kind of feel like this is what NaNo is all about. So in my opinion, you did win!

I've officially stopped querying I Have No Name for now. I have a couple more agents I'd like to query come the end of January, but I'm happy to set it aside. The SNI is calling.

So now that I have more time, I'm going to research and plot heavily through December and hopefully turn January into MY NaNo month.

"Old" People Writing for Teens V

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

JFitchett92

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

Bing Z

illiterate primate

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

Hapax Legomenon

Ellaroni

Hapax Legomenon

Becca C.

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!

Becca C.

lenore_x

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!

Parametric

Becca C.

Smiley0501

Lurker, now activated. :-)

JKRowley

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

CoffeeBeans

Hapax Legomenon

Parametric

CoffeeBeans

SoCalWriter

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!