your manuscript's musical score

(Does it mean I think highly of my novel if I want this soundtrack as its musical score?...or maybe it's just my crush on Johnny Depp)

Last night I was attempting revisions on my manuscript while listening to various Hans Zimmer scores on Pandora, and I got to thinking, if my book Trevelyn's Shimmer was ever made into a movie, what would be its musical score?

After listening to quite a few selections, I decided that The Pirates of the Caribbean might just do the trick. I liked The Last of the Mohicans, too, and the soundtrack for Inception - but both seemed a little too...intense...although, there are a few hairy scenes in my book where they'd probably work well.

(I haven't, sadly, even seen this movie yet. But I can get a real good sense of what happens by listening to the musical score - well, all those trailers on tv helped, too.)

Do you listen to music while writing? Ever day dreamed and thought about what would be your manuscript's musical score if it was made into a movie? Up? Far and Away? Lord of the Rings (that was a good one, too).

Try going to Pandora to test drive a few while writing. Close your eyes and imagine your characters in real life with the score of say, Gladiator playing in the background. You might find listening to music takes your writing to a different level and you might just be surprised by what you create.

(I mean, come on, the last scene in the movie when Maximus is drifting off to Heaven and the Celtic music is playing, it doesn't get better than that!)

silence and chapter - ugh - one

Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins

It's happening again. I'm editing Chapter One of my book Trevelyn's Shimmer. Yes. I know, I know. I'm insane. But it had to happen! I changed the age of my main character, Marie. In one morning she graduated from fifth-grade to sixth and Landon, the curious/popular boy who occasionally makes fun of her but also sticks up for her at the same time, has moved from fifth to seventh-grade. Thanks writing buddy for your suggestions (FYI-she's as bad as me).

So that is what I have been working on. I finally got all the way to chapter fourteen with revisions, only to go back to the start - the dreaded chapter one. Since then it's been three weeks, three weeks of stop and go, stop and go, and too many cups of Trader Joe's Duchess Gray tea while I mold chapters one and two into something decent - hopefully decent.

Sadie and I have also moved again to a region known for producing wine, lots and lots of wine. And I've taken a job that involves pouring lots and lots of wine. I'm also involved with the general public in more ways than anyone ever really wants to be, but this has given me lots of material for characters and future books. Thank you general public for being so entertaining.

Nothing else of much interest has been going on except, oh, well except that I was excited to hear that J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit is going forward with production to be made into a movie. And, on an even more exciting note, I have taken to tweeting over on Twitter. Who knew a whole world of informative 150 word tweets could be so interesting and time-consuming? But they are, and that is just one more excuse for me not to have posted anything new on my blog for almost one month.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to go upstairs and chain myself to my desk so that I actually finish writing this darn book! Two months to go until the Delacorte writing contest people! Writing buddy and I promised each other that we'd make it happen. Finishing our manuscripts to enter that contest, that is, and maybe, just maybe...winning.

adult protagonists in movies for kids

Has anyone seen the movie, Up, from Disney/Pixar? I finally saw it and at about 25 minutes in I was crying! Without giving too much away, the movie begins with Carl, (the old man in the image) as a little boy with an affinity for flight. He meets a little girl, who loves aviation, too, and as they grow up they fall in love and marry. They plan to go on an adventure in South America, but life happens and things never quite go their way. The little boy (in the boy-scout uniform) enters the film when Carl is a 78 year-old man, but the majority of the story still revolves around Carl and his dream to travel.

What I'm trying to get at here, is that I often wonder why films for kids typically feature adults or adult-thinking/talking toys or animals (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Flushed Away, Ratatouille) as the main characters? (....clearly I watch too many of these movies). In children's literature, you rarely see an adult as the protagonist. In fact, I'm trying to jog my memory right now to think of one, but I can't. Anyone know a book for kids that features an adult as the main character? I'd love to know. Funny thing is, when I first started writing more "seriously", one of my first books was about a 23 year-old, immature guy who went on an adventure with Big Foot. A writer friend-of-a-friend read my manuscript and brought it to my attention that children may not be interested in reading about a person they can't really relate to, both physically and mentally, yet. Good point. But for some reason, back then, this thought hadn't crossed my mind - maybe it was all those movies influencing me? Now, of course, I know she was right and it makes perfect sense, and after our conversation, I re-wrote that book to feature an 11 year-old girl....

I'm curious, though, why does an adult, or an adult-like character, work as the star in a kid's movie, but not in a kid's book? Clearly Disney/Pixar is doing something right, because these movies make loads of money. So is it because there is usually a kid or an anthropomorphised animal as a secondary character? Is it because kids watch these movies mainly for the visual effects and the characters don't really matter so much? Or, is it so that the parents and adults, who are paying to see the film, will be entertained and more able to enjoy the movie? What do you think?