First posted on August 25, 2008 at 12:39 PM The music session went really well. We now have an opening theme tune (a solo violin) and a closing one (which Saffron did in 3 parts, recording one on top of the other, so it's kind of 3 violins). The opening one in particular is obviously quite sparse, but I think that kind of fits a detective story like this.
She hadn't done anything in advance for the music hall song. It just needed a piano, as it's just a rehearsal in the script.
I just read the lyrics through rhythmically a couple of times, and she improvised an 'oomp cha oomp cha' piano accompaniment and a couple of minutes lead in for the actor to do the comedy routine over. The whole thing took less than fifteen minutes.
I wish I was anywhere near as good at music as that. The actor will be able to make up their own tune on the top, but it's a wonderful, traditional-sounding chord structure.
Otherwise, the script is still coming. I've got a couple of scenes to write for episode 2, but episode 3 is now plotted out.
I had to travel by train yesterday (which, incidentally, I love doing). It's always my favourite space for plotting stuff out - the most productive writing sessions I've ever had have always been on trains. I guess if I could afford it, the best way of getting down to finishing a novel would be by travelling across Siberia or some similarly long train route!
Anyway, I knew that in episode 3 I wanted some kind of local folklore & superstition to be brought into the plot. I'm setting this in a fictional town on the English coast, and the two main places I'm using as inspiration are Broadstairs on the South East coast (probably best known for being an old haunt of Charles Dickens' and a place I regularly went to as a child) and also parts of the Cornish coast, to the far West.
As I bought my ticket, I happened to look in the 'bookshare' box for commuters to swap books, and what should be there amongst the blockbuster thrillers but a guide to the superstitions of Cornwall? In the middle of the country, that seemed too serendipitous to ignore, so I borrowed it.
In fact, the train was too packed to write with ease, as I was sat squashed on the floor with another family, hoping not to fall out if the doors opened.
So instead I read the book, which told of all sorts of tales of how to deal with little folk like pisgies (treat them with respect, don't thank them for any jobs they do, don't try to see them, otherwise they either run away or punch you in your eye & blind you. Hmm.) but it also had some wonderful tales of lost loves at sea and people sent insane, changed to mermaids and rocks and so on, which has given me a lot of ideas.
No, it's not going to turn into fantasy, but I wanted to invent some traditional landmarks with accompanying legends that can be used, as the location is key to the main plot going on behind the smaller daily cases.
Well, it's getting there... Little by little, it's getting there...
She hadn't done anything in advance for the music hall song. It just needed a piano, as it's just a rehearsal in the script.
I just read the lyrics through rhythmically a couple of times, and she improvised an 'oomp cha oomp cha' piano accompaniment and a couple of minutes lead in for the actor to do the comedy routine over. The whole thing took less than fifteen minutes.
I wish I was anywhere near as good at music as that. The actor will be able to make up their own tune on the top, but it's a wonderful, traditional-sounding chord structure.
Otherwise, the script is still coming. I've got a couple of scenes to write for episode 2, but episode 3 is now plotted out.
I had to travel by train yesterday (which, incidentally, I love doing). It's always my favourite space for plotting stuff out - the most productive writing sessions I've ever had have always been on trains. I guess if I could afford it, the best way of getting down to finishing a novel would be by travelling across Siberia or some similarly long train route!
Anyway, I knew that in episode 3 I wanted some kind of local folklore & superstition to be brought into the plot. I'm setting this in a fictional town on the English coast, and the two main places I'm using as inspiration are Broadstairs on the South East coast (probably best known for being an old haunt of Charles Dickens' and a place I regularly went to as a child) and also parts of the Cornish coast, to the far West.
As I bought my ticket, I happened to look in the 'bookshare' box for commuters to swap books, and what should be there amongst the blockbuster thrillers but a guide to the superstitions of Cornwall? In the middle of the country, that seemed too serendipitous to ignore, so I borrowed it.
In fact, the train was too packed to write with ease, as I was sat squashed on the floor with another family, hoping not to fall out if the doors opened.
So instead I read the book, which told of all sorts of tales of how to deal with little folk like pisgies (treat them with respect, don't thank them for any jobs they do, don't try to see them, otherwise they either run away or punch you in your eye & blind you. Hmm.) but it also had some wonderful tales of lost loves at sea and people sent insane, changed to mermaids and rocks and so on, which has given me a lot of ideas.
No, it's not going to turn into fantasy, but I wanted to invent some traditional landmarks with accompanying legends that can be used, as the location is key to the main plot going on behind the smaller daily cases.
Well, it's getting there... Little by little, it's getting there...
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