What is this, Sap Day?

[veronica_rich]

Seriously. I have Pandora on at work as I finish up some publishing, to listen to some Foreigner, and it's like ... Cheesy Songs For Your OTP, 80s Hair Edition. Foreigner "I Don't Wanna Live Without You," REO "I Can't Fight This Feeling," Def Leppard's "Bringin' On The Heartbreak," etc. etc. (broken up occasionally by Lynrd Skynrd and The Cars).

I hate, hate songfic on principle, although listening to songs does help me come up with ideas for stories sometimes (not as often as it used to, but still sometimes). I just can't use the lyrics and storyline in MY stories, if that makes sense. But yeah, listening to even the cheese I listed above, I could come up with something. Dammit.

Any of you other writers have Music Of Choice for fanfic or original fiction? I take from a little of everything I like - note that this does not mean ALL MUSIC, since there's no way I could know all music out there. Plus, being American, I suspect I am woefully undersupplied with types of music. But I digress from my question ...?

Comments

[the-dala.livejournal.com]

I can't write to music, or really to anything but total silence, heh. But I'll crib titles from damn near anything, from the Beatles to Flogging Molly to Taylor Swift. It's generally a case of the lyric fitting the completed story rather than inspiring it.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Everybody's got their own method, man. ;-)

[zagzagael.livejournal.com]

The house must be utterly silent when I'm writing. I do use music...occasionally....to set a mood inside my head. I wrote songfic once...it was an odd odd thing.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I prefer the inspiration angle. And I only play it during writing when I need inspiration for a specific action.

[slayitalldown.livejournal.com]

I need a near-constant soundtrack when I’m writing, as when I’m coming up with scenes I often use music as a memory trick. In fact, one of my favourite things is to sift through music I like and go for nice long power-walks when I need ideas. Getting into a rhythm, generally ignoring the lyrics and letting my imagination wander I get to redo scenes again and again until I have something I want to write. I keep a massive amount of music that I can rotate regularly so when I’m done with a song I can reuse it when I’ve written and purged the former story from the memory banks.

Pictures are great too, a picture does speak a thousand words to me. If you like to soundtrack your writing my advice is quantity and sift sift sift… I actually name playlists after concepts and characters and it works brilliantly, but I’m the first to admit it’s a complex recipe that is a luxury for the time impaired… its just been such a habit for mye now its an ingrained part of the my lifestyle. I write, therefore, I’m a writer… LOL…

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Yep, just about any story on here has at least one song behind its creation (http://veronica-rich.livejournal.com/183345.html) *G*. I even have much the same modus operandi and have since college - listening to music during the walk. I also like driving with mine - I used to like it more long ago when gas was far cheaper and I had a more casual disregard for debt.

(And you're right about the luxury of time; playlists suck down energy and LOTS of time.)

[solitaryraven.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the groupon heads up. I know it has nothing to do with this post, but I LOVE that BnN coupon, but I had never really looked into groupon before. :)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great? Hey, if you plan to use Groupon again, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a link where I could get a credit when you do. (If you never do again, it's OK; but if you do, it won't cost you any extra and be good for me *G*.)

[keechakatt.livejournal.com]

I create stories in my head, but my grammar is not top notch. So they tend to stop there. Music makes the ideas flow better.

Ver whatever motivates you keep it up. I still love what you wrote for me in the help Haiti campaign. XD

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Sorry I never replied earlier - I lost track of this. But thanks for the kudos!

[missflibble.livejournal.com]

I ususally get inspired by song so will write a certain chapter to the song of choice. I don't write songfic per se, but as you know, I usually quote the inspiration at the top of each chapter if there is one.

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

LOL! I usually write in silence, or sometimes non-vocal classical. Anything with lyrics stops me cold---I start listening to them and it screws up the rhythm of writing for me.

Generally, I will use a particular piece to set my mood, but I do not include it in the story specifically---a good example is "Carillon" which I wrote to a particular piece for the rhythms but it is never mentioned at all in the story. The big exception to that for me was writing in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. For the "Showtunes series", I had Sands filking the HELL out of Broadway as a coping mechanism---mostly funny, sometimes violent, meant for the laughs. In "El Aquila Y la Serpiente", I used classical music as a plot device---but I'd also made Sands a pianist, so it was an obvious choice within the scope of the story.

I do think songfic CAN be done cleverly but it requires humour and imagination, both of which rarely seem to exist in the same space, at least in fanfic. *wink* It would probably help if song-fic writers would NOT use popular music at all.

[eyeonahorizon.livejournal.com]

I tune in a lot of soundtracks...and I am way into angst Brit Pop these days (ie. The Script, Keane, Tired Pony, Muse...).