Since the beginning of... whatever... whenever I started writing... God I'm bad at beginnings...
Music has played a HUGE role in my brainstorming processes, whether a song inspires a whole scene or a number of songs remind me of a special person.
I have a couple of mix CD's dedicated to these people...
the first is to my first "love," the one who got me into writing...
and his soundtrack had practically everything bubblegum pop that I was into between 1999-2001...
so there's Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Mandy Moore, and many others... I think I might have used several Backstreet Boy tracks with just 2 from NSYNC...
one of the brightest gems there are my two techno tracks... you know how in that time period there were these techno songs on the radio that had very few legit lyrics, but you couldn't get them out of your head...
"Blue" by Eiffel 65 (I know all of you remember that :-P) and
"Around the World (La La La)" by ATC...
both one-hit wonders, both with very few legit lyrics, but I freaking loved them... great stuff
I have my 10th grade mix, most of which reveal around "David," my crush d'ans, as I like to call it, cuz each year of high school, I felt like my emotions revolved around a different crush...
I had a little bit of everything there... mainly Dream Street, Michelle Branch and Plus One (the rest of which wound up on Jonas's soundtrack)
and for kicks, I threw a bunch of Vanessa Mae tracks at the tail end cuz I didn't want to keep borrowing the CDs to listen to them
http://romantasyland.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-story-idea-of-wish-fulfillment-rebel.html
I got into more detail in this entry... I just remembered...
so a lot of my discussion has since been erased because I'm just repeating myself now...
anyway...
At some point, I'm really hoping that I'll be able to go back to "Rebel Diana"... that story about wish-fulfilment and all that... really look back into the songs from that album and draw out the scenes I want in the story so they really will fit in there :-P
"Te Busque" has become a similiar case-in-point of me taking musical inspiration to the paper... er, word processing medium...
but this time, I really want to do things right... get all the songs I want to use, get down all the details and so on... I want to hash out as much as I can before I start writing the actual book.
This is to make up for all the other times where I did zero outlining beforehand and I'm scrambling afterwards to be sure everything shakes out all right.
I have all the brainstorming scattered in different places at the moment... I have an intial Word.doc where I started putting stuff down, but by no means is it organized...
I have this blog where I'd been adding stuff whenever I have a :lightbulb: moment
and I also have a notepad and spiral notebook where I'd added stuff
heck,
maybe I should do an Excel sheet as well... just to organize things a little better...
because I would like to, at some point, narrow down who I want to appear in which number,
the kind of dance style and which part of the plot it derives from...
right now, I'll probably just copy/paste my list of songs that I have so far
http://romantasyland.blogspot.com/2012/12/going-gaga-living-as-free-as-my-hair.html
add the newest additions and such... and put that in a brand new document so I can start really brainstorming this stuff
then when it comes to the actual story-writing, I can nail down the ones I really want to appear in the story and the others I can easily leave on the cutting room floor.
the other day I was listening to some more Gaga... and when it came to "Monster," I remembered that I had written down some ideas about what that scene would be like...
I just don't remember where I put it...
this sequence takes place after Emilia does her first VIP night with Amber, gets attacked by the patron she leaves with, and JP comes to her aid, patching things up with Talia in the process...
so, give or take a couple of months after this incident, Emilia returns to the stage and along with JP and Talia, they send a message to Amber, saying that they know that she was behind all this, and it comes out that she's been wanting to knock Talia off her pedestal/throne for quite some time...
I came up with the idea while listening yesterday that the choreography in that song should really be in time with the percussion because it is SO sharp
there is so much to keep in mind when it comes to how these things are staged and to be sure each number differentiates from one another
I also want that differentiation to be with each of the girls' dance styles...
although I can save a little time in saying that Scarlet and Ruby are very similar, because they are twin sisters and all that... Ruby won't be in the story as much as Scarlet, obviously, because Scarlet is one of Talia's closest cohorts alongside Vanessa...
Ruby will be mentioned at a couple points, but the most critical will be for the "Heavy Metal Lover" sequence... a night Amber plotted for months where she'd come out on top, but Ruby steals the show with that final number... I merely don't have enough time to go into it with all of the girls :-P
Vanessa is the one I know the least about.. still... all of the girls came into this business out of abusive situations, have a love of dance, but with little opportunity in that neck of the woods, they do this as well as sell themselves to patrons for a little extra cash...
