Taking a breather from the outrage.

[icarus]

Funniest quote of the day from penknife after all the horror of hurricane Katrina: but I'm also grateful right now for whatever quirk of human nature makes so many people use a medium for instantaneous world-wide communication to post pictures of their cats.

LOL! True.

So after a day of collecting links and looking up oil exec emails (we need to ask them if they're going to fund the 100 billion dollar clean-up or if they expect the federal government to do so), I'm taking a breather to work on the Beg Me For It soundtrack.

I have roughly 56 songs picked out. Okay that sounds like a lot but it's about 8-12 per story. I just need three more.

To give you a picture, Beg Me For It (the first part) has a combination of Tool, The Clash, The Smiths, Air, and REM. Hey Youheavy on the Pink Floyd (of course) and Soundgarden, followed by Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Stand In The Ruins and Celebrate Life and then Scarred have Cat Stevens, The Dandy Warhols, and Led Zepplin.

The action-packed SNAFU has Metallica, The Ramones, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Helmet, the Red Hot Chili Peppers... and more Metallica. *g*

It's Death Eater Rock that's the sticking point. Sure, I have Sade and Peter Gabriel and the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Siouxie and the Banshees' sensual "Trust In Me," but three scenes have me stumped:

- The climactic infamous mirror-sex scene, when Ron moves from "what the fuck are you doing?" to "oh wow, this is fucking hot!"
- Ron and Draco's wacky stoned stumbling through the ministry prison in lingerie looking for chocolate.
- Their final intensely soft romantic sex "this is what your first should have been like..." at the very end.

I have no idea what songs to use. Any recommendations?

Comments

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

- The climactic infamous mirror-sex scene, when Ron moves from "what the fuck are you doing?" to "oh wow, this is fucking hot!"

"I Touch Myself"


- Ron and Draco's wacky stoned stumbling through the ministry prison in lingerie looking for chocolate.

"Dude Looks Like A Lady." Or, if you want to be English, "Lola."


- Their final intensely soft romantic sex "this is what your first should have been like..." at the very end.

Depeche Mode, "One Caress." But I'm big on that one 'cause it's my Adon/Rachav OTP song from the Trilogy Tetralogy.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oooo. Downloading "I Touch Myself" and "One Caress" right now, with "Lola" and "Dude Looks Like A Lady" waiting anxiously in the wings.

Thank you!

Icarus *whimpers with Triolgy-want*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love the Depeche Mode song. I think I have a feel for your OTP now. I take it external circumstances have been rough on that relationship? (Not to mention drawing into the other's darkness... mmmm.) I found something similar (thank you Lizard), soft with shifts into the minor key, for the BMFI Ron/Draco OTP:

Placebo - My Sweet Prince (http://s34.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2JVNUR33MHVGS23Y41PSBPDMB1)

Of course it's really about a lover helping him kick a heroine habit but hey, it still fits. When I got this soft and tense piece for the end of Death Eater Rock, I started digging up intense songs for the earlier sections to balance it. Enjoy! I should have all fifty-odd songs for the soundtrack up this week.

Icarus

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you! Mmm, new music. I found a new Depeche Mode, "Precious," the other day, and it's fantastic.

Yeah, that relationship's been... difficult. To put it mildly. *coughs* I reeeeeeeeally like it. And I feel guilty for taking it where it went, but it was all for the good of the story. (And if that isn't your two-minute warning....)

Looking forward to the music! Hee! *waits on tenterhooks*

[dingdongdevious.livejournal.com]

Hey, did you get my e-mail with a First Signs picture?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've had trouble opening it actually. I got swamped at work on Friday then the Katrina stuff ... I'm trying to open it again although it's been seven minutes and it's still ...

Nope. It crashed again.

Do you have it uploaded somewhere?

Icarus

[dingdongdevious.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's odd. I uploaded it here:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wdenise/Draco2.JPG

Hope it works.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Not so odd. I'm running Win98 on a dial-up. Lots of things crash my computer.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Are you at U of M? :D

Draco's an adorable chubby thing. I wouldn't be able to harm a hair on his head no matter how much of a brat he was.

Do you have a website? I have bits and bobs of "things" to upload today, and I thought I'd upload your pic with a link to your site as well.

As for your fic, I did scan the first page though I can't find it now (even your email from Friday was buried under 80 emails since). Denise, I am not a Harry/Draco fan. I've read the "big" fics by Cassandra Claire and Ivy Blossom but on the whole as I warned you I find the whole pairing bland.

As I warned you I'm not the right person to ask about a Harry/Draco story. A Percy story, yes. Harry/Snape, sure. Ron/Draco, you bet. But Harry/Draco? No.

I'd be happy to put out a post looking for a beta reader for you, but I don't beta pairings I don't enjoy -- largely for the sake of the writer: when I don't enjoy the pairing my poison pen comes out and I get as sarcastic as Snape.

