Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

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washingtonwriter1968
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Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by washingtonwriter1968 » July 14th, 2011, 12:26 am

I was just about to start writing about a new Character and realized my old play list needed to be changed to something new more in line with my character.
Then I wondered Am I the only one who creates musical themes that go along with each Character? Please tell me I am not a :ugeek:
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Beethovenfan
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Beethovenfan » July 14th, 2011, 2:57 am

washingtonwriter1968 wrote:I was just about to start writing about a new Character and realized my old play list needed to be changed to something new more in line with my character.
Then I wondered Am I the only one who creates musical themes that go along with each Character? Please tell me I am not a :ugeek:
Yes, you are :ugeek: ...
And so are a whole lot of the rest of us! :D We actually had a thread about this some months back. I do this too. In my first novel I had specific songs for certain characters, and when I was working on a specific scene, I would put that song in repeat. It seemed to help me concentrate and summon the muse or the mojo (or whatever) to write the scene.

In my current WIP I have an entirely new set of songs I listen to. It's ruined me for hearing these songs though. I can't just enjoy them anymore because I think of my characters!
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by bcomet » July 14th, 2011, 5:20 am

Me too.

My characters are so musical.

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Cookie
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Cookie » July 14th, 2011, 6:54 am

Not necessarily my characters, bu my books definitely have their own play lists. There are a few songs in each play list that I associate with different characters though.

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Megs6703
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Megs6703 » July 14th, 2011, 7:39 am

I love this idea, but I don't have any specific music for my characters. I do set Amos Lee on repeat/shuffle when I sit down to write though. His voice puts me at ease. :)
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by CharleeVale » July 14th, 2011, 1:03 pm

I don't really. I have a writing playlist with about four hundred songs. I skip around until one fits my creative mood that day. Occasionally I'll find a song that's oddly appropriate, and that will become a part of the final soundtrack, but I don't specifically design playlists for each novel.

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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Nicole R » July 14th, 2011, 4:56 pm

Ooh, definitely! I have at least a couple songs for each of my MCs, and I listen to them when I need a kick of inspiration. :D

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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by trixie » July 14th, 2011, 5:42 pm

I wish I knew enough songs or owned enough variety of albums because I think the idea of a WIP or MC playlist is great. Alas, I usually just put the classical music station on. A local radio station does acoustic-only Sunday mornings, so that's a good time for me to write as well.

I've learned that I can't rely on my computer for music because I can't pry myself away from the internet, gmail, google, the Bransforums, etc... :)

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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Chantelle.S. » July 14th, 2011, 7:19 pm

I don't have a specific song for a specific character, but I do have a general writing playlist like Cookie does. So far I've only got three songs on it, but it's oddly those three songs that make me WANT to sit down and write.
I have alternative playlists for some of my fanfictions, too. Often I'd be listening to the newest releases or the top hits, and a lyric will come punch me in the face with a powerful plot. Some of my work only have one song that I repeat-play while I write, and others have playlists with songs that capture the mood I'm going for.
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Leonidas » July 14th, 2011, 10:20 pm

The playlist for my current WiP is 189 songs long. I love making playlists for entire stories, and individual characters. Playlists for characters are normally like 20-30 songs long, but the longest I have for a specific character is 42 songs long. I'm constantly adding songs to my playlists, and I'll often just be listening to music when a song comes on and I'll figure out that it fits a character or story. My friends think I'm nuts, but it just adds another layer to my characters and the themes of my stories.

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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by washingtonwriter1968 » July 15th, 2011, 12:53 am

Thanks guys I do not feel so all alone or :ugeek: Now!
Leonidas- You are awesome. I wasn't about to explain how long my playlists are but I am comparable to you! Thanks for making me feel not so strange!
I also have songs for themes and motifs. I tend to play these songs as I weave the themes and motifs into current WIP or Work in Progress. 8-)
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by polymath » July 15th, 2011, 8:14 am

A leap from music to prose isn't so far of a stretch as might seem on its surface. Nor too far from lyrics' poetry to prose either. The pattern or metric foot of everyday English is typically unstressed, stressed syllable. Iamb or iambic. And the ideal prose line width is roughly ten idealized words or sixty-five glyphs including word spaces. Thus iambic pentameter, which readily translates to lyrics. Standard manuscript format, in other words. Publication formats are a little more cramped to facilitate reading ease for proprotionally spaced typefaces, nor by any means uniform word counts.

