"Sharing writing successes - and rookie mistakes - since 2006"

Friday, March 20, 2009

Music to kill things by

You might have noticed from the last post and this one, that I’m having a renaissance. A little musical one - and about time too, I reckon. After a stale period where I must have bought only a dozen or so CDs in six years, I’ve been embarking on a musical-buying frenzy. In the last three weeks I’ve bought more music than films or books and it’s been most helpful, particularly with the writing.
I’ve added the new U2 album, a couple of REM albums, a Muse masterpiece, the most recent Verve album and several soundtracks to my dusty collection that hasn’t seen anything new in months. And they’ve been worth their weight and more, in gold: you see, the score to The Dark Knight has gotten me through the hardest patch of creativity I’ve had in a long time…

Two weeks ago, I started plotting the chapter synopsis for The Fortress of Black Glass (the new third book in the Secret War series), and it didn’t come easily.
The scuppering of The Traitor of Light had knocked the plans for the series out of kilter, and I was thrown into Book 4 without even sight of Book 3 - and all that entailed, including machinations, revelations and motivations unwritten and unrealised.
My own motivation had been hit also. I was winding down in preparation for fatherhood, and thinking about The Fortress of Black Glass was unexpected -
(you see, this is usually my down-time between projects, where I can think about a number of books I want a write over the next few years, books such as Frontier, and my coastal horror story, The God of all Storms – but nothing in too much detail). I now found myself in that intense planning stage for a book I wasn’t expecting to write until 2010, and it’s been bloody hard to motivate myself to think about it, not to mention my ability to get into the right mood.

And mood is the key. It really is.

The first draft of the chapter synopsis was sketchy at best. It wasn’t really a synopsis, just a wish-list, but one that wouldn’t tie together. It was like having an assortment of bricks without any mortar. By themselves they looked like they could work as a story – somehow – but I had no idea how to turn them into a great story. I just wasn’t in that place. The plot lacked depth, it lacked emotion. It lacked the darkness I wanted from the final book.
And I despaired.
I have never embarked on a project without motivation, without desire before. But looking at this one I was in serious danger of doing so. I’m not that superstitious, but I’m practical, and realised if I had no love for this book, I wouldn’t write it. The Fortress of Black Glass looked doomed.

And so we come to the music. That sweet, dark music…

Over the previous weekend I watched The Dark Knight again in that absent way you watch something if you’ve seen it too many times, like playing Star Wars or Aliens from a DVD in the background while you’re washing-up or doing the ironing. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Dark Knight. It was one of the finest movies of last year, but I’ve watched it too many times now to be without distraction. In this instance, I was reading a magazine, thinking about other things, yet throughout, something new did take my attention: the film score. By Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, the score is not overly bombastic like a John Williams score; it sits in the background, layering mood and atmosphere, building suspense and menace or action, carefully, without being too pervasive. In essence, it is the perfect soundtrack to write a suspenseful book to - and if not writing the actual book, then at least planning one.

I guess there is a danger that in listening to a music score, you automatically think of the film, especially if it is a thematic movie, such as the Batman films, or Lord of the Rings, or Gladiator, or Harry Potter. The main theme-tunes are so obvious you’d recognise them if you heard them in a video store or on the high-street, or on the radio. But not so with The Dark Knight. Like I said, it’s not in your face, it’s not definable. I don’t associate the stoic marching of the main theme with Christian Bale’s stern Bruce Wayne, nor the hair-raising chords of the menacing Joker theme.

In fact, over the last week or so, I’ve associated them with scenes from the new Secret War book, such as William Saxon standing before Castle Draak with two thousand Habsburg soldiers behind him – a prelude before the spectacular siege in the book; or the scenes of William and Marco sailing on a frigate bound for England, the ship rocking in stormy sees under slate-coloured skies. I can see Marresca’s duel with the new Dar’uka recruit, Ishmael; the attempted kidnapping of Baroness Wlassics; William’s solemn return to Fairway Hall and his vengeance on Henry Grendell; Adriana sobbing on the balcony of their villa; Kieran’s grim prophecy. All this from one soundtrack.

I now had the mood. It was the mortar for the story and I wrote again the chapter synopsis, describing key scenes and moments, jotting down shards of dialogue that could be used and illustrated the point better than a couple of paragraphs would.

In the end, a chapter synopsis that was meant to be around 6,000 words and 20 pages long, stands now at 10,000 words and is 35 pages long. And bloody hell, this looks like a great book. I wanted a dark third novel in the Secret War series, and this really is it. I’m certain of it. It will be epic, fantastical, bloody, and don’t expect everyone to make it to the finishing line. It will also be a very gothic book in style – something my editor believes I do very well judging by the initial reading of The Black Hours – but it will be another page turner.
Against all other criticisms, the Secret War books are universally seen as a series of compelling novels with an unrelenting pace, and this one will be no different. But this time I won’t be sacrificing character for pacing. I’ll be doing both, and I reckon I have enough tools in the box to achieve that.
I want the characters to stand out in this their swan-song, and what characters there’ll be: other than William Saxon and Marco - Adriana, Engrin and Jericho will also return. As will the Dar’uka (with a greater presence than the first two books). Cardinal Devirus, Marresca, Andreas, Cardinal Grisome and Baron Horia also have larger roles than the previous books. But there’ll be new characters too such as the domineering Baroness Wlassics, the bawdy papal agents: Mallinder and Staley, the antagonistic General Strauss of the Habsburg Empire. And of course, we’ll get close and personal with Count Ordrane.
And the battles… Bloody hell, we’ll be in for a treat there. Dar’uka vs Dar’uka, armies of vampyres and daemons fighting across mountain chasms, sieges with cannon, skirmishes in Transylvanian streets, and then there’s that duel with Count Ordrane…
My editor says it sounds “epic” and I guess that’s the point, and the point of this blog. You see, when I was plotting the book, it wasn’t epic. It felt small. But listening to the soundtrack to The Dark Knight made if feel more epic, as well as dark. It gave me a lift when I needed it the most. It inspired me when everything else failed.

It simply got me in the mood to write about killing…