My general response is this, and I'll use Beg Me For It (above) as an example: the reactions of the characters aren't what hooks the readers, it's the plot that does that. While Ron has a sense of humour about his situation, what gets the reader to continue to the next paragraph is wondering how the hell Lucius Malfoy wound up to be Minister of Magic. Then the revelation that the Death Eaters won. Then the revelation that Ron is working for them -- what? -- then the understanding that the war is still going and the Ministry is a low-security prison ... etc., etc.

When I know more about my characters' feelings than I do about the plot, I back away from the story and make myself write an outline and pick a thesis. No shit. I actually ask myself: what is the point, what is the question this story explores?

That gives my stories a structure and an underpining that goes beyond the romance. And when I don't do that, my story feels thin to me. I wrote a drabble recently where I didn't do that and... meh. It's just not there.

For example, I was working on an original horror story that was requested by a friend. But my characters were all stock "mad scientist" and "innocent victim" and the story, frankly, was crap.

Then I backed away and asked myself some deeper questions. I based my "mad scientist" on a real person (well, a combination of several real people) and understood that he was really one of those people who'd spent his whole life in college, earning degree after degree, never doing anything but working as a janitor. Does the fact that he succeeds in his "experiment" outweigh the fact that he has no experience and is a sham? Suddenly moral questions started perking up and he gave me the chills.

Aha. I had my story.

Ivy Blossom got me with her Draco because of the wrongeness of the love potion: Draco never forgets that he's not supposed to be in love with Harry and it tortures him. Cassandra Claire got me with her exploration of "user/used" where Harry is the unintentional user because Draco demands to be used if that's all he can get.

I'm speaking very generally because I didn't get very far with your story (so not into Harry/Draco...). There has to be more than just Harry/Draco-ness for me to continue reading.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah hell. What happened to all my formatting?

Icarus

[dingdongdevious.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all your great thoughts! You don't have to worry about finding a beta reader for me - I just started class and I probably won't have time to write much of it anyway. I think I do have to sit down and do some plot planning because even though I have the general plot, I realized I couldn't explain a lot of the things that have been happening to random characters or how I'm going to get everyone to the end giving what's happened. Kind of weird - but when I started writing, things took a different direction.

I'm in the UM Business School and I do have a website of really random stuff - mostly writing. The address is just: www-personal.umich.edu/~wdenise

O, do you have the links to the two works that you referenced? I haven't read them, and I think I would love reading them. I read a hilarious Harry/Draco one by Cassandra Claire called "Something Impossible" and I'd love to read more of her stuff.

[snapetoy.livejournal.com]

No recs, just some gratuitous cat photos!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Cherished kitty! *pets*

Icarus

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Ron and Draco's wacky stoned stumbling through the ministry prison in lingerie looking for chocolate

Franz Ferdinand - Van Tango
They Might Be Giants - They might be giants (yes, the song has the same title as the band)

Both with fun quirky tunes and wierd lyrics. :D

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

More wackiness
+ Dillinger - Cocaine on the Brain
+ The Specials - Ghost Town
+ Beatles - I am the walrus
+ Bob Marley - Jammin'
+ The Cure - Love Cats
+ Grant Lee Buffalo - The Whole Shebang

And something soft and romantic
+ Embrace - Gravity
+ U2 - One
+ David gray - Sail Away

:D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, Lizard. Namaste by the Beastie Boys is so perfect. Thank you for sending it.

It's so very stoned. I may add a second song for the stumbling around Percy's apartment.

I'm dowloading alllll the recs, finding some great music here. :D

Icarus

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

For soft romantic, how about the Cure's "Close to Me?" The original is great but the "Closer" remix is slower and more sensual, and either of them would have a wonderful dizzy-in-love feeling.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'll try both of them, thank you. I also have rec for Placebo's "My Sweet Prince" and for the mirror-sex scene Nine Inch Nails "Closer" -- how's that for a name coincidence?

Icarus

[guest-age.livejournal.com]

I don't know where it would go in the soundtrack, but everytime I hear "Let Me Go" by 3 Doors Down, I think of Beg Me For It. Especially this line: "You love me but you don't know who I am/I'm torn between this life I lead and where I stand." I think of how Lucius thinks he can trust Ron and Percy, and how they have to "help" the Death Eaters even though they are really only doing what they have to to survive and are plotting his downfall. I don't know where that could go, or if it would even work in the way you'd like it to, but I just thought I'd suggest it because everytime I hear it I think of Beg Me For It.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful. *hunts down song for d/l*

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I love it. I'm thinking I'll put it right at the end, sort of the song that sums up the story as the credits roll. :)

Thank you.

Icarus

[guest-age.livejournal.com]

Really? Yay! I'm glad I helped! I've been meaning to tell you about that song for awhile now because like I said, every time I hear it, I have mental images of Beg Me For It. =)