Musings of the Lorekeeper

I found another song that totally fits the Defying Gravity soundtrack! I had the TV on while I was cleaning the apartment this morning, and this came on. I stopped to listen and the lyrics totally fit the sad part of Azilie's story.

Check it out!

There's a video, the original Japanese, and an English translation there.

I guess it doesn't matter if a song on my soundtrack is in Japanese since it's not like I'll actually be able to use the soundtrack for anything anyway. ;) But it's fun to put these together and pretend they're "real." Hey, it's real to me and helps me write!

I've started thinking about the story again and think I might have discovered a way to make the end not so terrible. Which is good, 'cause I'm almost done with my current big project, and then it's back to writing!

Time for another picture from my character portrait book.



It's Chiharrie! She's probably floating but just down near the ground.

The colors on her shirt did not scan well at all. Those Sugared Almond Pink stripes in her shirt are nowhere near sugary almondy pink enough. In fact, looking at the paper version right now compared to the scan, the whole thing looks lacking in vibrancy, but at least the rest of it isn't as striking. Oh well. Overall I was pleased with this picture, and I think she looks enough like her sister while still looking like herself. (They look very similar, but Chihi's puffs are pinker and her hair is lighter.)

I have another drawing of this style that I just posted too, but I put this one in my regular journal because I thought the subject fit there better. (It's pretty funny to flip through my book of profile pictures now, though. Which one of these things is not like the other...!)

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Along with another drawing, I have another song for my soundtrack!

Remember how I was griping in my regular journal during the Olympics about how NHK's theme song (a song by a Japanese boy band) just didn't have the right epic quality to it? And then perhaps you recall that I said "but I'm sure later on I'll like it because it'll remind me of watching those Olympics in Japan." Well, that turned out to be somewhat true.

It turns out I have had a new version of Limewire sitting on my computer and, you know, actually working. Whoa, cool. I discovered that accidentally a few weeks ago and have been enjoying looking for music. One thing I searched for was Olympic music, and this song (which I had forgotten about) popped up, so I said, what the heck, I don't resent it anymore; I'll download it for the nostalgia. It's a upbeat little song. And then, listening to it, I realized, HEY, this song fits pretty nicely into the Defying Gravity soundtrack! But I didn't note that at the time because I was too busy being irked at it for not being what I wanted it to be for the Olympics. But all's well that ends well. So I think I shall add it to the list of songs. Even the group's name fits ("Arashi," which means storm.)

涙流すのは　信じてるから
心のノートに　書いた言葉
描いた通りに　いかない時
にじんだ空に　放った言葉

僕の後ろに出来てた道

雨の向こうへ　風の向こうへ　旅は続いていく
今　君の向こうへ　そして僕の向こうへ　道は続いていく

My tears are flowing because I believe
In the words I wrote on the notebook of my heart
When it didn't go the way I'd sketched out
I shouted these words to the blurred sky

The path I made was behind me*

Beyond the rain, beyond the wind, my journey will continue
Now, beyond you, and beyond me, my path goes on


(*I had trouble translating that line. Anyone else have a suggestion on 出来てた, especially with regards to 後ろに?)

Okay, just had to share that. I think Azilie would like this song. You can listen to it if you want, and watch a really stupid music video while you're at it.

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Goal for this weekend: WRAP IT UP!! Can I do it? We'll see!!! I better get pretty darn close at least. :D

The good news? I wrote over 2,400 words today.

The bad news? I still didn't meet my goal. Granted, the goal was FINISH THE NOVEL, and that's quite lofty. I didn't realize, word-count-wise, just how lofty it was -- scene-wise it seems just a few things have to unfold, but of course, there are still plenty of picky details on which to get hung up in these parts. That's what makes me such a slow writer; I always get hung up on picky details, whether with realism regarding things I don't know much about or about internal consistency (which leads to me wandering through my previous draft looking to see what I may or may not have said before) which is

And it took me all day to do this. Sitting at my computer from noon until just now, at ten to eleven (with a break in there to watch 1.5 hours of West Wing, and to make lunch and dinner, but both of those were quick) so that's still not fast. And I don't think I'll make my lofty weekend goal, especially since I can't just sit around all day tomorrow writing again. (Well, I could, but I need to go buy food, clothing, and toilet paper, and possibly help a friend with computer problems, and I am not one of those writers who is able to plod on with a story while the rest of my life falls into complete disarray. Not having food makes it hard for me to write for some reason.)

