Beware Musical Monday!

Yeah, of course, you have to know this is coming...

And yes. Everybody knows "Vehicle." That's why this page has something even better.  😊

You're welcome!

Janny

A Happy Musical Monday Bonus...

...from my favorite Chopin player, in honor of Chopin's 211th birthday. 

(Unfortunately, the poor man only lived to be 39. Frederic, not Vladimir.)

Sit back, think Monday thoughts, and this should fit perfectly.

Enjoy!

Janny

Writing from "TV," Part II. (Or, "No Tears in the Writer, No Tears in the Reader.")

Last time, we started mulling over what writing from Total Vulnerability looks like...

...sounds like...

...feels like. 

But we just touched the very surface of it--which, ironically enough, is NOT what writing from "TV" ends up being, if it's done right.  

Writing from TV, in the end, is about writing "soul deep."

The quote in the title above is one I've heard for years, one that's especially apropos--to my way of thinking, anyway--when we're talking writing love stories.

Now, this does not mean that you need to write tragedy. In fact, in the case of genre romance, you can't write a tragic ending and have it fulfill most romance readers' expectations. Which means that it won't fulfill a romance publisher's expectations, either.

Which means the only expectation it may fulfill is more rejection-letter fodder for your fireplace. Burn 'em if ya got 'em, I guess. 😔

But, to me, what writing from "TV" looks like  is that the "feels" are what counts.

So, there are times when I'm crying as I write.

No. Really. I am.

Or holding my  breath in suspense as I create a crisis...even though I know I'm making it all up, and they're going to be all right in the end. 

Sounds silly, doesn't it? 

But it's not. And I'm rediscovering this kind of writing, which I used to do before I knew all the "rules" and all the "stuff I couldn't do" and all the "stuff that wouldn't sell"...and I just told stories. And not only is it exhilarating, and risky, and scary, and sometimes rattling as all get-out...but, boy, is it fun.

The best comparison I can make to illustrate what this looks like is my late husband's favorite movie, Top Gun. Great stuff. No, it'll probably never win any sophistication, subtlety, or deftness awards. But it has absolutely one of the best uses of the "feels" I've ever encountered, in that last dogfight scene. 

I mean, when I watched it the first time, I was on the edge of my chair. As probably most people were. The aerial photography, for one thing, is breathtaking--but the action is even better. And the ever-present danger, coming at our heroes at high speeds and seemingly from everywhere--when we've already seen one of these guys die earlier in the movie--is a slice of writing from "TV" that is genius.  Because these guys are vulnerable in a way most of us have never, ever experienced...except vicariously. 

But we experience it in this movie. And how.

We're already emotionally involved not only because Maverick's on a mission to redeem the somewhat questionable history of his father, but we've already lost Goose...and then all hell breaks loose in the sky, and it's tough to imagine that these guys are gonna all come out of this thing alive.

Of course, through a great many heroic moves, some smart-aleck stuff from Maverick, and some flying and fighting skill second to none...everybody does survive, and rousingly so.

And, having seen this movie, I know there's an uproariously happy ending to it.

And yet...

Every time I watch that dogfight scene, I'm back on the edge of my seat.

And that, to me, is where the emotional genius comes in.

When the writers were putting that together, they must have been pacing around the room,  throwing out the words as fast as they could get them out. Feeling the adrenaline. Experiencing a very real, albeit fictitious, fear...even though, once again, they were making it all up, and the characters were all going to be all right in the end. 

That's what total vulnerability looks like--on the page, and on the screen.

And that's what my writing has, thanks be to God, come back to.

Writing over the top.

Writing a touch melodramatic.

Writing on the raw edge of a nerve.

Writing hokey, in-your-face emotion--both funny and tragic.

Writing that makes my stomach go to butterflies as I'm doing it.

Writing that makes me choke up when the hero goes down on one knee.

Writing that, in my latest romantic suspense books, brings me to the edge of my own chair.

Even though I know these people are going to come out of this all right.

And so, what is happening now in my writing is that I'm peeling layers until I get to that sweet emotional spot--the one that will take me, and hence my reader, back to that "dogfight" again, and again, and again...and make her feel the same things. 

Make her heart go to her throat wondering if these people are going to be together...or if their love won't, in the end, survive. 

Make her tear up when death is closing in on the hero, or heroine, or both of them--and help may not get there in time.

Make her let out a long breath of relief when rescue finally does  happen...

...whether it's actual physical life-saving intervention or emotional healing...

or a combination of both.

And make the happy ending something beyond merely "happy"...and the book into a keeper.

Will it be sophisticated, subtle, and deft?

Not on your life.

But is it authentic?

Yep.

