black sand

Discoveries

25 October 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am humbly following the advice of a couple of readers and relocating the Under the Black Sand novel back to where it started. To Iceland. Now that the protagonist is no longer living in an unspecified city in the United Kingdom, but a very specific part of Reykjavík, I felt I needed to research the history of his part of town.

As always, the Internet is your best friend. I stumbled upon a university essay from 2008. Read if from start to finish. Learned about a book by Guðmundur Hannesson, published in 1916, and how his visions influenced the city planning of the 1920s and 30s.

He understood that sunlight is precious in the far north. The arctic winds needed to be tackled and that aesthetics were just as important for people’s health as closed sewers. It wasn’t just about bacteria. A pleasant city would make the inhabitants happy, and therefore healthier.

His guidelines were simple. To maximise sunlight, the distance between houses should be twice the height of the surrounding buildings. Streets should be relatively short and angular to tackle the wind. Never be straight east-west or north-south, as that would create wind-tunnels in winter.

The planning went as far as deciding that living rooms and other areas used during the day should face south, while kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms should be at the north end of the house. Houses built at the south side of the street would be right off the pavement with a sunny garden at the back. Those at the north side would have a deep garden in front of them.

It is the kind of attention to detail we hardly ever see in newer neighbourhoods.
I remember loving walking the streets built just before the war. I never knew what it was, why I loved this part of town so much. As it turns out, it is no coincidence.

Writing novels is great fun. You get to explore human emotions and their reactions to all kinds of situations. But research can also lead you to things you never expected. I’m totally loving my hobby.

Posted in novel, thoughts, writing | Tagged inspiration, novel, research, thoughts, writing

Twists and Turns

24 October 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

It’s been oh so quiet around Under the Black Sand recently. I blame it on rebuilding a whole attic and full time job. A kid helps as well. But enough of that.

Today I managed to get back into the story. The original screenplay took place in Iceland. As the novel progressed, the story was moved to the UK. One of my feedback-readers suggested I move it back. After thinking about this, I decided to dive back in and rewrite. It would be a lot of work. Many things that apply in the UK, don’t make sense in Iceland. We have no construction companies with a history stretching back to the early 19th century. We never had any railways to speak of. We didn’t take any serious part in fighting during the two world wars. – Yes, this book is something of an epic. – So, a lot of things had to change.

I saw this as a two-edged sword. In some ways, the story would make more sense in Iceland. It was originally based there and a few things were a bit of a stretch in British context. But there were so many things that would be uninteresting and flat in Iceland, compared to the rich history of the British Empire. Or so I thought.

Before I could start rewriting, I had to figure out what would replace the 200 year old firm, the gothic cathedral, the conflicts in Europe. I reintroduced a few twists from the original screenplay and thought up a few new ones to make it all work. And guess what? The story is now tighter than it ever was. The conflict between certain characters more intense. On the whole, the story seems to be even deeper.

Funny how other people can sometimes force you to rethink things and come up with something completely unexpected.

Now it’s just a matter of getting it all done. Write, write, write until the book is the best it can ever be. I will have to finish it one day. Decide, this is it. Now, go out into the world and live your own life.

Posted in novel, personal, thoughts, writing | Tagged black sand, church, inspiration, novel, personal, thoughts, writing

Laying an Egg

14 September 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

Writing a novel is a huge undertaking. Millions of people try it, but only a few manage to finish it. Sometimes, when we are in the middle of the novel writing process, we get tired of the characters and the universe we’ve created. We shelf the project, and many never return to it.

The Girl From Nowhere Short stories can be a good distraction. You get your time off, but you keep writing. And that is important. Don’t stop writing. Coughing up a short story is like taking a weekend off and changing our surroundings. It clears the head while keeping us active and when we return to the novel, we are rested and ready to dive back in.

My background is films. It has been a hobby and borderline profession for a few years. Under the Black Sand was originally written as a screenplay. It only became a novel when I failed to raise a million to make the film. One day, I keep telling myself.

So for me, making the occasional short film or music video is a way to lay my creative egg, get distracted in a good way and to relieve the pressure that builds in people that have this need to create.

