If your writing process/life could be
summarized as the title of a song – what song would it be? And why?
-from Susan
Not only is this the
hardest question I’ve ever been asked on 7CriminalMinds, but it begs the
question of how I can begin to summarize my writing processes. Catch me on
Wednesday and my process, my writing life, is apt to be 180 degrees different
than it will be on Sunday. Meet me for
coffee on Tuesday and I’m floating. See me at an event on Friday and it’s doom,
doom, doom.
And to make the
assignment even harder, I don’t have a wide range of popular music to draw on
or the memory bank for song names. I was in agony trying to wrest something –
anything – to answer the question. I knew “Mahler’s Fifth Symphony” wasn’t
going to cut it, or the prayer to Isis and Osiris from The Magic Flute…so
here’s the best I could do:
The dorky song “High
Hopes,” sung by Doris Day in that strangely chipper voice. Something about
ants, I recall, but the idea was that you keep on and you can conquer most
everything, which in my case includes sloth, the desire to rewrite endlessly,
and plot holes I keep falling into.
“Pick Yourself Up”
written in the 1930s and sung in one of those charming if effete musicals Fred
Astaire did so well. The only lyrics I recall are “pick yourself up, dust
yourself off, and…” Sorry, it fades after that, but it is a good idea for a
writer, right?
Here’s my best song
candidate: “Hotel California,” by the mighty Eagles. Why? This line, which I do
remember “…this could be Heaven or this could be Hell” and if that doesn’t
describe the overall writing life for me, I am stumped as to the best
candidate.
I wait eagerly to see
how much better the rest of the week’s answers are!
Susan, I think the Hotel CA line is perfect for a lot of us!
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Susan. You did a lot better than I could've done. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other Criminal Minds come up with too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for kicking us off this week so well, Susan. Hotel California - good one, especially when it comes to never being able to leave. Heaven AND Hell for me ;-) Am still working on my response to this question and it's REALLY HARD!!! Should be done by Wednesday (it's a deadline - I WILL be done).
ReplyDeleteHeaven and/or hell, but never humdrum, right? I've got some thinking to do now...
ReplyDelete"High apple pie in the sky hopes..."
ReplyDelete"...and start all over again..."
"We are all prisoners here, of our own device."
All sounds about right.
Whew, not an epic fail on my part! Thank you, fellow Minds, for bearing with me. I can now go back and lie down, er, get back to the edits for the second French village mystery!
ReplyDelete"Another One Bites the Dust, of late. All part of the process...
ReplyDeleteLarry, sorry to hear it. Would it help to refer you back to Doris Day, or would that make it worse?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. It's fine, all part of this business. I'm okay ;-)
ReplyDelete