And I know when I do it right...

...because before you feel it as a reader, I've felt it as a writer.

And if I haven't felt it deep enough, I sit back, take a breath...

...and go deeper.

And I don't stop until I figuratively "draw blood."

Or cry.

Or both.

What will happen with this latest writing, only time will tell.

But in the past four years, I have written five books--a pace at which I have never written in my life.

Which tells me that, both in terms of quality and in terms of productivity...

...I'm onto something.

So, if you're feeling dry...maybe the answer isn't to read another writing manual, or go to another writing conference or workshop, or find another critique group, or get an MFA in Creative Writing so you can "crack the code."

Maybe, the code is inside you...just buried deeper than cool, calm, sophisticated, and subtle can reach. 

At heart level.

At vein level.

At the level of total vulnerability.
Where you write the stuff you're afraid  people might laugh at...

...but you then come out with stuff that will make people not just read your story...but feel it  And feel. And feel some more.

And that kind of story...most people never get enough of.

Anytime you want to join me in doing our best to give them that kind of read...jump right in. 

The water's fine. Even when--or maybe I should say especially when--you let yourself go deep enough to drown in it.

It's writing you never thought you could do.  

And once you do it, you'll never stop.

Thoughts?

Janny

 

Writing From "TV," Part I. (And, No, It's Not What You Think.)

Over the past few years, I've had a couple of what can only be called major transformations.

In my life, certainly.

But also, in my writing.

And in the process, I'm "refinding" and nurturing  roots I'd forgotten I had. 

Romance, for one. Specifically, happy, heartwarming romance. The kind of life I never lived in my family of origin (!), but the kind I lived in my adult years, once the mad percussionist and I came through the fire and emerged, out the other side, stronger, sweeter, deeper, and...ironically...on the way to becoming more and more who we were when we first fell in love.

Which is the cruel part about his untimely death happening when it did: that particular sun was just beginning to peep back over the horizon, only to set...too soon.

But, for reasons known only to the Almighty--and only happening by His power, I believe--even after Patrick's death, I've continued down the "revert" path...

...to the point where, literally, I've become once more the writer I was when I first fell in love. With writing, that is.

And that's where the title of this post comes in.

Yes, there IS "writing from TV" that, in fact, refers to "writing from (or for) television."

But that is not the writing I'm talking about now.

In this case, "TV" doesn't stand for "television," but for something way scarier.

Total Vulnerability.

What does that "TV" look like?

Short and sweet, it's summed up in the old wisecrack, "Writing is easy. Just sit down at your desk and open a vein."

It's writing that peels away layers.

Exposes your heart.

And isn't safe.

Don't misunderstand me, though.

I'm not talking about writing about so-called "unsafe" topics.

Or taking "risks" that are nothing more than painting depravity on a page.

Or illuminating "issues," righting wrongs, or making your reader uncomfortable by probing at her hypocrisies and forcing her to face them...

...all thinly disguised as fiction.

If you've read the CWC at all, you know how much I despise that.

I'm talking about writing that's honest. And terrifying at times. 

Writing that reaches into your guts. (Not that tries to challenge a reader's.)

Writing that goes over the top. 

The kind of writing we all do when we're about sixteen.

Melodramatic.

Intense.

Exposed.

Not "mature."

Not "sophisticated."

Not "subtle" or "eloquent" or "deft."

For a time, there, I tried to be subtle, and eloquent, and deft...and I ended up with people asking me ,"Where's the feeling in this?"

I thought it was there.

And maybe it was.

But it was being camouflaged under layers of what I thought "mature" writing was supposed to look like. Cool. Distant. Challenging.

I wanted to write cerebral, sophisticated stories. 

Whodunnits that would literally leave a reader gasping in surprise, then chuckling in admiration.

Romances that would leave a reader smiling knowingly, and even a little envious of the really, really cool people I'd set out there for them to emulate.

Nick and Nora Charles, if you would.

(Look it up.)

Only problem?

I'm not that person. 

And I'm not that writer.

The writer I've become now, however? Her, I like. A lot.

And the plus of this "reversion" is...now, I'm writing like (almost) never before.

What does this writing look like? And how is it turning out?

We'll talk about that in Part II!

To Be Continued...

Janny

Make that 64,585...

 ...being slowed only by my having had carpal tunnel release surgery on my right hand on January 5. Yeah. Six days ago, and I can almost type normally again.

Which, I suppose, says a lot for clean living. (!)

Added to this, of course, then is the latest invitation my agent has received from an editor for projects to fit a very specific kind of story--one I happen to be very good at. 

But NOT the kind I'm working on now! 

(Ayee)

More to come. Probably much, much, MUCH more...soon as my hand can cope with it.