Talia's reasoning (or lack thereof) behind it is that her stepfather had her believing she was only fit for this type of work... spending so much time with him, she didn't get much of an education in academia, which disqualifies her from pursuing college and such... and part of it I guess is out of subtle revenge... he didn't want her being with anyone else but him and by being in this business, she's rubbing his nose in the fact he doesn't own her...
doesn't make a whole lot sense, though, considering that he got killed for not repaying a debt...
by the same people she ends up working for, ironically enough...
My logic is still a little lax for this story... they say sex sells, but I'm kinda terrified about how I'm going to sell the idea of these girls dancing and selling their bodies for sex to make a living... afraid that anyone who knows me, my family particularly, would judge me for putting my mind in that place... let's just say it's not very nice or pleasant...
And the idea of the story started with choreography coming to mind while listening to Apollonia 6... the fact that's such a crowd pleaser and by dancing and doing things on their own terms, they feel empowered and work past previous struggles...
I'm hoping to somehow work the female empowerment theme into this just so it doesn't sound like a story about a group of prostitutes...
the only time that really worked to anyone's advantage was the movie "Pretty Woman," but it was more of a starting point rather than a means to an end
The only issue I'll probably have writing this, logic aside... is how I put choreography onto the pages or at least attempt to make it a visual experience to read... I don't really know terminology very well with these Latin dances, although I could google and YouTube it...
I'd like to have some choreography and staging, but more often than not, I'd like my focus to be on the raw emotion behind it and how the girls relate to one another and come together onstage
like with "Monster," all of the girls are supporting Emilia as she's telling her story through dance (also, possibly, lip-synching the music, I'm still deciding on that)... she's acting alone while the girls dance around her, really sharp movements in time with the drumming. It is so awesomely pronounced that it'd be a shame not to use it. During the chorus, she'll have her eye out for Alejandro, singling him out in this attack, while the girls move to the music, then towards the end of it, she will jump them in perfect unison.
One crucial point I saw in another listen was during the bridge at the end, the memories of the "attack" come back to haunt her and she's falling to her knees, ready to hyperventilate... Talia is right there, asking if she's all right, and she quickly revives and gets back on her game, grateful for the concern
The latest idea I'd been playing around with, aside from the fact I now see Amber dancing with two guys while doing her Karmin-inspired numbers ("I'm just sayin' " and "Told you so"), is with Juan Paulo.
He's in town with two of his friends. This is kinda their last big blow-out before he finishes up his degree in pre-med, and he's deciding which branch of medicine he wants to specialize in. Back in high school, and maybe into the first few years of college, he was in a band with his friends and they just got a spot to perform at a South American venue... he's recluctant to join them because he wants to leave the band behind and focus on medicine, but they more or less con him into it... something to the effect of "you can find yourself a couple of new best friends"...
the reason I'm leaning in this direction is the Green Day track "Extraordinary Girl"... before listening to that album, I heard Nelly Furtado's a number of times and with the chorus of "No Hay Iqual"... which is all in Spanish... tribal choreography comes to mind...
the beginning of "Extraordinary Girl" starts very soft, tribal drumming in the background, to the exact same number of counts as the previous choreography...
and it all seemed to fit really well together
I see the songs being back to back on the soundtrack as the movie plays in my head...
JP tracks Talia down to her next gig, kinda at the suggestion of his friends who really believed she was flirting with him during the "Promiscuous" karaoke number where they first meet... but he starts to fall for her... hard...
so even after she turns him down or the girls (at her request) tell him she's not interested, he leaves the venue singing this song... although at this point, he doesn't know anything about what really goes on with her business... so with the movie playing in my head, I'm thinking that this could almost pass for a musical... a very dramatic and risque musical, but I see the songs really playing a role in the story as a whole
so I guess in a way I can see JP and his friends forming a Green Day/Daughtry like rock band...
a couple of Daughtry songs come to my mind as well regarding JP
whenever I get the chance, I'll get on that word.doc right away and hopefull that'll help get the ball rolling... I put down all my thoughts and notes about the songs in one spot so I can go there to add more or make sure I don't repeat myself... should be fun 8-)
although it begrudges me to say this, I don't think this story will be finished anytime soon... I might even be a few years away from starting it... just as long as I don't lose interest (God forbid!), I look forward to continue adding notes to myself for this as they come
