The Soundtrack in my Head

I haven’t posted for a while. Between farmers’ markets and playing with kids and travelling and trying to finish the third draft of my novel, amongst the more mundane tasks of day-to-day life, I haven’t been able to justify “blog time.”

Tonight, I sent off draft #3 to my editor/writing coach. Somehow, it is 30,000 words shorter than the first manuscript I sent to him this spring (which was my second draft). Amazingly, I don’t miss any of the words I removed. We’ll see if he agrees…

My novel began as a movie. Well, the vision of a movie, which Sheila and I chose as “our next big thing” on our way to a Life is Good Unschooling Conference in Vancouver, Washington, just over two years ago. That vision of a movie morphed into the vision of a book, which has since morphed into an actual (though not yet complete) novel. And here I am, still slogging away on the editing/re-writing/re-editing/re-re-writing/etc. part of the project… and the movie seems a million miles away. That’s part of the problem: I went and created a story that travels to Ecuador… which is, as I understand it, a less-than-ideal situation for making one’s first indie film. Nothing against Ecuador… it’s the “million miles away” part that poses a monumental challenge. None of this the-whole-story-takes-place-in-a-single-room-between-two-characters kind of simplicity for me. No way. I went with the go-big-or-go-home approach.

The thing is… I already have a soundtrack in mind. Twenty or so fantastic songs — and the kernel of an original (or two) — float around in my head on a regular basis. I tweak my “Movie Candidates” playlist from time to time, but it just gets better with age. So while I can barely manage to find the energy to finish the book… (and I have already dreamt up three more stories)… I still haven’t lost sight of the movie. After all, it would be tragic to waste such an amazing soundtrack.