Music & words

[pbray]

Over on fangs_fur_fey, Melissa Marr melissa_writing posted the following prompt, which intrigued me so I thought I'd share my answer here.

Pick one of your novels, screenplays, graphic novels, or short stories. List 3-6 song titles (& the artist singing the song) that will give a reader a taste of the tone of said novel.

Listening to music is an important part of my writing ritual, and in the early stages of each book I become obsessed with finding just the right CDs to inspire me.

While writing DEVLIN'S LUCK, I listened to Steve McDonald's Sons of Somerled over and over again. It was the perfect album to set the mood, filled with songs about living with despair and hardship, struggling to endure knowing that you will not live to see the fruits of any victory that you achieve.

From "I Will Return" where a man hopes to reunited at death with his lost love, to the lonely exile described in "Soldier's Lament" these were songs that didn't just evoke the mood of the book, they were songs that I could imagine Devlin had grown up hearing, and sang to himself when there was no risk that strangers could hear him.

For later books in the series I added other albums by Steve McDonald to the mix, but Sons of Somerled remains my favorite.

Cross-posted from fangs_fur_fey.

Comments

[elizabeth-welsh.livejournal.com]

I've found most writers fall into either the "must have music playing while writing" or "can't write with music playing" categories.

I guess I'll be the third category -- makes up music simultaneously. I don't usually play other music because a. The computer in my house is right next to the television and unless my husband is asleep, the dang thing is on, b. at any given moment I may have to leave a sentence midstream to answer a question from my son or get him more juice, etc. or to do the myriad of things moms do when at home, and c. since I compose music naturally, each character has their own theme, and certain scenes have a soundtrack playing in my head, and there's really only so much noise I can sort out at once -- though I grant you that I do more multi-tasking than average.

I cannot do this meme for myself because no one would recognize the music I'd mention. Songs that make their way into my stories as simple ideas (the tune where Saffron and Cypress seem to compete) are real to me. They have melody and harmony. Sometimes they have words.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

How totally cool! I'd love to be able to compose my own music.

[elizabeth-welsh.livejournal.com]

What's funny is that sometimes I wish it would stop.