Lessons On Feedback From ‘Working On A Song’

This book came out a while ago but I only recently was able to get it from a library.

If you’re a fan of the musical Hadestown and are a creative, especially of the writing variety, this is a very interesting read. While a lot of behind the scenes books focus on the whole musical itself and how it came to be, Working On A Song focuses solely on the music. Singer/songwriter and Hadestown’s writer Anais Mitchell goes through every song, first giving the final lyrics and then showing where they started and how they developed.

Since Hadestown had been a project for over a decade before it hit Broadway, the show has gone through a lot of changes. The story more or less stayed the same, but the way it was told evolved a lot as the show went to different places and new people got involved.

Mitchell does a good job explaining why changes were made and letting you into the writing process a little. It’s a side to Broadway that’s almost never on display, and certainly never with as much honesty. I love behind the scenes stuff in general, but this book hit different given that I also write.

I don’t write songs, and I can’t pretend to know what it’s like to write such high-stakes material as a Broadway musical, but I think anyone who writes and then has that work consumed by others will relate to this book a little.

Mitchell is very open about struggling at points to adjust to feedback she was being given. From hanging how a character speaks to removing fun lines to cutting out songs altogether…Writing can be so personal, and when you’re faced with others telling you it’s wrong or not good enough, accepting that can be hard. I know I relate to that. Even back in university, having classmates critique my work in writing classes was sometimes hard, and that was just amateur stuff. I can only imagine what it was like to have professional Broadway people make critiques, knowing that millions of dollars could be on the line.

At work, I sometimes struggle to accept that my writing has flaws. I work in marketing, so while that writing isn’t as personal, it’s still mine. But like Mitchell, who leaned on her trusted team and in the end made this wonderful musical, I’ve certainly learned to go with the flow and accept the feedback that comes my way, as it will make me a better writer down the line.

I think Working On A Song also showed some great writing techniques to make feedback bearable. Mitchel wasn’t ever starting from scratch, she was just making changes, big and small, to make the show stronger. Reworking in older ideas, moving around parts, and even having a little section outside of the project to save and recognize good lines that simply didn’t fit in anymore. These are all great ways to not feel like your writing is trash and instead embrace the editing process.

I very much enjoyed this book and think that anyone who writes would get something out of it, regardless of if you know the musical. But the musical is also great, and I can’t wait to see it when it comes to Toronto next summer.

 

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Why Did I Stop Reading Books?

In 2021, I read a grand total of zero books. Not a single one.

Growing up, I always teased my father for never reading. My mom reads a lot and I used to read a lot as a kid and teenager, but the only book my father has read in the last two decades was probably mine. Only now, I don’t have a leg to stand on in the teasing. In the last few years, my reading just tanked. I have a friend proudly announcing that she hit 100 books last year. She makes time for it. I do not.

Why have I done this to myself? Instead of getting into bed early and doing some reading like a normal person, I crawl to bed too late all the time, and if I do have some time, I play Mario Kart or scroll social media.

I’d be lying if I said it’s because I don’t have time. I do have time. I just choose to do other things. I choose to hang out with friends virtually. I choose to watch dumb YouTube videos and scroll Tumblr. I choose to play video games. I choose to do just about anything else than read. I just can’t seem to force myself into it.

It’s like my attention span for reading is gone, and before any boomers come at me, it’s not because I’ve trained myself to only pay attention to six seconds of content. It’s just that I guess the act of jumping into a whole new story that I have to learn and forcing myself to do the work of progressing just doesn’t appeal to me, and the benefits of reading don’t outweigh that hurdle the way it used to for me.

There are books I want to read, too. I have every intention of reading, and then I just don’t. My best friend’s mom lent me a book over a year ago because she thought I’d like it. I told her I don’t read much, but she insisted I take it. I haven’t even started it. Last month, I knew I had three hours of train rides ahead of me so I brought the book with me and intended to read it. I just didn’t. I sat and looked out the window and listened to music I’ve heard a thousand times and just couldn’t bring myself to pull out the book and start it.

My goal for 2022 is to return the book to her having read it. Is it sad that that’s my goal? Maybe. In fairness, the book is pretty hefty. Think Order Of The Pheonix size.

I used to read so much. Maybe one day I’ll get back to that lifestyle. I’d like to. This is the point in the blog post where I’d ask for book suggestions or something, but please don’t tell me those because I assure you, I won’t read them.

 

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The Good Stuff: Lousy Book Covers

We all need some good stuff right now.

I don’t remember how I came across this website, but I’ve been enjoying its content for over a year now. It’s called Lousy Book Covers and its sole purpose is to share really bad book covers. We can debate for days on end if we should judge a book by its cover, but no matter what side of that argument you fall on, you can still enjoy seeing these particularily lousy ones.

