Maybe Too Many Ideas

One thing I've never been able to accuse myself of was having too many ideas. Normally when I start a manuscript, I have zero ideas. My fellow writers think that's impossible. It isn't. 

Writing about the music industry, however, presents a load of possibilities. I don't know how I chose the scenes I have so far; I guess they just seemed like obvious ones at the time. I will reiterate that I know nothing about the music industry, so I had to imagine a lot, plus conduct a bit of research (which wasn't inordinately helpful). 

My main character made a rash decision to accept a record label's offer, when all along she fully intended to reject it. I'm not going to rehash why she accepted, but she did, and she gave herself a self-imposed deadline for moving to Nashville (three days). 

Once she signed her contract, there wasn't a lot for her to do. Her recording session wouldn't happen for a couple of weeks, so I needed to fill that time. So I inserted a writing appointment the label had set up for her with a wildly successful songwriting team, which was written as very brief. That was exactly how I wanted it to be. These two dorks guys write complete pap, and pop pap at that, but everybody in town wants to record their awful songs because they are sure moneymakers. So, the guys are very much in demand, and they give my main character probably about fifteen minutes of their time. They let her audition a song she had written, then immediately take it and change it completely, and to make matters worse, they send a demo of their version off to the label. Great scene, in all modesty.

So, what else is she going to do with her time? The label had set up a showcase for her at a local club, where she has a single accompaneist who she's never met, and where she debuts the awful song, plus gets to sing a couple of others. Then she goes for a photo session, which again, is awful and will come back to bite her. Oh, and she hires a manager (bad choice).

Then she gets to go home for the Christmas holiday. Nothing is happening in town anyway, but her A&R guy calls her at her mom's house and tells her there's been a last-minute cancellation at a big New Year's Eve bash and he's managed to sub her in. So she flies back and is given the dreaded 5:30 p.m. slot, but has no band. This is where she meets the woman who will become her mentor and who will play a major role in the novel.

Once she finally gets to record her EP, the label sends her out on a club tour through Texas with three hired backup musicians. I only included that because I couldn't think of anything else for her to do, but it turned out to be a stroke of genius, which hasn't fully been written yet.

Once she's back in Nashville and once she fires her manager, she and her new one travel to a round of radio interviews. I don't even detail this, because it's not interesting. It's just a means of introducing the new manager.

Okay, then her mentor invites her to open for her on a mini-tour of ten cities. That's where the story is sitting right now. I've devoted a lot of words to it, because it deserves to be highlighted.

But now that the tour is winding down, what's next? Her EP still isn't being released for another month. I considered having her make a music video, but there are a couple of problems with that: a) the label doesn't appear to have much confidence in her, so are they really going to spring for a full-blown video production? b) I don't know anything, at all, about what goes into the making of a music video. Maybe I could find some info, but I'm not seeing the point, unless it's going to turn into another humiliating experience like her photo session was. She's rather moved past that phase in her career, though, where she is constantly humiliated; she's begun to stand up for and respect herself. 

So, what? Skip right to the album release party? That's too soon, and too fraught with emotional details. That scene is going to be big. It's not time for it yet.

She needs other things to do. The label could partner her with a brand, but since I've already committed to the fact that the execs doubt her chances for success, I can't see why they would do that. She may need to start diving into social media, but only if that presents opportunities for something interesting to happen.

I'm thinking my best bet would be for the label to send her on another club tour ~ low rent like the first one, so I can provide a contrast between her tour with the superstar and the way most new artists have to work to gain exposure. It won't be pretty. Of course, any route I take needs to add something to the story and not just be filler.

Or who knows? Most of my best ideas arrive by accident. Maybe I'll just write and see where it takes me.