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?
I usually can't listen to music while I write (with some exceptions I'll get into), but this is still a significant question because I do have music I listen to during breaks in writing that really helps me get back on track. That relates to the second part of the question, because there are definitely songs that I relate to my characters, to the point they become about the characters in my mind rather than whatever they came from to begin with.
And funny this should come up now, because I have a song that I've been listening to on repeat play for over a week now, because it so solidly became the theme song of the story I've been working on lately. But before I get into that, some of my old favorites!
Azilie of Defying Gravity has a definite theme song, Delta Goodrem's Electric Storm, which is about love, which isn't exactly right for Azilie (and for a story about an 11-year-old) but the sentiment still works. If you replace "love" with life in general, or replace the idea of romantic love with the idea of passion for life and self-love (the kind we should all have, not the narcissistic kind) then it totally fits. Plus electric storms are kind of a big deal in the story, too. I didn't hear this song until I had already written the first draft of Azilie's story; then swankivy sent it to me and I went, "OMG. IT'S ABOUT AZILIE." The lyrics and the tune and the imagery and the emotion and determination in the singer's voice and words are all RIGHT ON.
For Celeste in Altitude, it's "Growing Wings," the background music from the Twin Seeds level of the illustrious and highly underappreciated NiGHTS: Into Dreams for the Sega Saturn. (peachpengin might be getting a Wii so I might be playing the sequel. I was waiting for that sequel for OVER A DECADE. Seriously. But in that time I developed self control, so I didn't buy an expensive video game console just for that one game.)
Oh, and the Carlson Septuplets, of course, have the Star Light Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis game. :D When I've played that game in recent years and gotten to that level, I've thought, "Wait, why is this playing here...oh, yeah." Ha ha! (For those who don't know, back before embedded MIDI on web sites was seen as a mortal sin, that was the song I had embedded as the Septs' "theme song" on their web page.)
Two of these are from video game soundtracks, which probably makes sense because that's pretty much the only thing I can listen to while writing. It's not just that it doesn't have lyrics, but also because I can pick out video game tracks that suit the stories I write pretty easily (thanks, Sonic Team!) which can't be said for all lyricless music. But mostly, I write in silence. It's noisy enough inside my head, thanks.
I have other songs that remind me a lot of my stories -- I do soundtracks for them to a certain extent. Defying Gravity in particular has one, though I don't have it handy right now and I figure a lot of it is songs people don't know (though of course the Wicked song "Defying Gravity" itself is part of it, haha) so I won't go and dig it up.
And then there's the story I'm working on now, and the song that has totally latched itself on to it due to a strange blending of thoughts I had early in the formulation of the story. The full version of the song pops up if you do a Google search, so let's see if I can make that work here:
Fireflies by Owl City
Anyway. I only heard this song for the first time a little over two weeks ago, last time I was at karaoke, when my friend Erin put it in. I immediately liked it a lot, to the point I was singing along with it even though I'd never heard it before (a skill you pick up if you do enough karaoke). The next day I found it on Amazon and bought the track for 99 cents.
So, okay, you probably have picked up that my current story project is sort of a therapeutic story for myself to deal with my strong reaction to the Columbine shootings (which has recently come back to my mind because of the book I just read), and (as I think most of you are on my regular journal, too) you may recall that early in my reading of Dave Cullen's book on the subject, I was up in the middle of the night reading Dylan Klebold's journal, which has been posted on the Internet. This (along with the book) left me feeling very shaken up, and when I went to bed I needed some happy music to try to shut off the darker thoughts, so there I was at 2 a.m. listening to Fireflies on repeat a few times before I went to bed.
Everything is surreal at two in the morning, I might add.
And I also have this lenticular postcard I got at Loft in Kyoto that is of a little boy and girl in yukata, standing on a bridge in this field of fireflies, rendered in 3D lenticular glory. I remember buying that card in particular because it reminded me of a wonderful time I had with James and Jeremiah and Roxy toward the end of my time in Japan. (I had written "wonderful day," but I had to change that because earlier that morning, the Red Wings lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. So, I was actually trying not to cry for most of that day.) But, despite the dark sad mood that I was in (and that Jeremiah in particular was in; James was sad too but he's a little calmer about hockey than Jeremiah and me, hah), we had a delightful time going to the Maibara Firefly Festival, where there really were tons of fireflies. It was fantastic and a great JET memory.
And my brain mushed this all up together, and I started thinking about how miserable I was in high school (something that thinking about Columbine always brings back) and how I'm totally a survivor who went on to have a great life, the way so many people who are unhappy nerdy high school kids go on to do.
