Je suis perdu

kelsey_lovesfusionphoto | Flickr

I feel a little lost again, writing-wise. I was kind of excited by all of the support Loch Raven generated. I even sat down and hammered out an outline for the rest of the book, and managed to finish the last chapter I wrote. I've got tons and tons of lovely little scenes waiting to be written, images in my mind that need to be put into words.

But still I can't get Ghosts of Fallen Leaves out of my head. It might have something to do with the fact that it has dominated my creative mind for the past two/three years. If my fingers were on the keyboard, they were undoubtedly working on Ghosts. I must have made a billion ebooks of the thing just so I could review the story on my Nook. Countless hours were spent scouring the internet looking for something to use as a cover. Money was spent, for Christ's sake. 

And when I go to bed at night, it's the story that pops into my head. I mull it over and over again, imagine scenes and refine dialog, all while I should be falling asleep. 

I'm still obsessed. The plot for book two is taunting me and last night was the first time in a few weeks that I really really wanted to start working on it. I might still work on it. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Or tonight? Or the next minute, for that matter?

I'm not confident enough in myself to work on two stories at the same time. I worry that the voices will meld and part of the reason why Loch Raven exists is because it was supposed to be the anti-Ghosts (to a point, anyway). The last thing I need is for Willa to start sounding like Becca. They're different people. (Who probably wouldn't get along, now that I think about it... They have absolutely nothing in common.) 

I guess I'll just have to ruminate. And stop writing blog posts just for the heck of it. In the meantime, here's something French(Canadian) for you. The song was inspired by The Little Prince, a book I hated. The song is catchy as hell, though. I love singing it in my butchered French. The sheep crack me up.

If this book was a movie and if this movie had a soundtrack...

Flickr

So, I did a post on music-as-writing-inspiration before and I'd like to do another one. The original writing process for Loch Raven had been heavily influenced by music. The songs reflected the tone of the story very well--or vice versa--the story I wrote reflected the tone of the music. Either way, early on I found a playlist to listen to while writing. I even took the time to put the songs in an order that flowed well and kept the mood from stagnating. Even after three years I still have the playlist saved on my computer and here it is:

They're a mixture of light and airy tunes along with a few gloomy ones to highlight the darker elements of the story. The Decemberists (my absolute favorite band--get well, Jenny!!) are repeat offenders on the list, but they're two very different songs from them. Some of these songs were discovered through the wonderful Paste Magazine, which I totally need to renew my subscription to. The last song is technically from a video game soundtrack, but try not to hold that against it. 'Days Like This' and 'You Are the Moon' are two of the prettiest songs I've ever heard and I could listen to them over and over again. 

Whenever I sit down to work on Loch Raven, I immediately put these songs on. They help me slide back into that frame of mind. The only thing I'm missing is the warm weather and bright sunshine. I can't wait for summer.

I love soundtracks--movies, TV, whatever. Pop songs, incidental music, original scores played by orchestras and everything. I know some people don't even notice it, but I do. A well placed tune can make or break a scene sometimes. Certain songs will always make me think of the movies/shows I saw them in. Just hearing the song is like watching the movie all over again in my head. 

Are there any songs that remind you of stories? Any soundtracks that you love just as much as the movie/show--maybe even more?

The Loch Raven Castle - A brief history

Loch Raven at dawn, September 2009

The setting for the book I'm currently working on is based on a real place called Loch Raven. It is a reservoir lake located near Baltimore, Maryland. It was formed when two dams were built to hold back the Gunpowder River. It currently serves as a ideal place for fishing, hiking and bike riding, while simultaneously providing much of the area with drinking water. 

Original design plan

In 1832, Robert Gilmore III purchased about 900 acres of land at the modern day site of Loch Raven. He divided the land into two different parts, calling the rocky, hilly area Ravensrock and the green valley bellow New Market. On the border between the two, he built Glen Ellen castle in the Gothic Revival tradition of architecture. Complete with soaring towers and gothic windows, the manor looked like a little castle perched on the edge of the valley. 

The first smaller dam was built in the 1880s, marking the beginning of the decline of the Glen Ellen estate. By 1923, a larger dam had been built, flooding the New Market portion of the estate and creating the vast lake now known as Loch Raven. The waters rose to within a few hundred feet of the steps of the castle. Because of the reservoir, the estate had to be abandoned and it quickly fell to ruin. Pieces of the castle were saved and moved to other buildings, most notably The Cloisters on Falls Road. Because of the safety risk, the castle was  finally knocked down in 1930. Only ruins of the foundations remain. 

I'd always loved the sound of the name Loch Raven and I thought it would be a great name to give a setting in a book. After doing some research into the history of the area, however, I found so many other things that make Loch Raven a special place. The manor used in my book is based on the plans and photos of Glen Ellen, but it is not an exact replica. The Breakfast Room is located in the castle's original parlor room, which didn't have nearly as many windows and opened up onto a large porch. On the plans for the castle, a large veranda is depicted and I decided to use this instead of the porch. Also, the story does not take place in Maryland, but rather some vague New England location. The town of New Market and Hampton Cove College are completely fictional, but I did take their names from different locations near the real loch. Even Loch Raven itself has changed in the book. Instead of being a man-made reservoir, it is a natural lake surrounded by hills and forests. 