But still. I guess this is what they mean about setting lofty goals so even when you miss them, you still have done okay.

Not that I have decided I'm okay with not reaching my goal just yet. Who knows, maybe tomorrow will be even better despite real life's promised intrusion.

But wow, am I ready to be done with this draft. My e-mail is piling up and I've got other projects (new story projects, website project, and oh, MORE GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATIONS WITH LOOMING DEADLINES, and CATCHING UP WITH E-MAIL) to get on with, and I am more than ready to share THIS story with people. I had hoped to be done with it almost a YEAR ago. Geez.

Still though. I guess 2,400 words isn't all that shabby, eh? Not for ME anyway. (Those of you who think otherwise can do me a favor hold your virtual tongues. ;-p I wish I could write faster!)



P.S. Recently I discovered the PERFECT SONG for the climax of my story: "Electric Storm" by Delta Goodrem. Absolutely perfect in tune as well in lyrics! So cool! I play it before I start writing these days. (Along with the rest of my soundtrack, but for this part, this song especially!)

swankivy sent me another song that she thought would fit my story, and it fits even better than she could have known! Thanks, Ivy!

I already knew this song and have the MP3 on my computer, but I hadn't even thought of it yet. But it fits REALLY well.


"Only If" by Enya

When there's a shadow, you follow the sun.
When there is love, then you look for the one.
And for the promises, there is the sky.
And for the heavens are those who can fly.

If you really want to, you can hear me say
Only if you want to will you find a way.
If you really want to you can seize the day.
Only if you want to will you fly away.
When there's a journey, you follow a star.
When there's an ocean, you sail from afar.
And for the broken heart, there is the sky.
And for tomorrow are those who can fly.

Pretty much everything gets bolded for being directly relevant. :D (Though not all in the first book.)

And I just realized that the drawing I'm almost done with now is a total spoiler pic so I REALLY NEED TO FINISH MY BOOK SOON so you can read it and I can show you the picture. :D

Also, I need more markers. (Seriously, I just spent how much on a set of 72 of them and I STILL don't have every color I need? Hahaha, craziness. But it came with only warm greys and I need cool! There's just no getting around that! Well, I'm going back to Otsu/Kyoto this Saturday so I'll pick some up in either of those places. ;)

I REALLY WANT TO GET BACK TO WRITING. I'm excited about finishing this story, and REALLY excited about starting either the next Azilie story or about doing TS (because, uh, that's a rather political story, truth be told...I think that's already starting to be evident in the parts that some of you guys have read already). The problem is that my thoughts are totally tangled up in my grad school situation. It's kind of like how the only time I played video games at college was during final exams, when I just couldn't do anything else with my free time because of mental exhaustion. But I'm going to try anyway. Or at least vow to have my grad school stuff as done as possible by Election Day, so both my political geekery and my grad school dilemma can be wrapped up and I can finish this stupid draft before the end of the year. Why has it taken a year to do draft 2 when I did draft 1 in a little over 90 days? Grrr.

It really is bedtime now, but I just had to add this next song to my soundtrack. I have quite a list of songs about flying people now. :D And other things that fit the story! I should make a list but that will have to wait until it's not so late at night.

I am continuing to rip off musicals to add songs to the Defying Gravity soundtrack. But I found another one that really, really, really fits Azilie!