Pray!

Janny

59,380...and counting

Okay, not to brag or get ahead of myself or anything, because I KNOW I've written some rabbit trails I'll have to trim and/or excise when it comes to editing and polishing...

...but MY BROTHER'S KEEPER is up to almost 60K words, and will reach that this weekend. More than likely, I'll blow right through to the tune of 2,000-3,000 more words before the New Year.

No, this won't finish the book; my novels of late are in the 85K+ range, and this one will end up that long for sure. But considering this is the THIRD book I will be tackling during calendar year 2020, I'm still not going to complain.

And, yes, I'm starting to get that "butterfly" feeling in the pit of my stomach. The one that's a mixture of wondering-if-I-can-pull-it-off and watching-myself-do-so. There's a creative fire that flares even higher at times like this--when you get that heart-stopping thought that maybe, just maybe--as the hero in one of my sweet romances says, This is gonna happen. Thanks be to all that is holy, this is really gonna happen!

People who don't create "stuff" out of nothing probably don't relate to this.

But I know a whole lot of you who...most assuredly...DO.

And with that, I must be going...

Stay tuned!

Janny

The Last Musical Monday of 2020!

Yes, I know...some of you can't wait to end this year.

BUT  Christmas isn't over yet, as you all well know. The celebration here, liturgically speaking, ends only at the feast of the Baptism of Christ--and at the Vatican, the creche stays up until Candlemas, which is February 2.

Yeah. 

So, in the spirit of continuation of the Christmas celebration, I bring you this.

This came not upon a midnight clear, but snuck up on me on WFMT as I was working in my office...and it blew me plumb away. I may be late to the party on this one; apparently, it's been around for some time... but I really don't care. There's never an expiration date on Debussy and Gruber.  Nor should there be.

Enjoy!

Janny

'Tis the Last Musical Monday Before Christmas...

 ...and there is no more fitting song than this one to share.

I was a little girl when I first heard this song...and it captured me.

I was a college student when I was lucky enough to perform this in an ensemble...

...and when another "little drummer boy"--born, coincidentally enough, on Christmas Day--captured me as well.

Both have held my heart ever since.

The original. The definitive. And, by far, the best version of this song. 

Ever.

May you always "play your best for Him."

Merry Christmas!

Janny

 

A Double Dip for Musical Monday!

Further proof that good musicians "borrow" (steal!) from each other all the time... 😊

First, the original, from Prokofiev...

And then, what Greg Lake did with it. 

The first one's rather more cheerful than the second, IMHO. But that doesn't diminish the memories--and there are plenty of them--that I have with the second song. 

Hallelujah...Noel!

More musical thoughts to come,

Janny

Musical Monday on Wednesday! (LOL)

Never mind...it's worth it. Honest. 
When I was a baby music student, I fell in love with this second movement of the "Rhenish" Symphony...and in the process, with the entire piece as well.  Much of Schumann is equally beautiful, but this to me also has an extra degree of "sunshine" that you don't always hear in his work...for obvious reasons, if you know anything about the composer's life at all.  😔

BUT...if you've never heard this...take it in. Savor it. And then go listen to the rest of the symphony! 

You're welcome. 😄

Janny

Musical Monday, a Tad Bit Late!

But when it comes to music like this...who cares?

Ashkenazy is fast becoming my favorite Chopin interpreter, FWIW. But I'm also finding that when I hear Chopin's music lately...it makes me want to cry.

I think that began when I was playing the F minor Etude...and thought about that poor man, dying of consumption at only 39. And yeah, I know everybody died of consumption in those days, unless you had a constitution of steel and/or were extremely lucky...because there was no penicillin.

But still.

There are many musicians who died young, about whom the question can be asked, "What would they have achieved if they'd lived longer?"

Mozart.

Schubert.

And, of course, Chopin.

We can only hope they're in the heavenly realms writing all that stuff they never got to on earth...and we'll get to hear it.

Until then, enjoy this little piece of heaven here!

Thoughts?

Janny

For Those of You Tracking Musical Monday...

 I present this, from last week. 

At a particularly low emotional point I was in, a week ago Sunday evening, lo and behold, this music came over the radio...and I knew I needed to share it with you.

 I have a very vivid memory, indeed, of this piece...being conducted by the young man I was about to marry, at an outdoor concert at which several seniors were given the privilege of conducting the Bradley University Symphonic Band.  But the memory is indelible not only because Patrick did a fine job on it--but because this music would also be one of our wedding preludes...a little over a month later.

I wish I had a recording of that performance, given April 24, 1982. 

But Frederick Fennell's not a bad substitute. 😊

Enjoy!

Janny