Out of all the things I thought of doing with my novel, having an agent telling me how I should write it instead, was the last thing I wanted for it.
This sentiment was reinforced when I heard one of the greatest artists of all time – arguably the only sculptor to not only match but surpass the two previous greats Michelangelo and Rodin – an inconspicuous little man from a tiny village in Poland by the name of Stanislaw Szukalski say:
“if you want to create something new, don’t listen to anyone.”
This is why I have from the outset rejected the idea of obtaining a literary agent – at the cost of having virtually no way to enter the literary world.
Maybe if I was more patient, maybe if I tried harder (i.e. kept spending the last of my funds to submit my novel to competitions) I could succeed. Maybe maybe maybe… who the fuck knows…
For all I know my estimation that publishers are more interested in books that they think will sell than in books that they think are great and publish regardless of commercial potential, is completely wrong. Most of the music industry has worked that way…
And considering that people are less and less inclined to read books, and more and more favour mindless entertainment (the domination of reality tv and blockbuster movies certainly point that way) I can’t say I blame the publishers. At the end of the day, they have business to maintain – they’re not charities.
That is why I decided to publish my debut novel here on Writers and Artists for free for anyone who wants to read it. Given that W&A is operated/financed by a major publisher I would expect it to be around for a long time.
I thought about doing that chapter by chapter but for practical reasons decided against that:
The novel itself is structured non-chronologically – leaving it to a reader to decide in which order what happened. Mostly likely resulting in 10 people reading it coming up with several different (maybe not quite 10) different timelines. I can’t say I ever tried to put the 20 chapters in a chronological order myself – so I can’t say there’s one correct way either.
That’s beautiful to me.
The title of the book and the chapter names are all taken from an album, and the story I am telling was chopped up into individual tracks – put back together it would combine to a 3x LP + 1x 7” album so to speak.
I will release one side after the other.
Hereafter you will find the Foreword, Set list and Prologue.
Thank You for reading and I hope you have fun!
Simon D. L.
Foreword
My idea was to tell the stories as if they were songs. Most songs I know do not explain what exactly happened that lead to a particular line or verse.
You do not know at what age, in which year and where it took place. And what shoes and clothes were worn. And what the singer’s haircut looked like.
If I were to say that Franklin in most scenes in this book wore a tailored suit – what would that tell you? Something different than when you learn it was in fact his father’s suit – he inherited it along with the figure to put it in. And what about his shoes? Say, he wears worn out canvas trainers.
That’s a pretty cool type of footwear, isn’t it?
As long as he doesn’t wear them with his suit. But what if he does?
And does it change if his shoes are not made by that one brand famous for this very type of shoe?
Does that make him cheap? Or simply show he does not give a toss?
Considering that perception is usually only half the picture, the other half being deception, a lot of circumstantial information was cut from the book. Leaving it to the readers and their imagination
This novel was written over the course of approximately nine months. It is my firstborn.
There was at least one abortion and one stillbirth in the many years leading up to this…
This is anything but a first attempt at writing a novel…
Make of this what you will…
Set List
# Track Title
1 A0 Overture
2 B1 3 Steps
3 B9 Movement of Youth
4 B5 The Plan
5 A6 Seattle
6 B3 On the floor
7 A8 An Idea
8 A7 Tuesday
9 B6 Hamburg
10 B7 I Am Asking You
11 B0 Movement of Youth (Reprise)
12 A1 Freiburg
13 A5 On the Hill
14 B4 Last Year
15 A3 Innocence
16 B10 Sex
17 A4 Saturday
18 B8 Don’t know
19 A2 Friend
20 B2 Digital Is Better
Prologue
Hello Reader!
My name is Txxxxxxx, but everyone calls me Txxx, or Tee for short. When people write me messages, they sometimes use T. instead. And sometimes my brother calls me Mxxxxx to tease me, but that was mostly when we were kids.
Speaking of my brother, he asked me to write a foreword for his book.
Except he didn’t tell what it is about. He only said it is inspired by German Indie-Rock band Tocotronic’s debut album ‘Digital Ist Besser’ released in 1995.
And that he considers it essentially a rock opera in book form. Whatever that is supposed to mean.
I am pretty sure it is an album that combines loud and badly played guitars with lots of shouting.
If that sounds terrible to you, that’s because it sounds terrible to me.
Having said that, I doubt he would write a story about the band or their music, or even worse, about his own boring-ass life. He would probably make some stupid shit up instead.*
Maybe you’re now thinking “this isn’t how a book begins” and you’re probably right.
But if you, unlike me, actually bother to read this book, you could afterwards confidently say:
“I once read a book that began like this”.
I should mention here, that I never actually read a book. Not even at school. Not even when I had to write a report about it. Not the second time round, either, when I had to give a speech about it in class. Thanks to the internet I managed to circumvent that both times. Aced it, both times, too.
One thing I did learn about books, is that they are not here to be read. Maybe the person saying that, said something else after, but I stopped listening. That statement was good enough for me. And I had no reason to question it either – Franklin claims it was the wisest person he never gets to meet.
Should you by accident hold this book your hand, I hope for your sake there is more to it than what I can imagine. And if there isn't, next time you had better heed my advice.
I am not sure this is what Franklin had in mind...
Sincerely,
Txxxxxxx
P.S. He told me afterwards that I should not use my real name. That’s why I replaced everything except the first letter with an “x”. It was easier than making up a fake name.
*That is to say: this is a work of fiction.
to be continued.
Comments