Okay, so, the reason this song came to mind was that on Tuesday, I was a judge for a junior high speech and recitation contest and one girl did Yertle the Turtle. I was impressed that a Japanese student decided to do something like Dr. Seuss, since most of them wanted to do such uplifting topics such as the death of a leaf in autumn, a woman who died on the Titanic, or people dying in Hiroshima. (Seriously, I heard each of those at least two or three times. Advice to people choosing recitations for students: THINK HAPPY! You can be way more theatrical with happy pieces -- or even angry pieces! one of those won too -- but not sad ones. Geez. The winner was a girl who did Sideways Stories from Wayside School.)

But I digrss. Anyway, Yertle the Turtle got me thinking about other Dr. Seuss things, which brought to mind a musical I saw in Minneapolis last June when I was there with my family. (And apparently my mom and dad are on the way there right now, again. Emily gets so many more visitors than I do. Hey, we're both 14 hours away from home, what gives? ;p ) My aunt there had tickets to this children's theater production of Seussical the Musical so we decided, hey, let's go see it. (We saw Les Mis on the same trip. Yay musical theater!) And I ended up really liking this one song. But then I forgot about it until Yertle the Turtle.

And listening to it now makes me think how much some of these lines could be Azilie's! :D

( A clip of the song on YouTube )

This passage especially fits:

Not a person seems to know.
Not a person seems to care.
There is no one who believes a thing I say...

Well, I'm fairly certain
At one time or other,
Great thinkers all feel this way!

I'm alone in the universe.
So alone in the universe.
I've found magic but they don't see it

They all call me a lunatic.
Ok, call me a lunatic.
If I stand on my own, so be it.

'Cause I have wings.
Yes, I can fly
Around the moon
And far beyond the sky

:)

Isn't that cute and happy?

That won't have spoiled anything for the story (the way Defying Gravity would have if I had commented too much, hahaha) -- it's just the theme that fits so well.

It's a common theme in musicals like these, I guess, but hey, it's hard to have too many stories with this message!


That just made me happy, so I had to share it. And now I'm off to listen to some other music while drawing a scene with my own story's counterparts to Horton and Jojo, with my new markers. (I have SO MANY THINGS I should be doing for the next two hours -- I've hardly been able to sit still and settle all morning because every two minutes I come up with something ELSE I should be doing with my time -- but I have hardly gotten to use my markers at all, so you know what? I'm going to put everything off and DRAW. Yay. And then there's the art fair downtown this weekend and everyone coming to that, and then there's the delayed debate watch party at my house tonight, and then there's more going on tomorrow...ack, so much to do! But no! The next two hours are mine and I shall not be guilted into doing anything else, so help me! ;)

Yep, so that's officially my title right now. (I say officially even though it could change. But right now it has an official title and that is important to me!)

And I have another song to add to the soundtrack for my story. It fits almost as well as Defying Gravity! How cool is that? And this time it's a song that I've known and liked for a long time now, since leithal sent me a CD by the Finnish acapella group Rajaton back during my senior year at K.

The song is "You Can't Stop Me!" Here are the lyrics:

When that happened to me at first I could not see,
but then I decided not to close my eyes!
And then I found a way, and impossible way...
So you said! But it made me fly right away

Now I'm just like a token, spinning in a trance
But surprise! I don't fall and I don't choose either side!
I keep rolling around in a dance I just have found.
The laws of nature make exceptions somehow?

You can't really stop me now!

I keep balancing on but I'm good because I'm strong,
I turn when I see you reaching for me.
And it still makes me laugh when you thought you had had
all of me- but you see: I keep changing on.

You can't really stop me now!

And the tune is absolutely right on for Azilie's personality.

This one is okay to share the lyrics of because while it's obvious to me how it fits, it's not as blatant until after you read the story. :)


I now have four songs "officially" in the soundtrack, and a few more sort of floating in my head to see if they fit. I do love finding songs that can help represent my stories!


Editing update: it's going slowly. I won't make my deadline. But I'll have done pretty good for trying to make it, so that's something. I'd say my achievement is something like placing 5th in the Olympics. Still not too shabby, though I didn't quite make it on to the medals platform, let alone reach the gold. Oh well. There's always the next Olympiad novel! (Plus there's still some time to come back and try for a bronze. We'll see! My deadline is officially August 31, so....)