We think, speak, and read poetry when we compose prose. Other meters are more identifiable as poetry because they're not everyday, all day, all the time rhythms. Disjunct and inharmonious meter can be unsettling or if timely and judicious create stress and therefore tension just by the words' pronunciations, let alone their contexts.

Pentameter because human vision sees and takes in five idealized words per eye blink at comfortable reading distance. Reading two eye blinks per line facilitates maximum reading ease. And favors a comfortable reading pace.

Two eye blinks per line is standard because page dimensions represent a visual aesthetic comparable to the Golden Proportion, in one sense, which is roughly 1:1.62. Thus a six by nine inches portrait orientation page standard for casecover and trade paperback publication formats, and 8 1/2 by 11 inches for letter-sized paper manuscript formats. A-4 paper, the international letter size standard, however, has an aspect ratio based on the square root of 2, or roughly 1:1.42. Close enough to not impede reading ease.

Paper sizes are more than just poetry for the eye. They're reflections of the proportions of human faces, which are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and mind seeking order in chaos. Since page sizes are pleasing, they don't call attention to themselves and disappear when reading a particularly engaging narrative. Note illustration publication and photograph sizes follow the same proportions. Disproportionate paper sizes and line widths are unsettling and impede reading, consciously or not. e-reader designers and digital page layouts haven't yet recognized that phenomena to its full extent.

A listing of meters below, each with different emotional contexts and purposes. Cueing ominous music? Consider dactyl or anapest. Trisyllable poetry creates more tension than disyllable. Trisyllable poetry is more common in music for the syllable quantity twelve's, hexameter, divisibility by two, three, four, and six.

And no, I'm not ugleek by any means, though I'm often taken for one. Gimme enough leverage and I could shift a mountain to Mohammed. I mean, I'm not just about theory but about practical implementation as well.



Disyllables
pyrrhus, dibrach
iamb
trochee, choree
spondee
Trisyllables
tribrach
dactyl
amphibrach
anapest, antidactylus
bacchius
antibacchius
cretic, amphimacer
molossus
Last edited by polymath on July 15th, 2011, 10:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Writecastlesinthesky
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Writecastlesinthesky » July 15th, 2011, 9:36 am

washingtonwriter1968 wrote:I was just about to start writing about a new Character and realized my old play list needed to be changed to something new more in line with my character.
Then I wondered Am I the only one who creates musical themes that go along with each Character? Please tell me I am not a :ugeek:
When I start a new novel I pillage the InterLibraryLoan system for new music. Movie scores mostly as I've found those are best for creating moods and emotional textures whether or not I've seen the film. For individual characters I don't generally associate musical themes unless...I've found a film character that has similar aspects of a character I am writing. This doesn't happen excerpt in the beginning of a project when my characters' life is all imitation just as a toddler learns walking and talking by imitation. Thus my man Joe ends up looking like a young Brad Pitt with that massive square jaw just waiting for someone to take a pot shot at it. I featured him in my list of five this week. http://writecastlesinthesky.blogspot.co ... -pitt.html

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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by meganstirler » July 18th, 2011, 3:31 pm

My WiP actually took a major change in plot because of the song I was listening to when I got to a certain scene! The mood of the song demanded something depressing and I guess it just slipped into my mind without my noticing. Now that song plays in my head whenever I think of that scene and vice versa. It's a great way for me to get motivated to write again, though.
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Re: Am I the only one whos Characters have music themes

Post by Fenris » July 18th, 2011, 7:05 pm

I don't have a concrete playlist, but I do file through iTunes to pick out songs to fit certain characters, scenes, etc. Sometimes I need silence, but music works well when I first sit down--it helps me get in the right mood, I guess.

Though I think what really makes me a nerd (in this case--there's no doubt of it otherwise) is the fact that sometimes, when I can't quite find the right song, I create one using a music program or just good old-fashioned piano playing. It happens more often with characters than with scenes. I sometimes wonder if this is why I can never find time to write anymore...
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