Tag Archive | Tool

Moonchild Manuscript Soundtrack a.k.a. Table of Contents

Music permeates just about everything I write, and I often think of my writing in terms of music. So naturally, a full-length book manuscript is like a full-length album. A concept album, perhaps.

This is especially true for MOONCHILD, the memoir manuscript I’m revising (as in completely re-envisioning, you can read about this writerly overhaul and the revision process here and here). There is so much music in the text of the book. Always music. And discussions about the meanings of the songs that are incorporated into the story, an exploration of where music and life and self intersect.

Pretty early on, I knew I wanted to start each chapter out with a lyric. In fact, I wrote the first words (longhand, in a notebook) of this manuscript in 2003, and I think even then, I knew each chapter would somehow feature a lyric, a song. It’s not the first time I thought that way about a long-form piece of writing.

So, yes, each chapter starts off with a lyric from a song. I did up a little CD label thing (which proves why I’m a writer and NOT a graphic designer) that lists the songs that are quoted at the beginning of each chapter. Here it is:

Continue reading →

Writing, Music and the Places Where they Overlap

Apr13

So many things have me revisiting my musical past as of late. It’s really kind of odd how so many things converged at once. Sometimes I feel like, for whatever reason, I just really let music slip away for awhile, and over the last month, a switch has flipped and all of a sudden, I’m back.

I think I’m a little too embarrassed to admit one of the things that started all this. I’ll just say this: it was a TV show. And it wasn’t that I loved the music on the show so much as one of the characters reminded me of how I used to feel about music, and that got me listening to CDs again, and trying to rebuild my old music collection by buying a bunch of used CDs, and looking into concerts and shows again. Okay, I’ll give a hint, since it sort of relates to the remainder of the post, this TV show I don’t quite want to name is named after a song.

Continue reading →

After the Ecstacy, the Laundry

Aug31

A few years ago, I went to this amazing writers retreat weekend put on by The Sun magazine in Big Sur, CA, and during the last morning we were all gathered and talking about what we felt about the end of the workshop, and a lot of people expressed some degree of sorrow at having to go back to their real lives, and someone brought up the quote that is the title of this blog post, which I think was originally said by some spiritual teacher or something. Ever since that workshop, I think of this quote anytime I’m saying goodbye to any kind of supercool experience and going back to my regular life, and that is the case this morning.

Continue reading →

Adventures, Quests & Foreign Sands

Jul24

Another post from July 2008. Coolest part? One of these things I wrote about actually did happen.

So, for the past few months, I’ve been setting the same three intentions. The first is about adventure. I want to go back to school next fall, I’ve felt decided on that for awhile. The meantime is the issue. I decided a few months ago that I’m not going to stay here for that time. I feel too stagnant and stuck, like I haven’t put myself out there in awhile, taken any big risks like I did back when I traveled to organic farms or moved to Seattle with no money. Those were difficult experiences, but also some of the deepest, most rewarding times I’ve lived through, really showed me what I was made of, challenged me and made me grow as a person. I miss it, the spirit of adventure, of seeing the world.

Continue reading →

My Table of Contents Looks More Like the Song List on a Soundtrack…or Something

Apr16

So, all my chapters (except for the first four that cover childhood), are named after song lyrics. In fact, I’ll just put the list of songs on here, to give an idea, and then I want to talk about the general motivations. Some songs come up more than once, (“Moonchild” by Chris Cornell, for example), different lyrics are used in each chapter. That song is the repeating refrain of the story, for sure. Anyway, for now, I’ll just give song title and artist.

Here’s the current table of contents:

Continue reading →

"Lateralus" by TOOL (Song of the Week)

Aug7

(This is a re-post from my old MySpace blog)

While visiting the east coast a week or so ago, and listening to music on the long journey there and back, I started thinking about the songs on my discman (yes I still have one of thsoe and no MP3 player or iPod yet) and all the different meanings they have for me, the memories, the thoughts on the lyrics, the favorite lines, and somehow out of that I had the idea to do a weekly blog about a song, any song. Music is already so woven into my writing, and it’s like I always want to isolate the most meaninful lyrics, somehow convey to other people what it means to me as if could just sort of import it somehow. That isn’t exactly possible, but I thought doing this might help expand it.