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

[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.)