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.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 04:56 pm (UTC)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.