Thursday, October 07, 2010

Writing Meme: Day 7

7. Do you lis­ten to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your char­ac­ters?
Oh ho ho ho! Did this question really just get asked? *cue crazed grin* Perhaps you should read my post about killing songs.

While I don’t always listen to music as I write, there are many times when music is almost essential. Having a kick ass song rock my eardrums while I pen a blazing battle scene is simply the tops. For the most part, soundtracks offer the juiciest pieces of music ever. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed a ton of regular songs by other artists as well. There are so many, I can’t even begin to list them. As for relating or applying songs to characters, oh you have no idea.

I have a Word document that is six pages long of nothing but soundtracks. I have soundtracks for books that aren’t even written yet. I have completed soundtracks for full manuscripts. And no, it’s not just a few songs. I mean soundtracks. I’ll have as many as 14 songs for a book. They can be character themes, songs for a fight scene, a love theme, end credits, and yes, I even have trailer music. No joke. I own a ton of trailer music and some of those little snippets work wonderfully for those fun little movie trailers many of us tend to craft in our minds. As we speak I have soundtrack music going.

Most of this stuff ends up reviewed on Epinions too. So if you’re ever wondering about a particular CD and whether or not it might work, feel free to see if it’s on my list (there are over 70 on there last I looked).

…Do you guys want a sample soundtrack? Do you? …All right. Here’s one of them.
Trailer – “Raging Mad Drums” by X-Ray Dog
Humans vs. Taregots (The First Encounter) – Transformers, “Skorpinok”
The First Raid – “Hell Yeah” by Rev Theory
The Fourth Raid Fails – “Don’t Hold Back” by The Potbelleez, “I Don’t Care” by Apocalyptica, Man on Fire, “Man on Fire (Remix)”
Anna Is Lost – Man on Fire, “The End Music”
Acceptance of Anna’s Death – Star Wars Episode III, “Immolation Scene”
The Final Battle/World Ends – The Chronicles of Narnia Soundtrack, “The Battle”
Anna Reunites with Dominic/Everyone Together – The Chronicles of Narnia Soundtrack, “Only the Beginning of the Adventure”
Anna & Dominic’s Theme – “Savin’ Me” by Nickelback
Credits – The Chronicles of Narnia Soundtrack, “Can’t Take It In”
Overall Book Theme Album – Transformers Soundtrack

I know. It seems weird to have stuff like Transformers and Narnia together, but trust me, it works. And yes, I’ve totally killed most of these songs. I seriously cannot do the Apocalyptica one anymore.

2 comments:

B. H. Morrigan said...

I used to write with music playing in the background, but I don't do that much any more since I try to sneak my writing in at work on my lunch breaks and the people in the office next to me wouldn't really appreciate it.

When I used to play music in the background, it was usually something classical or something that didn't have words so that I wouldn't break into song/dance instead of writing.

In terms of soundtracks, I have to admit that I do associate some of the scenes in my current work with particular songs. The ending, for instance, keeps playing in my head as an alternative music video to "So Much for My Happy Ending" by Avril Lavigne.

Nicole said...

Headphones! =D That way you can TOTALLY crank it up.

Except that might be a problem if you lose track of time and the boss comes a'callin.