Late 2011 was a slow time for Under the Black Sand. I had yet to discover Scrivener and it was nothing more than a million words in a massive document. I had lost sight of the goal, the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t in sight. It wasn’t forgotten though.

The opening scene in the film was intended to be in black and white, Film Noir style. So, when heavy fog lay over Amsterdam for a few days, I coughed up a short script and shot a Film Noir. It’s not perfect. Nothing ever is, but I was happy with it. See the link below.
The Girl from Nowhere

Inspiration

8 September 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting in my sunny garden, drinking coffee. Organ music echoes through the neighbourhood and black smoke rises from the old steam mill’s chimney. It’s Open Monuments Day in the village.

My five year old loves music. He asks me if I’ll take him to the church. He wants to listen to the organist. We get dressed and head around the corner.

As we sit there, the sun uses the stained glass windows to paint the walls in all the colours of the rainbow. A group of elderly people sit there, some with their eyes closed, enjoying the organ sound as it fills the space. And I’m looking at them. Wondering what’s on their mind. What they have gone through. What their life has been like. Ups and downs, happiness and sorrow. Different times. Times that I will never know. They are approaching the end, but they have experienced things I never will.

And I thought of a scene in Under the Black Sand, where the protagonist walks into a church. Suicidal, as all seems to be lost. And I saw the scene in a new and different light. I saw a way to make it engaging, colourful.

Inspiration is everywhere. We just need to get out the door and open our eyes.

Everything is Possible

6 September 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

If a book is good, or at least popular, chances are that someone will make a film based on it. But how often does the reverse happen?

Under the Black Sand wasn’t meant to be a novel. It started as a short film. I wrote the screenplay in the Netherlands, where I live, but the film would have to be set in Iceland. Being an optimist, I placed a message on a website where actors hang out. I found a male and a female. I met him and liked him. I had never met her before we started shooting. She had done some stage work and appeared in a TV series. Should be good enough, I thought. And it was. They were both perfect.

The film would need music. I was heavily into Mark Knopfler at the time. His keyboard player, Guy Fletcher, was dabbling in film music and I sent him a message through his website. Would he write music for my film? A stupid questions if you realise that I was totally unknown (still am) and he was the man behind classics such as Brothers in Arms. Strange things happen though. He saw the rough cut and sent a short message. “This film needs music.”

He spent his Christmas holiday writing music for my film. The tour was finished and he had worked on Mark’s live album. They would then go back to the studio in January. And still he found the time to write music for my short.

The moral of the story is that we should never give up before we try. The reasonable thing would have been to never contact him in the first place. Why would he even reply to my message, let alone spend time composing music for my Icelandic language no-budget film? That’s crazy talk! The man played on Money for Nothing and Calling Elvis. He worked with Tina Turner and God knows who else!

But he did reply and he did write music and and the results were beautiful. I can’t really describe the feeling when I play the album he released shortly afterwards and I hear the closing song. Black Sand Theme.

If you have an idea, try it out. Don’t give up. Never give up. Everything is possible.

Keep Writing

3 September 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

I have no time to write. I have just finished a nine-day working week and I’m tired. The attic needs attention before the workers come in next week. The kid needed to go to school. Maybe I should give up this novel-writing nonsense. Who am I anyway? Who am I kidding?

Kiddo was out the door at eight. If I go upstairs with my hammer and nails at ten, I’ll still have all day. That leaves two hours to write. Two hours that just ended, but I did manage to polish and fix a whole chapter. Instead of going upstairs, grumpy that life is playing me and stealing my opportunities, I now take that hammer in hand, knowing that the writer in me has been satisfied. I am that bit closer to the goal of finishing the novel.

So, no matter how life plays us, we can always write. It is not about having time, because we never do. Life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other plans. It is about making time. It’s about grabbing the little pockets of opportunities and making the most of them. Watch less TV, don’t let that mini-game on your smartphone eat up your spare time. Make the most of whatever time you find.

A clique, a well known and worn truth, but we sometimes need to remind ourselves of the simple things we already know.