The Dust Lounge

Tag: Grind Spark

  • Grind Spark Earworm #3 – Liz Hodson & Josiah Wolf

    Last week’s Grind Spark earworm was Utopia by Jackson and his Computerband. Not listened to it yet? Well take your ears and scrub them with the sounds, scrub them now.

    This week the playlist is changing direction.

    This week the earworm is tired and coming down and locking the door because it doesn’t want to speak to anyone.

    The party’s finished and now we’re sitting in puddles of vodka and piss with vomit soaking into our jeans.

    Now we’re lighting another cigarette off the end of the last one.

    Now we’re staring at the wall without seeing it.

    Now we’re trying not to think of anything, but last night’s hurt plays constant repeat on the back of our eyeballs.

    Now it’s all we can do to take one breath after another.

    Now it’s time to listen to Liz Hodson & Josiah Wolf’s version of Ain’t no sunshine.

    And try not to do anything too bad.

  • Grind Spark Earworm #2 – Jackson and His Computerband

    Last week I kicked off the Grind Spark playlist with Genesis by Justice.

    Next up, we’ve got something for the long, dark winding roads.

    Something for driving with the headlights ramped up.

    Something for smoking in the back.

    Something for cutting out the buzz.

    Something for smoothing out the cut.

    Something to make it better.

    Or make it seem better.

    Or make you forget.

    But it’s all dirt and grinding and flashing lights and zone out and see where you end up.

    It’s Utopia by Jackson and His Computerband.

    Listen with headphones.

  • Killing your first draft

    It’s not easy.

    You’ve been working for months, maybe years. And you’ve finally typed THE END in as big a font as you possibly can and made your very own typewriter ‘ding’ noise when you saved it.

    And it’s done. It’s finished. You’re ready to get published and start your book tour. The police put on extra security when they hear you’re coming to town; they don’t want crowd crushes or fans fainting and getting trampled. You prepare yourself for the inevitable torrent of interviews and award invitations. You can already see the ticker tape and confetti bursting into the air as you make your entrance into Waterstones to do a reading. Queues of your readers line up for miles, wet from camping overnight in storms with nothing but a broken umbrella to hide under.

    Only, that’s not what happens.Editing

    What happens is more like this:

    You refuse to look at the manuscript for a week.

    Then you print it out, a whole pile of words that you wrote.

    And you have a horrible feeling that they might all be traitors. When you’ve not been looking they’ve been jumbling themselves up and having a party and getting pissed and now your manuscript is just a WHOLE LOAD OF CRAM SHEBABBLE that you wouldn’t even wipe your arse with.

    The words have BETRAYED YOU.

    At the very least they could have invited you to their party.

    But this is all part of the process.

    A process that you have to stick with.

    I’ve already got one first draft in a draw that’s waiting for me to come back to it. That first draft got sidetracked by this first draft.

    And now it’s time to concentrate. Because one day you’ve actually got to try and get passed the first draft, and make it to draft two, or three or fifty, or however many it takes.

    Because you want someone to read it right?

    And if you’re anything like me then nobody in the world can possibly read it until you’ve at least found out if those words are in the right order first.

    So that’s why I’m editing Grind Spark. And I’m editing hard. I’m editing like I’m obsessed with red pens and post it notes. Even the cat’s being edited.

    I’ll be honest, she’s not being entirely helpful.

    But, the point is, I’m doing it.

    I’m killing the first draft.

    I’m killing it to make it better.

    And I’m sticking with it even on the days when my brain decides that the entire idea deserves to be shredded into oblivion and then eaten by a rabid hedgehog because WHY ON EARTH DID I START DOING THIS AGAIN?

    Because that’s just a moment of doubt. And everybody gets them. (If you don’t, please feel free to tell me whatever dark magic you use).

    And the next day, I’ll read it and think that, you know, actually, one day someone else might actually enjoy reading it too.

    And that’s going to be a good day.

  • Grind Spark Earworm #1 – Justice

    Everyone’s got at least one playlist, right?

    There’s the mix-tape you made when you were eight by recording tracks off the tv (for my younger readers, you can find out what a tape is by watching the Antiques Roadshow next time you’re at your Gran’s).

    There’s the iPod tracks you put together for your first summer holiday with your mates.

    There’s the list of angst ridden songs for those days when you just can’t get out of bed.

    There’s the special tracks under “things to do in the dark” that you listen to loud on your headphones and pretend that the world has disappeared.

    … No…?

    …Maybe that’s just me…

    Anyway, for the last few weeks I’ve been editing the first draft of Grind Spark.

    It’s a novel about the end of the world. Only it’s not about the end of the world. It’s just about a girl who’s living then.

    And through from the writing to the editing and the future ripping apart that is inevitably going to happen, I’ve had tracks buzzing away in my head and on my stereo and generally brainwashing my mind.

    So while the finished product is still being battered into something that would dare to show itself to someone that’s not… well… me, over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the songs behind the words.

    Up first is Genesis by Justice.

    Play it loud.