Ahhh Thursday, what have we done?

Well, today my goal was to see if I could reshape this section of the book that had been bothering me for a while now. It’s one of the buildup sequences to a rather large climax and it wasn’t doing enough for my character – wasn’t giving enough depth and intensity. So how did I choose to work on this matter now? By listening to the Alien/Aliens/Alien3 soundtracks of course. There is no better way to write fear than to listen to it in its purest form. And fear in space – even more appropriate.

Jerry Goldsmith…you are the man! James Horner…OK so it sounds like some of it might have borrowed ideas from the soundtrack to 2001 A.S.O, but hey, its still possibly the most amazing thing Horner has ever done and kills me every time i hear it! (Also possibly my favourite film theme ever.??) And who could forget Elliot Goldenthal – Alien3, this score is possibly the main reason I like that movie, a heart wrenching journey though orchestral sound, stunningly beautiful. Thank you ALIEN!

As a person who works in film sound, sound and music play a key role in my writing process, both the presence of it and the absence of it. Sometimes I need quiet to write, but most of the time, if I’m at home, i have my juicy Genelec speakers blaring away some music to set the mood. Most of the time its film scores, especially since (lets face it) writing to someone singing is just distracting.

So for this book, I would say i have rotated around 200 different film scores to fit the sections I’m working on. Sadly, some of the best soundtracks are just too short and I need to listen to them on repeat…other times i find a series of films can fill many hours of fresh music (see the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy for a tasty 17 hours of running time music)

Yes, living in Wellington, this kind of music is heard on every street corner, I can’t go for a run in this landscape without feeling like I’m running away from Orcs. No…there are no Orcs in my book, well…maybe Orc-like aliens. Still, this music is so epic it is appropriate to write to no matter what genre I’m writing.

OK, now I feel like listening to it, since my action sequence take place in a cave, khazad-dûm here we come!!