The music of writing

[anghara]

ramblin_phyl reminded me of the time we warbled the "writer's anthem" at a con we attended together - we chose "Show me" from "My Fair Lady" as the ultimate admonition to writers.

Yes, this one:

Click to view

That vigorous "SHOW ME!" should be a meme for all writers everywhere. Show me NOW! Please don't, as the lady puts it, "exp'line", don't tell me, SHOW ME

Comments

[sartorias]

The dragonheart one is an old fave. You might like the work of a young composer whose piano compositions I find inspiring--try this link

Hans Zimmer!

[zornhau]

Gladiator, Pirates...

Also film scores. There's this compilation called, Warriors of the Silver Screen which has The Vikings in it:

[seawasp]

Theme music of various kinds is usually my inspirational music. It gets selected, edited mentally, and put into a soundtrack of whatever I'm working on. In some cases the music becomes so strongly associated with something I'm writing that its original association -- whatever it came from -- is severely weakened. For instance, "Stigmata" from the Mana Khemia soundtrack, is completely associated in my head with the climactic final scene from Polychrome -- which I haven't even WRITTEN yet. "Trigger Situation" from Dirge of Cerberus IS the theme music for the scene in Grand Central Arena that I call "DuQuesne's Awakening". And so on.

I have a soundtrack created for every book/story I write, pretty much. And, for that matter, for every RPG campaign I run or play in.

[melissajm]

I make soundtracks for my novels too. They tend to be eclectic- lots of show tunes, Ed Van Fleet's instrumentals and (don't laugh) Disney. ("Son of Man" from Tarzan has shown up in 3 so far.) The "Demon Books" have a lot of Doctor Who music in them- big, sweeping, over-the-top instrumental stuff.

[grumpymartian]

For a writer's anthem I've always used http://www.clipser.com/watch_video/521900 same idea as My Fair Lady, just a different song.

I tend to make soundtracks for different worlds that evoke the feel of the world, or specific characters. For example this is the song that evokes my main antagonist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtqz3cS4C-k

I don't generally write to music, but mostly because I write longhand for draft, and generally listen to music on the computer. When I do, I generally go with sort of a Dead Can Dance, Lorenna McKennit, ambient mix, or sometimes I'll just pick a few instrumental pieces that evoke the mood I'm going for and pop them into www.pandora.com and let its magical gnomes find similar music for me.