Today was day 22 in the Book Cave. All I do now, from 10am to 3pm, or 4pm, or 5pm, is write. Ok, I take breaks to eat and go to the bathroom and stretch and reheat my coffee in the microwave for the third time. But mostly, I sit at my desk alone and try to organize my thoughts and explain them to my invisible reader in the way they’ll find most engaging.
I want to be clear that this kind of schedule is a privilege. Time to write — to create anything at all — is a tremendous privilege, one that lots of people that don’t have. Which stops them from writing books they desperately want to write, resulting in libraries full of books by people who can afford to buy time and space for their creativity to flourish and who will, thanks to their privileged position in the world, likely miss some important stuff. Some people pull it off, carving out spare minutes and hours in the cracks of the day when all their other work is done and the rest of the family is resting. (That’s how my good friend Lyz Lenz wrote both her books, one of which you can buy right now and the other of which you can pre-order.)
So the Book Cave is an exhausting luxury for which I am very grateful. But it is a quiet, lonely place. One thing that helps is music.
It’s taken me a decade of writing to figure out exactly what I need from a writing playlist. It needs to be classical music; a good beat will only make me want to move around. It can’t have lyrics in any language I speak or vaguely understand (so English, Spanish, and French are all out). It can’t be too heavy on minor chords or it brings the mood down. Also, it helps if I haven’t seen a ballet set to the music, because if I have I’ll just start thinking about that ballet, and not about the ballet book in front of me.
It’s a long and picky series of requirements, but there is a solution to this problem.
The solution is movie soundtracks, and lots of them. My work playlists are heavy on Alexandre Desplat (The Queen, The King’s Speech, The Imitation Game, and the new Little Women), Rachel Portman (Chocolat), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Pride and Prejudice) and Steven Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love). Also making an appearance: the soundtracks of The Hundred-Foot Journey, “Anne With an E,” and the 1994 Little Women, because don’t make me pick a favourite child.
If you’re working on a piece of writing, or if you’re in your version of the Book Cave, I present to you some music that might help you focus.
In ballet news:
The New York City Ballet nonconsensual photo sharing case is in court this week.
This ballet company is only performing choreography by women in 2020, and its director doesn’t think that should be news.
“In ballet, my body is not a container. In ballet, there is no separating the body and the mind.”
That’s it from me this week. Back to the Book Cave. Thanks for reading and see you next week.
Chloe.