..:: Written .:. Off ::..

I was so caught up in Nanowrimo at the beginning of this month that I forgot that sometime in late October was my One Year Anniversary as a blogger.

My first blog was called “Smash Your Head Against the Writer’s Block”. That site mutated and split into “Sentenced To Write” and “Doomed To Rock”. I then recombined both of those blogs into the short lived “The Lost Highway” until settling comfortably into Fred Charles Blog (the title is uninspired, yes, but I like it).

Along the way, I have met scores of awesome folks. Some are writers, some are readers, some are music fans and some are just plain cool people.

As a fiction writer, it’s great to have a place to talk about writing with other people who have had the experience, both good and bad. I don’t have that in my personal life since no one that I know actually writes. Some of my friends have potential but after several conversations with them about writing I realize that they lack drive. So, knowing that, most of the support that I get as a writer is from you wonderful people out there in Internet Land. Believe me, your words of encouragement mean a lot to me.

Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, there’s no one better that I can think of to give thanks to than all of you.

When I’m bored or need a break from writing and thinking about writing, I do what every normal music fanatic does, I make lists in my head. List making is a form of daydreaming/obsession to the music fan. We love to list our favorite bands, guitar players, drummers, albums, music moments and so forth.

My wife knows that I have a “List Psychosis” especially when it comes to my favorite bands. She seems to think that I have 1000 favorite bands. We had this conversation today:

Me: Don’t forget that I’m going to a concert on Friday.

Her: Who are you going to see again?

Me: (The Mighty)* Celtic Frost!

Her: Let me guess, they are your favorite band.

Me: They are top three.

Her: You have a gazillion top threes.

So yes, I’m a bit obsessed with lists and they do change from time to time.

Today, while I was trying to think of something besides Nano, I came up with yet another list in my head:

If I could attend an all day festival, consisting of any 6 bands, who would they be? I could only pick active bands and one band could be the headliner.

The list that I came up with are not necessarily my favorite bands, but consist of bands that i’ve never seen live and probably never will since they rarely get across the pond.

1. Candlemass

2. King Crimson (Headliner)

3. Napalm Death

4. Motorhead
5. Slough Feg

6. Cathedral

Now, if the choice was any band, even those who have broken up or have lost members due to…ahem..DEATH…I would go with:

1. Frank Zappa (Headliner)

2. AC/DC (with Bon Scott)

3.  The Ramones

4. Genesis (With Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett)

5. Pink Floyd with Roger Waters…performing The Wall

6. The Beatles

*The words in parenthesis are the words I say in my head and don’t speak outloud.

I’ve been out of the loop for the last few days, since Verizon decided to shut down both phone and Internet service in my area. It all happened around 2:00PM on Saturday afternoon. I called a few hours later and was told that there was a problem in the area and that I should expect to get service back by 9:00PM on Monday!

9:00PM on Monday???? Are you kidding me?

Apparently not as it is Monday morning and I’m still without phones or Internet.

I’m sure that there are some doomsayers out there who figured that I buckled under the pressure of Nanowrimo and dug myself a nice, deep hole to hide it. Not the case. I am still at it although I’m moving at a slower pace since it was very difficult, as I expected, to write in the weekend. I managed to pound out a little over the minimum word cound for both Friday and Saturday. This brings me to a grand totals of: 14,031 words.

How is my mental state holding up? Since you didn’t ask, I will tell you anyway. I’m hanging in just fine this year. If anything, I’m pissed at myself for not pushing myself to write like this all year long. I’m not talking about writing 3000-4000 words a day but I could easily been doing 1500-2000 words a day. The deadly thing about laziness is that you end up convincing yourself that you absolutely can not do things that you are capable of.

The one thing that I can think of that may make this whole Nano-thing a bit of a bust is that I’m writing in such a compacted time frame that I’m giving little thought to my story. It’s coming a long fine but there are portions of it that I know will have to be rewritten. I’m used to taking my time with writing and figuring out different plot points but the pace is so fast, that I have little time to think. The outline that I wrote is kind of useless since I veered off from that in the first few sentences.

I’m just going to keep going with it for now and see how the story pans out.

I can’t drink coffee. I like the taste of it but it wreaks havoc on my stomach and gives me the jitters. So besides drinking tea, the only thing that keeps me going, especially while writing is music.

My dear friend Susie made this comment in regards to my playlist:

“wow, you’re play list sounds real uplifting LOL sorry couldn’t resist that”*

This comment is no doubt in reference to the CD titles that I’m listening to at the moment: The Haunted -The Dead Eye, Iced Earth - Something Wicked.

Who could blame anyone for thinking that this music is not uplifting?

Well, let me tell you, there is no music out there that’s more uplifting than a good, solid, galloping metal record. Metal can be both fast and melodic at the same time, especially if you are listening to Power Metal bands like Iron Maiden, Iced Earth and Blind Guardian. They call it Power Metal because  it is uplifting and full of soaring vocals and melodies.

Metal is a great choice too if you are writing fantasy, since a lot of metal bands write about fantasy subject matter. For me, it doesn’t really matter what they bands are singing about. I gave up reading lyric sheets in my early 20s. All that I need while I’m writing is music that has power and moves along at a fast pace…but not too fast. I’ve tried listening to really fast music while writing and it just distracts me.

I find, when I’m really focused on writing, everything else around me, even the music just shuts out. The music is there, providing a pace, but other than that, I don’t even hear it sometimes. As long as my head is bobbing along while writing, the music is doing it’s job.

*Susie, thanks again for providing me with more blog subject matter

Total Word Count: 6,769 Words

Mood: Still Tired

Today’s Playlist: Iced Earth -Days of Purgatory/Something Wicked, Hammers of Misfortune - The Bastard, The Haunted - The Dead Eye

I notice when I write consistently, my work becomes stranger and stranger. My story is taking some strange twists but I’m liking where this story is heading. I managed to change the appearance of a main character just before I started to describe him and it worked out wonderfully. The whole tone of the character changed when I altered his appearance.

One thing that is really helping me along this year is that I’m reading a lot while writing. Reading a good book is such a positive form of inspiration. It’s also providing a much needed break in between writing sessions.

Sorry if this is boring for you to read but I’m immersed in Nano for now and feel compelled to blog about it. On the plus side, if I have a meltdown in the process, at least it will be fun to read.

Word Count: 3580 words

Goal: 5000 words

Mood: Tired but positive

Today’s Playlist: Iron Maiden: Dance of Death/A Matter of Life and Death, Iced Earth - Alive in Athens

I started my nano novel while sitting on the train today. For a brief moment I stared at the blank screen and said, “uh…..” to myself. Luckily, I spit out the first few sentences and was on my way.  I wrote Chapter 1 today and am about to start Chapter 2. My goal for today was a lofty 5,000 words, which I doubt I will make…I still have two hours left in the day.

How did the rest of you who are participating make out?