{"id":2109,"date":"2021-05-08T10:26:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T15:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=2109"},"modified":"2021-11-22T22:18:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T04:18:42","slug":"lx-chapter-commentary-2-tight-tee-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-2-tight-tee-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"LX Chapter Commentary #2: Tight Tee Shirt"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=2092\">Chapter 1<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/books2read.com\/b\/lx\"><em>L Extreme<\/em><\/a>\u00a0ends the dreamy non-dream with &#8220;and then I fall asleep,&#8221; so we naturally kick off the main action with Benji waking up.<br \/><br \/>After making the switch to fiction, my original concept for the book was a set of loosely connected short stories. Take the same characters and settings and let them roll through the setlist episodically regardless of whether or not it made sense plot-wise. But I wrote the first few out of order (on shuffle?), so by the time I got around to &#8220;Tight Tee Shirt&#8221; I&#8217;d already abandoned that idea in favor of a proper narrative. The first half of &#8220;You Stood Me Up&#8221; was already written, so the main goal here was to connect the dots from the dream to the flashback.<br \/><br \/>It also needed to establish the general ground rules. Benji &amp; C as relatively new roommates in a small apartment on an okay side of town. Rapid fire banter somewhere between vaudevillian slapstick and an SNL sketch. Third person omniscient narration juxtaposed against the first person dreamy segments. Teasing L as the main love interest but not quite getting to the point. A plot grounded in one song, but taking cues from others. And in this particular instance, staying tightly aligned to the lyrical (and musical) plot of the chapter&#8217;s core track while knowing I&#8217;d deviate from that script elsewhere.<\/p>\r\n<p>Like &#8220;I Am You&#8230;&#8221;, this chapter also made its way off the album, into my ears, out of my head and onto the page mostly formed structure-wise. I messed around with some potential larger rewrites a few times, but always gravitated back to this original\/final setup.<\/p>\r\n<p>Other tidbits:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Yes, in the previous commentary (and the above intro) I referred to Chapter 1 a &#8220;non-dream&#8221; but Benji &amp; C call it a dream here&#8230;<\/li>\r\n<li>I&#8217;ve always loved narrators who break the fourth wall and acknowledge the audience. This narrator has that tendency, starting off subtle but becoming more intrusive as the book progresses. Deleted scenes include a whole lot of narrator soliloquies as I experimented to find the right voice and the balance. (The eventual answer was obvious, but I&#8217;ll get to that later&#8230;)<\/li>\r\n<li>C&#8217;s hazy dream (or is it?) comes back in full clarity towards the end.<\/li>\r\n<li>The chase\/tackle\/wrestling bit was inspired by imagining action to match the unexpectedly rocking guitar outro to the namesake song.<\/li>\r\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m a musician and I&#8217;m also a painter&#8221; is accurate biography. Ditto on &#8220;You write advertising jingles and paint houses.&#8221;<\/li>\r\n<li>Re-reading my cache of Benji Hughes interviews from when I thought I was researching a 33 1\/3 book, I recall <a href=\"https:\/\/indyweek.com\/music\/features\/benji-hughes-tight-tee-shirt\/\">this 2009 IndyWeek article by Chris Parker<\/a> nudging me towards fiction\u2014especially the way he so nonchalantly describes the plot of the song:\u00a0<em>&#8220;The provocatively clothed girl in question is a former paralegal who&#8217;s vacillating between becoming doctor or horse trainer, while serving cotton candy at the circus. She packs heat for when the boys get fresh, and &#8216;if she isn&#8217;t edible, she&#8217;s as close as you can be.'&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\r\n<li>Why is C&#8217;s subconscious processing Benji&#8217;s love life? Excellent question&#8230;<\/li>\r\n<li>Sometimes the exercise was about squeezing as much referential inspiration from the songs as possible, but other times omitted references are intentional. Those familiar with the song might ask &#8220;What about the pistol in her purse or her job at the circus?&#8221; Consider it wordless foreshadowing. Stay tuned&#8230;<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/books2read.com\/b\/lx\">Check out\u00a0<em>L Extreme<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6PU_JDKvkWY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter 1 of L Extreme\u00a0ends the dreamy non-dream with &#8220;and then I fall asleep,&#8221; so we naturally kick off the main action with Benji waking up. After making the switch to fiction, my original concept for the book was a set of loosely connected short stories. Take the same characters and settings and let them&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-y1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2487,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-20-ladies-on-parade\/","url_meta":{"origin":2109,"position":0},"title":"LX Commentary #20: Ladies On Parade","author":"LBDG","date":"November 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Way back in chapter 5, \"Waiting For An Invitation\" starts with the lyric \"Ladies roll by...\" I've always considered the ladies rolling by as a precursor\/sister song to this parade (\"there is a theme there\"), so I knew we'd be headed back to the cemetery. But how would we get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Screen-Shot-2021-11-06-at-10.20.50-PM-300x211.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2117,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-7-why-do-these-parties-always-end-the-same-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":2109,"position":1},"title":"LX Chapter Commentary #7: Why Do These Parties Always End The Same Way?","author":"LBDG","date":"June 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\"We need to call the cops somebody killed the DJ!\" is the lyric from A Love Extreme at the core of this chapter. Striking the right balance of goofy and sincere for L Extreme proved challenging. Benji & C's comedic banter worked during the initial setup where Benji has no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/ALIEN-O-1024x229.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/ALIEN-O-1024x229.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/ALIEN-O-1024x229.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2123,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-3-you-stood-me-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":2109,"position":2},"title":"LX Chapter Commentary #3: You Stood Me Up","author":"LBDG","date":"May 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A dream, a frame story, and a flashback walk into a novel based on lyrics from a double album by Benji Hughes\u00a0who also stars as the protagonist.Kidding aside, the thrill of working on L Extreme was the kitchen-sink zaniness of the structure. As I began to identify the throughline of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Unknown.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2306,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-12-mmmmmmm\/","url_meta":{"origin":2109,"position":3},"title":"LX Commentary #12: Mmmmmmm","author":"LBDG","date":"August 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Confession: I cheated a little.On A Love Extreme the album, \"Mmmmmmm\" comes before \"Even If\" sequence wise, not after. It's the last song on the first CD, or a little instrumental bridge between two songs on the vinyl \/ streaming versions.In the first draft I honored the spirit of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ABENJIHUGHES-e1453864854958-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2634,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-25-lyegue\/","url_meta":{"origin":2109,"position":4},"title":"LX Commentary #25: Lyegue","author":"LBDG","date":"December 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One final instrumental to segue us into the finale! Like Coyotes, in the first draft this was a Benji-centric dream. Realizing that chapter needed to focus on L opened the door for C's starring turn here. Way back in Tight Tee Shirt, C conveniently said \u201cI had a dream last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/41jMBSKUj0L._AC_-e1639709434181-161x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2478,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-21-kenny\/","url_meta":{"origin":2109,"position":5},"title":"LX Commentary #21: Kenny","author":"LBDG","date":"November 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonus track time!Or said differently, I cheated again...First I swapped the order of Mmmmmmm & Even If. Here I'm including a song that isn't actually on A Love Extreme. Why? It's complicated.In the first draft this flashback to Jessica meeting Kenny in Jamaica was the second half of \"Where Do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Kenny-Single-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2568,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions\/2568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}