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

[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*