Lousy Book Covers’ format is simple. Each post is one cover, and he also provides the link to the book and a funny comment about the cover he’s featuring. Honestly, some of the covers on the site aren’t that bad in my opinion. But some are…yikes. So here are some of those yikes ones, along with the comment from LBC.

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This website has been going for almost a decade, so there’s a lot more content to go through if you want a laugh or to feel better about your art skills.

Most of these covers are from self-published books. Is it mean to make fun of these? Maybe a little. But at the end of the day, they put it out there so we could see it. And perhaps it’s even more important for self-published authors to have an attractive cover because they can’t rely on support/publicity from publishing companies or stores or anything, so we have to judge it on that alone (or the book blurb, which the site will occasionally feature as well if there’s a particularily bad one).

And look, I myself am a self-published author. I spent hours on photoshop, making my book cover look as nice as I could. I could have paid someone to do my cover nicely for me, but I chose not to. I think mine is pretty good, but perhaps others hate it, and that’s just how art is. I made my bed, and now I lie in it, just like the choices made by other small authors sometimes result in their covers ending up on a joke site…and then this blog.

Anyway, I always get a kick out of seeing Lousy Book Covers’ posts on my Reader, so I wanted to share it with you because it’s always good stuff. I follow them through WordPress’ Reader, but you can also Like their page on Facebook.

That’s all for now!

 

P.S. This post is dedicated to the curling club’s unofficial book club who has allowed me to sit in on their quarantine video meetings even though I rarely read and don’t have much to say. Hi, y’all!

 

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‘Be More Chill’ Book Vs Musical

Just a few weeks ago it was announced that Be More Chill would be making its off-Broadway debut this summer, which I found really timely considering that it was only a few weeks before that that I had immersed myself in Be More Chill. On the recommendation of a friend, I looked up a Be More Chill bootleg (though the best one I could find was about 75% black screen) and then listened to the soundtrack on repeat. Be More Chill was first a book by Ned Vizzini, so I also checked out a copy from the library, and I thought it’d be fun to compare the musical and the book so you know a bit more before the show gets super popular on BWay. Warning for light spoilers.

Be More Chill is about a kid in high school named Jeremy who’s so tired of being a loser that he buys an ingestible supercomputer in the form of a pill that lodges in your brain and tells you what to do. This computer is called a Squip, and the story follows Jeremy as he rises through the high school ranks and tries to balance relationships between his best friend Michael, his crush Christine, and the popular kids with the help of his Squip.

Now, I listened to the musical before I read the book, and I wouldn’t have read it if I didn’t like the music so much. While I don’t think it’s the best musical ever and I could write a whole other post on what I don’t love about it, there are some cool songs and it employs a lot of neat synth/retro techno sounds so it is unique. The music is also very upbeat, and I always appreciate that. The music makes the musical, and I think Be More Chill does a good job taking this cool Squip plot and giving it life through songs.

Because really, if you take out the Squip, it’s just another high school coming of age story that is full of overdone high school tropes. The Squip and its incredibleness is the selling point of the plot. And it’s really needed, especially in the book because the book doesn’t have the music. What the book does have, unfortunately, is just a lot of awkwardness. The musical really toned down Jeremy’s cringey-ness. In the book, he keeps these tally charts of all his dorky interactions with classmates, and then he steals from his aunt to buy the Squip pill. Furthermore, he’s just a walking caricature of a typical high school boy in which he lusts over anything with boobs and is unable to have normal conversations with anyone, so it was a pretty uncomfortable read. Even the other characters had weird dialogue. Christine said weird things, and Michael was pretty underdeveloped and boring, and while Christine was odd in the musical too, she was a lot more likable there. Needless to say, I’m not a fan of Vizzini after this. So I’m glad that the musical changed and improved some of these aspects.

In regards to the Squip, there are some differences in its overall arc in the two mediums. In the book, Jeremy and the Squip just have some miscommunications and mistakes so Jeremy ends up getting rid of him. In the musical, it’s a lot more sinister, as the Squips try to take over. While this plot is a little cliche, at least there’s a problem to solve that keeps us interested, and at least it has a beginning, middle, and end that makes sense. The book’s ending feels very, very abrupt. But what bothered me the most about the Squip is that in both versions, Jeremy didn’t really learn anything. Like, there wasn’t some overarching message about being yourself or respecting women as people or not caring about popularity, and I feel like that would have been useful, especially in the book where Jeremy was just extremely ugh.

To conclude, I do not suggest reading Be More Chill. The book was just a load of awful awkwardness. The musical is a lot better and far less cringy. I hope it does well on Broadway because it is a fun show, and Will Rolland is playing Jeremy, which I think will be great. And if you can’t get to NYC, go listen to the soundtrack. The best song is ‘Michael In The Bathroom’ (it’s not as weird as it sounds).

