Musical Inclinations and Research, Research, Research!

One of my favorite parts of writing this screenplay is the musical inspiration I am finding.  As with most inspiration, it can come at any time--from a song on the radio while I'm driving, while listening to Pandora, the random shuffle of a playlist, something sung at church, any number of places.

I have songs that encapsulate parts of characters' personalities, songs that WILL be in certain scenes, even songs for the credits.  Some inspire the mental picture of a scene.  Others I search for to complement a scene already written.  Some I want to use As Is and some I need re-recorded with a different feel.  Nearly all of them I have felt led to.

One night I thought, "I need some music for when they start out on the road trip."  For some reason I began scrolling through one of my playlists and found THE PERFECT song for it.  I can exactly see and hear it and that is SO EXCITING!  It's from the '80s and a bit heavier on the synthesizer than I need, so that one will need some work.  What fun!

Another song is one we sang at our Christmas worship service and I knew it would be perfect, but what version?  What type of sound?  And where will it go exactly?  After much batting around and letting my little grey cells work their magic, I finally determined where I wanted it and that I needed it to be instrumental.  If the words were included it would give away the plot line before I'm ready.  So then, will it be a grand orchestration?  A more modern take a la Mannheim Steamroller?  Simple and woodsy?  I scrolled through my choices and one version caught my attention.  I clicked to listen and suddenly I could see it playing on the screen.  Perfection again!  AND if the audience members know the words well enough they will see for certain how perfect it is.  I love writing things that, if you dig a little further in, you find even more meaning.

Speaking of digging further, I believe I am nearly finished with the research portion and can soon get down to the actual task of writing scenes and dialog.  I have one more book to read, a few questions to answer and then look out!

Well, that's the plan for now.  Knowing God, that can change at any time.  But, that's part of what makes it all so exciting.  :)

'Til My Puzzler Was Sore

WOW it's been a long time since I checked in here.  I have been working, though, researching and putting pieces together as I get them.  This daydreaming part of writing is my favorite.  It's more relaxed, just go with the flow and be open to the little inspirations as they come.  It's like a million little Christmas twinkle lights turning on one by one until eventually you see the whole tree.

It's also like doing a puzzle, except you don't have all of the pieces from the box to start with, and you don't have the completed picture on the cover to see if your pieces are in the right place or not.

You get a bit of information here, a character flaw there, some structure from this place, and you start putting them all together.  Then you move some around.  But that flow doesn't make sense, so you wait until you get more information and go on to another section for a while.  And then you realize you can't work on that section because you KNOW there is a major piece missing, so you go yet another place.  But, you do know that you'll have what you need when the time comes, so you're not worried about it, just letting it percolate and hang out until the time is right.

Since January I have been fleshing out characters, with their motivations, strengths and weaknesses, even what they look like.  I've been learning how the Wise Men get from the East to the West, how long that will take, what will happen along the way.  I've been narrowing down locations in the East where the beginning of the story is set.  I've been learning about astronomy and astrophysics and PhDs and all kinds of things in which I have absolutely zero experience.

I've been dissecting the information from The Star of Bethlehem, trying to figure out what exact information the Wise Men would have known, and what they wouldn't have had, and why.  I've also been discovering what the exact time frame was for all of the events surrounding Jesus' birth, how to reconcile some of the confusing bits of Matthew 2 and Luke 2, and many other little things like that.  It all fits in together somehow.  It's all important.  Each answer leads me to more questions, which normally would be infernally frustrating, but it only causes me to dig a little deeper to find more treasures in God's word and His plan.

You may disagree, but discovering God's treasures beats the pants off of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

Well, until it comes time to produce this baby.  Then I'll take all the gold ya got.  ;)