Using Music in Your Fiction

Music is extremely powerful, evoking intense emotion, history, memory, and physical movement in a way that fiction and most other types of communication cannot.  Many writers used that emotional and historical element by mentioning music titles and song lyrics as a short hand for those emotions.  

But here’s the problem.  Music has copyright protectors who are beyond zealots.  Copyright fair use and proper attribution which are both perfectly legal don’t matter to them, and they, usually ASCAP, will go after a writer for even the slightest mention.  They have the lawyers and the money so they win almost every time.  

If an author does go through ASCAP, the band’s legal people, or a brand like Disney to license a few lines, the costs are ridiculous.  An acquaintance tried, and using two lines of a lyric from an obscure band would have cost her more than she’d make for the life of the book.  

So, what’s a writer to do?  Some write their own song lyrics.  Others work very carefully around the ridiculous copyright landmines.

Here, in two scenes from my unpublished novel, THE LAUGHING GOD’S KISS, which involved a hero with a fondness for music. Cautiously treading around those copyright landmines, I use a song title, a few words of the lyrics, or some careful editing to evoke those emotions.  They also reflect emotional moments for two people who are already falling in love but refuse to admit it, even to themselves.  

Storm bent over his guitar and started  "Yesterday."  

Gazing around at all the rapt faces in the living room, Victoria realized this was a virgin audience for the song.  These isolated people had never even heard of the Beatles.  

Storm sang, his voice catching with melancholy at the loss of a great and true love.  His face, for the first time, was vulnerable and open with emotion.

Victoria's heart twisted with his pain as she wondered whom he'd loved so much and why he'd lost her. 

***

Across the pasture, a familiar baritone voice sang softly.  Victoria caught the words "corn" and "elephant's eye."  Intrigued, she moved closer.

His back to her, Storm brushed briskly on the black gelding as he sang.  The black's ears were cocked back to hear him.  His other three horses watched him, their ears forward.  None of them had a rope or line on, each held by his voice and presence.

Equally entranced, Victoria sat down in the shade of a nearby tree. 

Storm sang "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" with the feeling and skill worthy of Broadway, his black velvet voice soaring.   

As his voice faded at the end of the song, the horses began to fidget.

Storm began "If I Loved You.“

Victoria closed her eyes to savor the music.  The song was about love unadmitted yet so tenderly expressed.  It had moved her when she'd seen Carousel. 

If a voice could make love to a woman, then Storm Morgan had that voice.  Victoria let the song take her where it would.

NOTE:  

    No, I’m not saying copyright is wrong, or you should ignore it.  Those who have followed me for years know that I’m a strong proponent of copyright, I write informative articles about it, and I’ve fought piracy for many years.  However, ASCAP and friends are using their money and clout to stop even fair use which is not okay.  As usual this disclaimer, I’m not a lawyer and can’t offer legal advice.  My examples are how I would avoid being sued by ASCAP.  You must decide for yourself whether to risk a lawsuit or nastygram from some lawyers.

Life Anchors

My sister and I chatted recently about time, and how it seems to slip away so dang fast.  The days and weeks move so rapidly that a month has passed before we blink.  Many of us don’t have anchors to tie us to this minute, let along this day, but others have a secret weapon.  Hers, right now, is a puppy who requires lots of attention and has milestones as she grows into an adult.  Children are incredible anchors to the here and now.  Serious illness is a less happy anchor in the now.

The past and memories have anchors, too.  We use the death of loved ones, graduations, and world tragedies to anchor us to the past.  Did this event happen before or after my mom died?  How long after?

Emotions are anchors in time.  We know exactly where we were and what we felt when the Twin Towers went down with a clarity we don’t have for birthdays or other moments.  When a true love leaves, we remember that pain forever.  

What does this have to do with writing?  Simple.  Characters need anchors, too.  Emotions, memories, and time should anchor a character in the moment of a scene.  If the character’s viewpoint is floating about without an anchor, then the scene fails for the reader.  

Even if that character does have a moment of interspection or memories, the reader should know, first, that she’s standing at her back window and staring at the sunset.  

Important plot points anchor the past but propel the character forward. Because the lover leaves, the character must choose a new direction because the old direction is gone.

Think to yourself before you write a scene, what are the anchors?  If you do, you’ll rarely fail to anchor your reader in your story.   

Starting with the Murder Victim

A common practice on TV mysteries is to start out with the discovery of the dead body.  NCIS, for example, is notorious for funny or gross body discoveries to start the mystery.  

Or the show uses the ever popular death on screen of the victim of the week.  Unless it’s COLUMBO, the viewer doesn’t know the identity of the murderer.  They just see some poor soul chased and murdered.

That’s TV, a very visual medium, but is it a good idea to start with the murder or the murder victim?  

Like all things in writing, it depends.  Here are some possible reasons to start with the body or the murder.

The writer makes the reader care immediately with a personable or sympathetic victim in viewpoint.  Clues and false clues can be presented to get the reader’s crime-solving started at that first page.  

The murderer as the viewpoint character ups the scare factor because it’s obvious he intends to do it again as a serial killer, or he has a vendetta against the book’s hero.  The hero may realize this, early on, but the reader knows already and is flipping pages like mad because he’s worried about the main character.  

Reader expectations.  If this book is about solving a murder, and the main character is a professional crime solver,  the body should be front and center from the beginning.  A cozy mystery is allowed some time to set up the characters, etc., without the reader getting bored.  