So thinking about those fireflies became a symbol of being a survivor, at first just of normal high school trials, but then, because it was mushing in with all the stuff I had been reading, including those very gritty primary documents, it became a song for my main character, who literally is a survivor, but it also reminds her of her friend Caleb (= fictional counterpart of Dylan) and who she thought he was and wanted him to be, which of course is a painful issue for her.
So, now this song is the happy song that nevertheless reminds me of Columbine. I know, I know...makes very little sense outside of my own little world. My thoughts are all tangled up. But it's totally working for me making this story into a powerful survivor's story rather than just an angsty mess of a horror story. It could be the end theme for the story, which I'm determined will be a bittersweet but optimistic ending. I couldn't have planned it this way if I'd tried, but I'm very pleased with the effect.
Of course, the next day when I went to look up the lyrics and sing along, when I saw that message at the end -- "Thanks to Dylan for these lyrics" -- I did cry out loud to no one in particular that this was NOT FUNNY, STOP MOCKING ME. (Or maybe it's very funny, take your pick. I did shout aloud. Weird coincidence.)
Anyway, here again are the lyrics, with me bolding and underlining things that really relate to my life right now (oh, did I mention this also relates to my life, completely apart from any morbid stuff I may be reading or writing?)
You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Cause they fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude, but I
Would just stand and stare.
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.
Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightening bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance.
A foxtrot above my head,
A sock-hop beneath my bed,
The disco ball is just hanging by a thread.
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.
(When I fall asleep.)
Leave my door open just a crack.
(Please take me away from here.)
Cause I feel like such an insomniac.
(Please take me away from here.)
Why do I tire of counting sheep?
(Please take me away from here.)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep (Oh wow, I know that feeling!!!)
To ten million fireflies.
I'm weird, cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell.
But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre (I had some bizarre dreams that night)
Cause I saved a few,
And I keep them in a jar.
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.
(When I fall asleep.)
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams
I've taken more than one walk around Ann Arbor in the past week where I just listened to this song over and over on repeat play. It churns up all the right thoughts (my own life and my story life).
Sorry, did I digress from the writing meme too much? But it was just such a timely question! I think that answered the question of the way songs relate to my writing very well! And this isn't a unique experience -- Dreams of Absolution from one of the more recent Sonic games (which I never even played, but snowwolfmystic pointed the song out to me) totally inspired an entire story for me. Hah!
I usually can't listen to music while I write (with some exceptions I'll get into), but this is still a significant question because I do have music I listen to during breaks in writing that really helps me get back on track. That relates to the second part of the question, because there are definitely songs that I relate to my characters, to the point they become about the characters in my mind rather than whatever they came from to begin with.
And funny this should come up now, because I have a song that I've been listening to on repeat play for over a week now, because it so solidly became the theme song of the story I've been working on lately. But before I get into that, some of my old favorites!
Azilie of Defying Gravity has a definite theme song, Delta Goodrem's Electric Storm, which is about love, which isn't exactly right for Azilie (and for a story about an 11-year-old) but the sentiment still works. If you replace "love" with life in general, or replace the idea of romantic love with the idea of passion for life and self-love (the kind we should all have, not the narcissistic kind) then it totally fits. Plus electric storms are kind of a big deal in the story, too. I didn't hear this song until I had already written the first draft of Azilie's story; then swankivy sent it to me and I went, "OMG. IT'S ABOUT AZILIE." The lyrics and the tune and the imagery and the emotion and determination in the singer's voice and words are all RIGHT ON.
For Celeste in Altitude, it's "Growing Wings," the background music from the Twin Seeds level of the illustrious and highly underappreciated NiGHTS: Into Dreams for the Sega Saturn. (peachpengin might be getting a Wii so I might be playing the sequel. I was waiting for that sequel for OVER A DECADE. Seriously. But in that time I developed self control, so I didn't buy an expensive video game console just for that one game.)
Oh, and the Carlson Septuplets, of course, have the Star Light Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis game. :D When I've played that game in recent years and gotten to that level, I've thought, "Wait, why is this playing here...oh, yeah." Ha ha! (For those who don't know, back before embedded MIDI on web sites was seen as a mortal sin, that was the song I had embedded as the Septs' "theme song" on their web page.)
Two of these are from video game soundtracks, which probably makes sense because that's pretty much the only thing I can listen to while writing. It's not just that it doesn't have lyrics, but also because I can pick out video game tracks that suit the stories I write pretty easily (thanks, Sonic Team!) which can't be said for all lyricless music. But mostly, I write in silence. It's noisy enough inside my head, thanks.
