....which is sort of what I've been doing with The DeadBeats novel recently. Not a great deal of progress has been happening on it, but I've been working on related matters.
One of which is a short story I'm working on for a competition at the end of September. Now its not technically directly related to the novel, but it does feature a character that I'm developing to be a hybrid of Hendrix & Mozart (trust me, it works really well ~ genre-breaking prodigies, died too young, mythologized to near saint-hood.....) so I'm spending a lot of time thinking about the whys and wherefores of prodigious musical talent, which is useful as both of the two main protagonists in The DeadBeats are brilliantly creative, complicated individuals.
Another rock-related "phenomenon" which has been puzzling me: the smashing of the guitar at the end of - or indeed in the midst of - a show. Why? Is it designed to show a cataclysmic out-pouring of uncontrollable artistic spirit? Because I'm not buying that. It's as much of a cliche as the whole "TV out of the hotel window / car in the swimming pool" malarkey. I saw two bands doing this on the Leeds / Reading coverage over the bank-holiday, and it struck me as being as quaintly out-dated as asking a girl's father for her hand in marriage. It's something that they did a long long time ago, in that foreign country known as the past. And it's horribly wasteful ~ aren't we frowning on the conspicuous consumption/destruction of luxury items nowadays?
Speaking of Leeds, anyone got any feedback/tips? We've just bought tickets for next year's festival (in order to escape the seven hours in stationary traffic which was endured en-route to the V Festival this year. And the fact that the V festival is now over-run by annoying posh 19 year-olds trying to look like Pete Doherty / Peaches Geldof. And the fact that Dick Branson doesn't need anymore of my money. And the fact that I'm 32 and don't need talking down to like an errant schoolchild, thank you patronising "steward" at least ten years younger than me.) But I have heard that it can be a bit rough & your chances of getting your tent ransacked are about 1 in 3. Hhhhmm. It may all be academic anyway ~ the real plan is to get the final draft of the novel finished by June next year, and to hopefully have a baby on the way as well, so with any luck next August will be taken up with sonograms and publishing doo-dahs. Tickets may well end up on ebay instead (open to offers.....)
And I've also been indulging myself by reading Zelda's Cut by Philippa Gregory. It's not what I would normally choose to read (I'm not saying I'm a literary snob, but, well, it's the type of thing that strikes me as sort of "housewifely". Dreadful judgement, I know) But it was gripping in a thriller-ish type way. Three reasons why it's relevant to the blog: 1) it pays to read outside your usual zone. See what works, what doesn't, how things can be different, etc., 2) There are some very odd plot developments in it ~ i can't tell if they're brave or foolish, but I didn't realise how daft they were until long afterwards. As I was reading I simply accepted them as part of the story because they were part of the story. Lesson learned ~ you can get away with stuff & 3) one of themes revolves around artistic worthiness vs. commercial selling out ~ something to think about for both myself as the novelist, and my band as they negotiate their way through the music business.
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