Atmosphere.  A chase through the darkness or the murder can really set the book’s tone and atmosphere.  This is more a side effect of the other reasons to start with the murder, and shouldn’t be the only reason.

Excitement before the boring part.  If the mystery needs considerable set up, the murder gets the reader reading then hopefully keeps him reading until the pace picks up a bit.

Later then now.  A technique which is no longer popular with good reason is to start at the murder, then go back in narrative time before that point.  It’s a cheap trick that will make most readers roll their eyes.  Use with great caution.  

Mundania Has Closed

One of the oldest epublishers which bought out Hard Shell and Awe-struck has closed down with barely a whimper.  I've heard nothing of this, and I'm an author.  

If you are a Mundania author, go to the home page and make a screenshot of their announcement returning all rights, ASAP.  The website may disappear any time, and this will be the only way to prove you have your rights back.

http://mundania.com

Feel free to pass this information along to anyone you think would be interested.  

****

On a personal note, I’m shocked but not shocked.  My first book, TIME AFTER TIME, was published by Hard Shell just over 20 years ago.  Then STAR-CROSSED, my most successful book with piles of awards, followed just over one year later.  

Over the years, my sales have gone down to almost nothing because so many books come out every day that earlier books get buried like a pebble in an avalanche.  Those of us who aren’t actively publishing several times a year don’t have a frontlist to promote our backlist so that doesn’t help either. Sad but true.  

Even then, for the first time in my career, two of my books have disappeared.  I’m still pondering whether I want to bring these books back or let them die.  If I do republish them, it will be through self-publishing since I’d just be delaying the inevitable at another small publisher.

Small publishing, particularly epublishing, is a hard business to be in, today.

The day that Amazon opened up publishing to individual authors, small publishers like Mundania began to bleed authors and income because the main thing they offered for those who didn't fit the traditional conglomerate publishing mold was access to readers.  Everything else like covers, editing, etc., could be bought.  

Add to that the ability of self-publishers to change with marketing trends at lightning speed which no publisher can duplicate, and it's amazing that the few good small publishers are still here.

On top of the changes in the business killing publishers, there's sheer attrition.  Most small publishers are run by individuals, not corporations, so age, finances, family issues, etc., can kill them, and almost every one of these who didn’t go bankrupt died because of personal reasons.  We live in a changing world.

A Romance Takes Two

QUESTION: In my historical romance, I have a whole castle filled with people.  What’s your advice on juggling lots of characters? They are all important, some more than others. But it’s challenging sometimes to include them all. 

A romance is about the hero and heroine, NOT the secondary characters, no matter how interesting.  If a scene or a character doesn't involve the hero or heroine and their relationship or moves their main plot forward, then that scene or character isn't needed.

I use the Rule of Three: If a scene doesn't contain at least one or two plot points (information or events which move the plot forward), and one or two character points (important main character information) so that you have at least three points total, then it should be tossed, and whatever points included in that scene should be added to another scene.

If you really like a secondary character like the hero's best friend, then you can build him up enough so that readers will want his story for your next novel, but you don't take away from the hero or the story while doing this.

In books other than romances, writers have more of a luxury of allowing other characters on page and in viewpoint.  To keep up with these characters, they keep rigorous notes, story flow charts, etc.  They also give just enough information to the reader to remind them of who this person is, if he isn't a major player in the story.  

Reality vs. Fiction

"The way things happen in romance novels don't truly reflect the way things happen in our subjectively real universe." -- Someone's comment during blog discussion on romance.

The truth of the matter is nothing reflects the "real world" of experience. Not fiction, not nonfiction, not news reports, not even media like film and TV. Reality is simply too complex.

A writer uses her own vision of the universe to create her fiction. That vision is ordered so that the complex chaos of reality makes sense and has a pattern. 

If readers find her vision of reality to be truthful for them, (they buy into her vision and understand it), the writer has been successful. Part of that buying in while reading romance is seeing the complexity of the human personality and the male/female romantic relationship reflected in that writing.

Since so many women read romance, romance must reflect emotional, if not physical, reality for women.

In the same sense, most of us don't believe in vampires, but that doesn't prevent us from enjoying a good vampire romance. Those of us who analyze our responses to books see that the vampire romance reflects certain emotional needs and power issues for us so it is emotionally real although not "reality" real.

Summarizing Information

QUESTION: Should I include dialogue with minor characters in full, or should I simplify them in a few sentences skipping the entire dialogue part?

Say if the MC saved a town from an assault and he wanted to investigate it, should the conversation between him and a random officer be mentioned fully? If it is to be skipped, how write it so that the important information he obtained be told to the reader?

I use the rule of three when I'm uncertain whether I need to write or keep a scene.  

If a scene doesn't contain at least one or two plot points (information or events which move the plot forward), and one or two character points (important character information) so that I have at least three points total, then it should be tossed, and whatever points included in that scene should be added to another scene.

In the case of that bit of dialogue, you can say something like this in another scene.  "On his way there, several of the soldiers told him ****"  

Or you could have another important character summarize to the main character bits of information he'd picked up on the way to their meeting.

When I have a bunch of bits of information that needs to be given to the reader and the main character, I often get the main character to assign that search for information to a secondary character who can then summarize what he's found out.