Photos courtesy of the collection at the Baltimore County Public Library

Glen Ellen Castle during its prime. The largest tower was about 63 ft tall.

Interior shot of ballroom. Alcoves would have housed statues.

Large porch on the side of the castle. It's replaced by a flagstone terrace in the novel.

Glen Ellen in its ruined state, overrun by ivy.

Interior and exterior shots of the library bay windows in ruins.
Loch Raven can be seen in the background of the interior shot.

By the time it was torn down, Glen Ellen rivaled any of its
European counterparts in the 'spooky castle' department.

Information source: http://www.bcpl.info/info/history/glen_ellen.html

Construction

Laineys Repetoire on Flickr

Well, piece by piece I'm working on a new design for this blog. So far I've added a new header at the top and mixed in some CSS to make things look neater and prettier. The photo in the header was taken by me with my old camera. It's a shot of the trees at Loch Raven, so yeah. Fonts are Garamond and Scriptina, two of my favorites.

Where credit is due

The background comes from Shabby Blogs, which has a lot of cute stuff. Unfortunately most of it is too cute for this blog, but it's still a highly recommended site! I also need to give a shout out to two other sites. I recently found Blog Bulk and it helped me put the divider lines in the sidebar. It looks like I'm going to be using a lot of the tutorials there. Pugly Pixel is an awesomely cute design site and it's currently one of my new favorite blogs. I used her navbar tutorials for creating the links under the header. Thanks a bunch to both of these sites!

In other construction news...

I finished with the outline for Loch Raven. Structured outlining is somewhat new to me. I used to just 'wing it' a lot when I wrote. I'd come up with an idea, jump right into chapter one and just plow on from there. 

The thing is, this usually results in one of two things happening. The most popular result is that I write an awesome beginning, flail about the middle and eventually give up. I have so many false starts under my belt, it's amazing. I've probably written War and Peace six times over with all of the abandoned projects I have lying around. One of these days I should get around to totaling up a word count of all the stories I've 'wasted' time writing. I'm sure it's a ridiculous amount. 

The other result of the 'full steam ahead' method is that the story can end up very disjointed. That's what happened with the first draft of Ghosts of Fallen Leaves. I would start to reference or set up story elements that would later be dropped, ignored or completely reversed by the end of the book. The various drafts since then have partly been motivated by a desire to make the beginning, middle and end of that book feel more connected. 

This whole sense of detachment is the main reason why I stopped writing Loch Raven in the first place. It wasn't that I couldn't come up with an ending. I just couldn't reconcile the darkness of the paranormal elements with the light, summery beginning that I'd written. The paranormal elements in the beginning are practically nonexistent, so I was having a great deal of trouble figuring out how to drop them in without it shattering the story beyond all believability. 

To outline, or not to outline? That is the question, folks.

I've since become a believer in outlines. Of course every writer has their own method and it's not like I refuse to write anything without having an outline first. While working on the rewrites of Ghosts, I actually got in the habit of doing outlines without even realizing it. I would make notes, either on my computer or during down time at work. Sometimes I'd write little bits of dialog, but mostly it was just rambling descriptions of chapters and scenes. 

It eventually occurred to me that this was actually a form of outlining. It helped me to keep track of the things that I needed to have happen whenever I sat down to write. Before starting this final rough draft though, I did outline the entire story so I had a mapped out version of the plot. It helped me keep the separate plot elements organized as well as focus on the 'beats' of the story, the little story arcs within the overall story arc. 

When book two became a foreseeable reality, I jumped right into writing  an outline before even starting a single word of chapter one. I actually have all of book two planned out, which is very strange for me. We'll see how well I stick to it, but it's nice starting a story with some sense of the beginning, middle and end for once. 

And now it's the same situation with Loch Raven. After looking over what I'd already written and brainstorming a new ending, I hammered out an outline over the past few days and now I'm ready to start  working on the story again. I'm very excited about where it's heading and I can't wait to share it with everyone!

Spring Cleaning

Here's another quickie for you. I didn't have much time for working today because I had an eye exam and they dilated my pupils. I'd never had it done before and it was kind of weird. I'm near-sighted so I'm not used to things being blurry up close. Driving home was an adventure. I'm glad I managed to navigate the beltway without killing anyone, including myself. 

My cats howl at the door
whenever I go outside.

Well, as the rain and pollen have been telling us for the past few weeks, it's finally spring time here. That means spring cleaning! Here at Chez Moi, that means I'm press-ganging my dad into planting tons of pretty flowers outside. I made a deal with my mom: she could pick the flowers for the front yard and the deck and I get to choose the ones for the backyard and the patio. Since I get to see the backyard and the patio the most, this is a super win for me. 

On the author front, I've been thinking about doing a little spring cleaning around this blog. When I threw it together earlier this year, I wasn't 100% convinced I would stick with it, so I didn't take that much care into the design. I've been poking around and (re)learning myself some basic HTML and CSS, so hopefully I'll be able to debut something a little more awesome.

In the meantime, I fully intend to work on more of the outline for "Loch Raven" when I can see properly again. The computer screen is still a little blurry as I'm typing... I finished rereading what I've written of the manuscript and I don't think I'll have to make too many changes. Every time I read it, I'm reminded of why I liked the story so much. Not to toot my own horn, but god I love those characters. They just took on a life of their own.