The Tara Tracks

I’m part of a group of musically-obsessed authors who decided to blog today about none other than….music and how it inspires our writing. A special thank you to Ronna and Stephanie Kuehnert for inviting me to participate!

I’ve actually blogged about this topic before and posted playlists for my upcoming book HARMONIC FEEDBACK. Feel free to check out that post here

To add to what I’ve already said, music and writing are like peanut butter & strawberry jelly for me. I can’t have one without the other. Music paints the initial pictures of a story for me. I can see the character’s faces, feel their emotions, and hear their voices…as if I’m watching a movie in my head. On the flip side, I’m also a musician. My books inspire my music. I write lyrics based on the stories and characters I’ve created. In fact, I even write melodies for each character…something that fits their energy, so to speak.

Music and writing have gone hand and hand for me since I can remember. Although, I had no interest in making music myself until high school…interestingly enough. I guess I never believed I had my family’s musical talent. I certainly didn’t get my mom’s incredible painting or drawing skills. No, I was more of a braniac type…and a writer. In fact, at the age of 12, I wanted to be a pediatrician…and a novelist. I think at once point I wanted to be a prosecutor too, but we’ll skip that part. Nobody ever accused me of being practical

Then one day…sometime in junior high…I was listening to my tiny pink (yes, pink–shaddup)boom box. I think they were playing Bjork’s “Human Behavior”–we had the coolest radio station in San Francisco back then. They’d play music like Tool, Bjork, New Order, and White Zombie back to back. What radio station does that now? Seriously? Anyway, I was just staring at my ceiling, day dreaming (this was often how I spent after-school nights) and I started seeing these characters and a story in my head. A bored girl who gets to go on some exotic adventure–not that *I* was inserting my OWN fantasies in there or anything. But I remember getting so pumped up about it that I tore into one of my notebooks and started writing. Then..I begged my mom for some cash to buy Bjork’s debut album

This became a ritual for me. Every story had a different soundtrack/album that I would play over…and over..and over. You see, this was in the dinosaur age(the 90’s) before the days of mp3s. Some of us didn’t even have CD players yet…we had *whispers* tapes. And those tapes were a precious commodity for me. You see, I’d often play them until they broke. And well, I didn’t have money to buy a new one. So I had this system down of using a sliver of scotch tape to tape it back together…yes, literally. I have NO clue how I got this to work, but…it worked like a charm every time. Hey, at the time I thought I was brilliant. AND without my quick fix, I wouldn’t have been able to write.

No, really. I CANNOT write without music. It is impossible. I’ve tried. At the very least, I need music for the emotion of a scene. Writing, in many ways, is like acting. To do a character justice, I absolutely have to feel what they feel. The right song is the bridge that brings me into their head and situation.

I can’t make music without a story. Every song needs to tell a story–even if it doesn’t have lyrics. Melodies tell stories..even beats tell stories. I’d be lost without my characters guiding me along…telling me their darkest secrets Granted, every once in awhile, I write a song based on personal experience, but then again…I think every character I create has a small part of me or my life experiences in them.

Now it’s your turn. How does music affect your writing process? Or do you need music at all?

Please check out the other authors who are blogging about this topic today. They have written some beautiful stories!

http://stephaniekuehnert.blogspot.com/
http://jenniferlinforth.blogspot.com/
http://www.jerismithready.com/blog/
http://chapmansmythe.livejournal.com/
http://bryanbliss.blogspot.com/
http://marleydelaroseauthor.blogspot.com/

The male narrator in my WIP has this penchant for nu-metalish stuff. I discovered this as I was listening to a Chevelle song, I believe. It was like, hello, instant connection to the mind of Cole. This song just felt like him. Something he’d like–something he’d sing in his band. Yes, his band is that nu-metalish Linkin Park style. However, he wants his band, Galactic Ferocity, to go a bit more electronica–more like Celldweller.

In any event, when I’m writing his POV–it’s best that I listen to his music. I know this sounds crazy. But when other people have told me my strengths, character development has always been at the top of the list.  So if you have issues with character development, well, sometimes getting inside the head of your character takes a LOT of compromise. As in listening to music you would normally never listen to. Songs that would make you blush if anyone caught you listening to them. Think of it as acting or drama class in a sense. If I’m having trouble connecting with a character, I unlock the door to their world. My key is music. Your key might be–I don’t know–wearing clothes you’d never wear, taking up golf even if you hate it, developing a sudden taste for caviar… you get the idea.

And people think we actually have control over our characters? Psh. Do we have control over real people? No, we don’t. Why should our characters be any different?