I was listening to music this morning. I do this most mornings when I have to work, because quite honestly talk radio grates on me. Any talk. Morning DJ’s, NPR, whatever. It works for some people, it doesn’t work for me. The morning and afternoon DJ’s on the station I listen to are kind of this town’s rejects…for lack of a better word. They both used to be on bigger, better funded stations, they pissed some people in the local industry off, and then the independent station picked them up.
When the independent station got bought out by one of these large corporations *coughclearchanelcough*, someone let them off their leash. It’s like they were given permissin to do all the obnoxious things that had gotten them fired from previous radio stations. I don’t know for certain that this is true, but my sister in law used to work in concert promotion and tells me it is, so I believe her. She would tell me if she was lying to me. She’s honest like that ^_^ So…I don’t listen to radio in the morning or evening. I have MP3’s for that.
I’m getting tired of my current playlist, though. Don’t get me wrong…The Offspring, Nickelback, Halestorm, Disturbed, Three Days Grace, Stone Sour, Linkin Park…they’ve served me well and are still pretty close to the top of my all time favorite bands. However, every once in a while I have to mix it up.
There’s an alterior motive for this as well…with November rushing up to meet me, I realize I have this great (I think great) story idea, and no filler for it. I know how the basic premise – beginning, middle, end, but no idea how to connect the dots. And that’s where the music comes in. I did this for my last two novels and was really pleased with how much it helped.
I find an album that fits the general tone of the piece I’m working on. For Serious Game it was The Offspring. For Uriel’s Fall it was Evanescense. I let it play in order, and pluck out story progression based on it. The story doesn’t match the order of the CD – that’s part of the fun. A song comes on, I figure out how it relates to my characters and their situation, and I write some notes on it. Then I rearrange the pieces until they resemble my basic premise and viola – detailed plot outline.
This task has become a lot easier since I discovered Rhapsody (even though I’m still pissed at them because they don’t recognize any of my MP3 players as supported devices to copy songs to). It means I don’t have to own the CD that’s inspiring me. I can sift through lists and lists and find something that’s just right. So far this morning I’ve been through:
- Saving Abel – which I’m really starting to like but unfortunately just doesn’t fit the story
- Finger Eleven – which may or may not work, but since it has yet to hold my interest past ‘Paralyzer’ I’m guessing not
- Theory of a Deadman – which was awesome until I heard ‘Little Smirk’ and went…oh yeah, not fond of that song…and ‘Hate My Life’ which I’m very fond of but again…isn’t really my story
- Rage Against – has the most potential so far. Must give it a longer listen once I have more time to focus. ‘Savior’ is just about one of my favorite songs right now and possibly very relevant to the story.
Before the night is through (I should bring headphones to work so I can do it at work too…hmm…a thought), I suspect I’ll also have gone through Apocolyptica, more Offspring (hey, diverse portfolio, lots of potential…maybe Splinter…), Queensryche (which I always try and have yet to have work for me), and who knows what else.
What works for other people? Whether you’re a pantser or a plotter, once you have that idea, how do you decide how to get from point A to Z? How do you pick out individual scenes and settings and character interractions to make it all happen?
I love having music to match a novel. I’ve always used youtube, just because that was what I used for my 2008 nano novel (the one I made it to 50k on). Some of the songs I also own, but it’s nice to have those playlists created. My angel/demon novel is a bit heavy in the evanescence too, or was though I’ve lightened it a bit. When I hear random songs on radio or tv that I think will fit, I’ll go and add them.
For my march novel, I had originally created a playlist full of hero songs, for example. But as I heard better songs in the daily life, they were found and added while unneeded hero songs were deleted. It was the first novel to get a theme song, as my nano novel just had song lists for each pair (the main character and the guy he dated versus main character and the friend he was in love with). My YA novel was the hardest to find songs for and it wasn’t until the rewrite that I had even a small playlist created.
Speaking of which… OMG. How am I gonna come up with a playlist for my epic fantasy novel by November? eek!
The Evanescence inspiration for my angel novel made the original outline really dark. Like a complete spiral into self-loathing and seduction kind of thing. Except I can’t write that way (I don’t mind it if its well done, it’s just not a voice I can maintain), so the album doesn’t really apply any more. Now it’s more of a Nickelback story.
But…share your playlist when you find it – I want to see what you’re listening to for epic fantasy ^_^
I’m thinking of going with classical, in particular celtic and irish songs. It’s a bit typical but I think it will set the tone of the epic fantasy. There are a few songs I’d like to use from the classical score Carmina Burana but some of them are hard to find. O Fortuna is the most played song, and might work in a battle scene but that’s at the very end of the novel. Some of the other movements are more suited for the rest of the novel. I just have to either find them or listen to my practice cd from a college choir. The rest I’m just randomly searching for songs on youtube though I have a couple of cd’s that has decent music for the task.