Membership Do you use music in any way to help you write particular characters?

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

@webs I listen to old-school soundtracks, including Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9; Okami, Crash Bandicoot 2, Age of Empires II, FF: Crystal Chronicles, and random singles from other games.

[Bass 26]

I listen to music to get me in the right mood, but a lot of the time I have to turn it off or super low volume to actually write, otherwise my brain types what I am hearing instead of what I'm thinking randomly, and I am the absolute worst about not proofreading posts.

[webs 14]

On 17/11/2017 at 6:13 PM, soulsrpg said:

Sunny:  I tend to use music to get into the 'headspace' of my characters - a rough, 'bad' character might need some hard rock or gangster rap, but an intelligent, refined character would be able to use Bach, or something like that.

 

Nice! I have a character who I can only write to classical music because he's just so difficult and snobby about music.

 

On 19/11/2017 at 3:10 AM, Blackjack Bart said:

@webs I listen to old-school soundtracks, including Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9; Okami, Crash Bandicoot 2, Age of Empires II, FF: Crystal Chronicles, and random singles from other games.

 

Oh, man. I have the AoE music playing in my head now. Which just gives me the urge to go play it.

 

10 hours ago, Bass said:

I listen to music to get me in the right mood, but a lot of the time I have to turn it off or super low volume to actually write, otherwise my brain types what I am hearing instead of what I'm thinking randomly, and I am the absolute worst about not proofreading posts.

 

Have you ever accidentally let some lyrics slip in and not caught it in time? Sounds like a pain, but amusing too XD

[Bass 26]

7 hours ago, webs said:

Have you ever accidentally let some lyrics slip in and not caught it in time? Sounds like a pain, but amusing too XD

 

Yes. Many times. My otprp partner used to make fun of me so hard. It go so bad on one site I modded for that they had a mini site event where writers got prizes for song fic style threads. As I've gotten older, I've learned my lesson, but every so often it still slips in. Normally just a random word or two.

[Frizbee 14]

Yes definitely! I have music playlists for my characters which have songs that remind me of their personalities/threads/things they've gone through etc. I might listen to that while I'm writing a particular character, but more often than not I prefer to write to classical music that gives me a feel for the post I'm writing. If I listen to songs with lyrics it tends to slow down my writing/I end up getting distracted.

[RavenFlame 10]

I use music to help me get focused. I love music and I love writing. I am working on different types of playlists depending on the mood or character. Some characters always have the same things (roundtable rival by Lindsy Sterling comes to mind), but often they are separate. It helps me get in the mood and set the tone of my post.

[Arceus 1,082]

I actually have a mental association of certain songs to certain emotions, not certain characters or story-lines. I have a smut playlist, and an angry playlist, and a collection of some random drone-y trance-y stuff to just sort of zone out to, some upbeat happy stuff... when I write, it's like I'm not even entirely present doing it, so I tend to just completely zone out, and what song is playing hardly even registers, unless my mind finds it to be wildly inappropriate for the moment. And yet, certain feelings can't quite express right in my writing without that background noise. I do not know.

 

I do have some association of music with specific characters, but it's so vague of an association, it hardly makes a difference. There are a few instances in which I actually associate a character to a song much stronger than usual, merely because I associate the character to the emotion that song is associated with in my mind. Similarly, the emotion a song evokes for me can set into place building blocks for a story-line, but it's the feeling that sticks with me.

[Ishimura 1]

Absolutely, I have character playlists for all my characters and I find songs that remind me of them. Sometimes I find songs that work for the scene I am writing. Sad songs for sad moments, epic songs for fight scenes. I'm a musician though so music is very powerful to me and silence is creepy as hell. 

[Sadrienne 242]

Yes. A thousand times yes.

 

In getting ready to re-open Tally, I went back across some old playlists. Bands like the Whitlams, The Living End, and AC/DC were strong influences on my characters and the board as a whole. When I'm getting ready to write Alan, I put "Prisoner of Society" on and rock out for a bit. It always gets me straight into his headspace, and it's amazing.

 

Music is a wonderful tool for preserving a certain set of emotions/ideas, and bringing them back at will.