I have other songs that remind me a lot of my stories -- I do soundtracks for them to a certain extent. Defying Gravity in particular has one, though I don't have it handy right now and I figure a lot of it is songs people don't know (though of course the Wicked song "Defying Gravity" itself is part of it, haha) so I won't go and dig it up.
And then there's the story I'm working on now, and the song that has totally latched itself on to it due to a strange blending of thoughts I had early in the formulation of the story. The full version of the song pops up if you do a Google search, so let's see if I can make that work here:
Fireflies by Owl City
Anyway. I only heard this song for the first time a little over two weeks ago, last time I was at karaoke, when my friend Erin put it in. I immediately liked it a lot, to the point I was singing along with it even though I'd never heard it before (a skill you pick up if you do enough karaoke). The next day I found it on Amazon and bought the track for 99 cents.
So, okay, you probably have picked up that my current story project is sort of a therapeutic story for myself to deal with my strong reaction to the Columbine shootings (which has recently come back to my mind because of the book I just read), and (as I think most of you are on my regular journal, too) you may recall that early in my reading of Dave Cullen's book on the subject, I was up in the middle of the night reading Dylan Klebold's journal, which has been posted on the Internet. This (along with the book) left me feeling very shaken up, and when I went to bed I needed some happy music to try to shut off the darker thoughts, so there I was at 2 a.m. listening to Fireflies on repeat a few times before I went to bed.
Everything is surreal at two in the morning, I might add.
And I also have this lenticular postcard I got at Loft in Kyoto that is of a little boy and girl in yukata, standing on a bridge in this field of fireflies, rendered in 3D lenticular glory. I remember buying that card in particular because it reminded me of a wonderful time I had with James and Jeremiah and Roxy toward the end of my time in Japan. (I had written "wonderful day," but I had to change that because earlier that morning, the Red Wings lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. So, I was actually trying not to cry for most of that day.) But, despite the dark sad mood that I was in (and that Jeremiah in particular was in; James was sad too but he's a little calmer about hockey than Jeremiah and me, hah), we had a delightful time going to the Maibara Firefly Festival, where there really were tons of fireflies. It was fantastic and a great JET memory.
And my brain mushed this all up together, and I started thinking about how miserable I was in high school (something that thinking about Columbine always brings back) and how I'm totally a survivor who went on to have a great life, the way so many people who are unhappy nerdy high school kids go on to do.
So thinking about those fireflies became a symbol of being a survivor, at first just of normal high school trials, but then, because it was mushing in with all the stuff I had been reading, including those very gritty primary documents, it became a song for my main character, who literally is a survivor, but it also reminds her of her friend Caleb (= fictional counterpart of Dylan) and who she thought he was and wanted him to be, which of course is a painful issue for her.
So, now this song is the happy song that nevertheless reminds me of Columbine. I know, I know...makes very little sense outside of my own little world. My thoughts are all tangled up. But it's totally working for me making this story into a powerful survivor's story rather than just an angsty mess of a horror story. It could be the end theme for the story, which I'm determined will be a bittersweet but optimistic ending. I couldn't have planned it this way if I'd tried, but I'm very pleased with the effect.
Of course, the next day when I went to look up the lyrics and sing along, when I saw that message at the end -- "Thanks to Dylan for these lyrics" -- I did cry out loud to no one in particular that this was NOT FUNNY, STOP MOCKING ME. (Or maybe it's very funny, take your pick. I did shout aloud. Weird coincidence.)
Anyway, here again are the lyrics, with me bolding and underlining things that really relate to my life right now (oh, did I mention this also relates to my life, completely apart from any morbid stuff I may be reading or writing?)
You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Cause they fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude, but I
Would just stand and stare.
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.
Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightening bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance.
A foxtrot above my head,
A sock-hop beneath my bed,
The disco ball is just hanging by a thread.
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.
(When I fall asleep.)
Leave my door open just a crack.
(Please take me away from here.)
Cause I feel like such an insomniac.
(Please take me away from here.)
Why do I tire of counting sheep?
(Please take me away from here.)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep (Oh wow, I know that feeling!!!)
To ten million fireflies.
I'm weird, cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell.
But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre (I had some bizarre dreams that night)
Cause I saved a few,
And I keep them in a jar.
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.
(When I fall asleep.)
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd
Rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams
I've taken more than one walk around Ann Arbor in the past week where I just listened to this song over and over on repeat play. It churns up all the right thoughts (my own life and my story life).
Sorry, did I digress from the writing meme too much? But it was just such a timely question! I think that answered the question of the way songs relate to my writing very well! And this isn't a unique experience -- Dreams of Absolution from one of the more recent Sonic games (which I never even played, but snowwolfmystic pointed the song out to me) totally inspired an entire story for me. Hah!