Have you read or seen or listened to Be More Chill? What are your thoughts on it?

P.S. The Be More Chill book was also adapted into a play. I know this because when I was looking for a musical bootleg, I found the play, and only realized it was the play when twenty minutes in, there had been no singing. From those twenty minutes, it seemed to be exactly like the book, so I’m glad I exed out of that one real quick.

 

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What No One Told Me About Writing And Self-Publishing

As you saw in my last post, I am now an official author! I wrote a real novel called The Time Company and it is available now! And while I am super proud and found the whole experience really cool, I’ll be the first to admit that I never planned on self-publishing. As I said in my novel post, the book’s work and publishing happened in a bookmaking course I took. If I hadn’t been in that course and learned about Createspace there, I probably wouldn’t have considered self-publishing. No offense to any self-pubbers out there, but the fact is, self-publishing is seen as the lesser option to traditional publishing, and though I’m thrilled that I was able to make my book my way, I kind of do believe that. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about what I learned over these past several months and what I had to teach myself because there’s a lot I wasn’t told. Self-publishing has been around for several years now, but it’s constantly evolving and in the grand scheme of things, it’s kind of new, so it’s understandable if you, like me, didn’t know a lot at the start.

The Writing

• When self-publishing, you don’t have an editor or a manager. Sure, you can and should hire a copyeditor, but at the end of the day, you’re the boss, so some parts you want to write or keep in your book is not what should stay.
• People may not tell it to you straight. I had friends and acquaintances read/edit my book, and while they all gave good feedback, there’s a chance that they were nicer to me because they knew me. Did they really like my characters? Was my plot actually okay? Was my writing decent enough? I may never know.
• There will be errors. I had many, and honestly, there probably still are some. Oops and all, but I’m only human. My writing professor one day said, “every time you put your human hands on your manuscript, you mess it up a little.”
  
• Editing sucks. I’m sure people actually do tell you this, but when you’re self-publishing and the editing is all on you, it gets so tedious. Compared to some, my book isn’t that long, but editing it took forever.
• It’s really hard to write beautifully. Let me explain: I’ve always struggled with writing really deep, powerful, rich text. And so many times I’d try to do that, but I know it’s a weakness of mine. I don’t even know how to improve that. It’s just not how I write.
• I am not JK Rowling, and people are not going to understand or enjoy all the writing choices I’ve made.
• Furthermore, I likely won’t get a chance to explain the writing choices I’ve made.
• You’re going to have days where you just hate your writing. Just power through those days.

 

The Self-Publishing

• Fact: unless you’re a graphic designer, or know of one, your book won’t be as pretty as books you see in stores. My cover is simple, and I made it all by myself exactly to look exactly as I envisioned, but I don’t think people (other than my best friend) are looking at it and gasping at its beauty.
• All online stores like Amazon or iTunes take a cut of the profits, and honestly, it’s a little unfair. In the movie Begin Again, there’s a line about authors getting “a buck a book” and I don’t know if that’s accurate, but selling self-published is only slightly better. My book is currently at about $12 dollars, and for every sale I make on Amazon, I get about $3. That’s the deal for selling on these big platforms, but I think it’s important to know.
• It’s very anxiety-inducing. I’m a pretty chill person overall, but self-publishing is a big event and it got even me stressed. I had several stress-dreams about finding errors or having the uploading not work. But actually finding errors wasn’t any easier. Because you’re essentially going at this solo, there’s not a lot that can be done to alleviate this. Just do your best to stay calm and think logically and know that many before you have suffered the same.
  
• Because you can layout your book however you want, you have to sometimes put aside your preferences for the greater good. For example, I kind of wanted my page numbers in the center of the page because I like symmetry, but I knew that they’d be more effective in the corners so people can flip through the book easily.
• You’re going to do a lot of research on self-publishing. What platforms, what programs, what prices. Because I wasn’t taught this in my bookmaking class, I had to do this on my own time. I read many articles, watched many YouTube videos, and I know there’s still more I could learn.
• You’re not going to sell a lot. I don’t think people browse through Amazon self-published books the way people browse physical books in bookstores, so you have to do a lot of marketing and promotions, and even then there’s no guarantee. Make peace with this now.
• Everything is up to you, and no one is going to tell you if you’re wrong.
• You can do it! Self-publishing is not hard. Once you have the work written, this part is kind of fun. It’s time-consuming, but if you do have challenges, there are a lot of resources out there to help.

I hope this information was useful to you. I learned a lot so I wanted to pass it on to any future writers and/or self-publishers. If anyone has other questions about my book or the process, feel free to ask me in any way you choose!

That’s all for now!

P.S. As you can see below, I have a link to Goodreads. I’m new to it but I’m going to make an effort to use it to share the books I read and find new material, so please follow me or friend me or whatever it is we do on Goodreads!

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