Fighting music

[katiefoolery]

It’s strange the way things come back when you least expect them.  Black Fiddle has been doing that of late around here.  Well, not so much the story as Jeannie herself.  It’s not surprising - she’s a hard-headed, stubborn, determined sort of person, that Jeannie.  I don’t think she appreciates being shoved away to the back of my mind, forced to keep company with thoughts of never being brought to light again.

She popped up a while ago, while I was listening to some music.  As a result of that, I converted my old WordPerfect files (saved in forty-two individual chapter files) to four Word files.

And just half an hour ago, she returned while I was playing the piano.  I say “playing the piano”, but what I really mean is “bashing the keys in a frustrated fit of temper that made me extremely glad I always have my headphones plugged in so no-one can hear me”.  Sometimes, my fingers simply refuse to do what they’re told until they’re fully warmed up and it irritates me to the point of wanting to scream in despair.  So there I was, bashing away at a piece of music when I got so mad at myself that I decided to fight the song instead of just playing it.

Two voices immediately sprang to life in my head.

One said: One doesn’t fight music; one embraces it.  One flows with it.  One lets it into one’s soul and...

One wishes one would shut up about this touchy-feely, group-hugging, holistic music-playing nonsense.

The other voice said: No, fighting it is exactly what Jeannie would do.  Do it.  Feel what it’s like.

So I did.  And I won.

Moreover, Jeannie lodged herself so far in the forefront of my imagination that I came back to my computer and actually re-read the prologue.  It’s not bad, either.  I was thinking of posting it here and asking for opinions... but even though it’s not bad, neither is it great.  My beta’s eye can see many a thing wrong with it, such as the fact that it was written before I had fully welcomed the semi-colon into my life.

But, you know, I think I might be able to re-draft this story.  No, really.  I mean it this time.

Sometimes you create stories and characters that take on a life of their own and refuse to be forgotten.  Even when you think you’ve buried them for good, they claw their way back out and demand to be heard again, often at the strangest of times.  Has anyone else experienced that?

Comments

[alankria.livejournal.com]

The characters of [space opera novel], which appeared in a previous form on FP a while back, are a bit like that. They've been in my head for so long -- since 1997 -- that they will never fade away or be forgotten. For the time being they are placated by my occasional thoughts on how I would like to shake-up and re-plot the book, but who knows when they'll finally get fed up and demand me to actually get on with writing their book. (Or well, trying to write it again, in the hope that this current idea-version I'm thinking about will actually be the final version.)

Good luck with Black Fiddle! I hope it works out!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I really hope I can actually commit to this re-draft. The only downside: I have no idea how to re-draft it...

Those characters just don't want to be forgotten. Ever. And that's fair enough, considering all of the effort we put into them and the time we spend with them.

[erinmacha.livejournal.com]

Sadly I have very little experience with Original characters. I have a couple of small pieces written, but the OC's seem to be happy with where the stories ended.


Fandom muses on the other hand *rolls eyes* sometimes they won't shut up...:( lately though I'd wish they'd hang around long enough to write a short piece.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Ah, muses. They can be so contrary at times. Mine seem to have gone a little quiet of late, and I don't mind too much. I much prefer the illusion of being in control of my own stories...

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

All the damn time. I have this old world I designed and played about with since I was 15, and have slowly pushed far away from it since I was about 19, but it keeps dragging me back in. One or two characters will start to irritate, and then I'll scribble down a scene. But I have to keep reminding them, they if i was ever going to return to that story it would need such a massive overhaul so that what they're making me write won't actually be in it anywhere, so they should shut up and let me write some Insula, for goodness sakes.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Hah! Nice one. It'd be interesting to apply that reasoning to Jeannie: Yeah, sorry, but if you want that, I'd have to re-write so radically that you wouldn't be in the story any more. And then I'd just ignore all of her splutterings aboutg being the main character and everything. That might keep her quiet for a while... :D

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

So threaten with a cut. :P

See that tumbleweed, Jeannie? so cut. Just think about that for a second, hey? and how close in proximity that tumbleweed was to you...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Now, that does have potential. Jeannie tends to do... interesting things when threatened.

[gravityslave.livejournal.com]

Yep! I have a character named Hunter who has been wrapping plots around himself experimentally like a toddler with a feather boa, and he's driving me crazy! Just when I think he's gone away he comes back with, "Wait! What if I..."
and a quick jump shot shows a ticking clock.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

That's just it, isn't it? They have absolutely no sense of proportion. But I guess that's what makes them kinda fun to to have around, too.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of fighting the music and winning. I shall have to cleanse that from my mind before I start writing about the fiddler in my head, though.

Her name is Maddy, and I'm not sure where she came from. I think she's thirteen.

I want to read Black Fiddle! Not because of my fiddler, but because I love the fiddle and the idea of Jeannie and I've read at least part of it already and and and and... *takes a deep breath* And I really want to.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

You know, it's comments like yours that will make me even more committed to re-drafting this thing. It's just lovely to know someone really wants to read this thing - it makes it all worthwhile. :)

I'd love to know more about Maddy. Does she have a story to go with her yet?

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

She does. It's called "At The Crossroads" at the moment, and I think it's going to be a short story. Maddy has red hair and stubborn hazel eyes, and she loves fiddling more than anything else. She wants to be the greatest musician in the world--and we all know how dangerous wishes like that can be. ^_~ I'm pulling in a couple of different legends that are wrapped around music. I actually got the idea while watching some kind of true crime show.

Yaaay for Black Fiddle!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I quite like the sound of that. Maddy and Jeannie are quite similar in their love of music and their desire to be the best. And the origins of the story sound fascinating, too. Black Fiddle owes a huge debt to the story The Red Shoes, although only as far as the concept goes. The rest of the story evolved as a I went along.

If you feel the need for someone to look over the story when it's written, you have an eager volunteer right here. :D

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Is that Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes, or something based on that story? That particular "tale for children" gave me screaming nightmares when I was young. Now that I'm older, Black Fiddle sounds even more fascinating.

Maddy's story is partially inspired by "The Faerie Queen" by Heather Alexander (a Celtic version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"), but mostly by the legend that, if you go down to the crossroads at midnight and sell your soul to the devil, then you can be the greatest musician in the world. I need to sit down and think about Maddy some more...I had some great lines that I neglected to write down. *sigh*

Once the story's written, I would love for you to read/beta it! Thank you! *hugs*