The idea of it is you find a song that suits one of your characters, describes their thoughts/emotions/actions/whathaveyou and you roll with it -- give it a stanza by stanza critique. The first stanza, for example, is such-and-such part in the story when so-and-so does ____. The chorus really fits how they feel emotionally about ____. It doesn't need to be chronological. For example, the beginning of the song might sound like something that happens towards the end, the middle part is the beginning, the stanza after is the end of the story, the last part of the song shows this event in the middle of the story...
It can help you out with plot, but it also helps you get into your characters' heads, show how they're feeling and what they're thinking when this is happening.
So I used "Strength to Go On" by Rise Against to show the story from Gale's perspective, but "Jillian" by Within Temptation to show it from another character's perspective. Same story, two different characters, thoughts, feelings, and lives. With Marylyn, the other character, I was having trouble writing a scene where she runs into her little brother who she had abandoned just two months earlier when she ran away. It had been a difficult choice on her part, as she saw herself as his protector, and she had started trying to put it behind her when they run into each other.
Then I heard that song, thought it described her and her though processes throughout the story perfectly. Then when I sat down to write down how each of the stanzas/lines applied to the story, I had an 'aha' moment.
Listening and hearing is the first part, but you get so much more out of it when you write down the specifics.
Characters' Songs
12 posts in this topic.
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Ooh! This sounds fun. Okay, here it goes . . .
For my character, Jack, I chose "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane. Jack had a rough past, and I have a certain scene when he's walking along the coast of the Atlantic, thinking about the past and deciding the worth of memories. So it got me from
"I walked across /
an empty land /
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand".
His feelings for a woman and his wanting her to let him understand her caught me on the chorus:
"Oh simple thing /
where have you gone? /
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on /
so tell me when /
you're gonna let me in /
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin."
And lastly, the scene in my mind is one I haven't written yet, but I relive it often. Jack and Anna are alone and both have been hurt (in different ways) by the antagonist, and they don't seem to feel that they've won.
"And if you have a minute why don't we go /
talk about it somewhere only we know /
this could be the end of everything /
so why don't we go /
somewhere only we know?"
The song I found for my other character, Anna, is "Why" by Secondhand Serenade. I can't say much about her story (because I think I might write it for this year's NaNoWriMo) but she fell in love with someone (not Jack) and got close to marrying him. At the last minute, she was forced to stay with him without marriage, and he became someone completely different, and ended up hurting her.
"Why do you do this to me? /
Why do you do this / so easily? /
You make it hard to smile because /
you make it hard to breathe /
Why do you do this /
to me? /
To me?"
After years of being forced to do things she doesn't want to do and giving up hope of having back the old Simon she knew, she leaves and doesn't go looking for love again.
"I should've known this wasn't real /
and fought it off /
fought to feel /
what matters most /
everything you feel."
And then the song for my entire novel is "Hoppipolla" or "Jumpin' Puddles" by Sigur Ros. These are the lyrics in English:
"Smiling
Spinning 'round and 'round
Holding hands
The whole world a blur
But you are standing
Soaked
Completely drenched
No rubber boots
Running in us
Want to erupt from a shell
Wind in
And outdoor smell of your hair
I hit as fast as I could
With my nose
Hopping into puddles
Completely drenched
Soaked
With no boots on
And I get nosebleed
But I always get up
And I get nosebleed
But I always get up."
I like it because it shows the simple happiness I hope to incorporate in my characters.
Thanks for putting this on here! I enjoyed doing this!
~Sunny -
That's a really cool idea. I'll try that.
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Mine for Marylyn:
[spoiler]I've been dreaming for so long,
to find a meaning to understand.
The secret of life,
why am I here to try again?
Marylyn, thinking about her own life, seeing how depressing it is, how she's been suppressed, that she doesn't care, and she doesn't see a possible end to it. Wondering what the point of her being alive is.
Will I always, will you always
see the truth when it stares you in the face?
Will I ever, will I never free myself
by breaking these chains?
Considering freedom options. Loves Ryle (her cousin by blood, but they were raised together) like a brother, worries about him and how he will do when she's gone, if he'll be able to take care of himself. Two points in the story: Marylyn considering suicide, care for Ryle holds her back. She's apathetic in life, ceases to care, just does the job appointed to her by her head of house and gets on with her life. Only thing keeping her back is that she knows it would break Ryle, and when/if he recovered, she wouldn't be there to look out for him. Point 2: Marylyn makes plans to run away and get married to Kent, knows this means leaving Ryle behind with the rest of her former life, worries about it, but it doesn't hold her back from breaking free and pursuing her own path to freedom.
Chorus:
I'd give my heart, I'd give my soul.
I'd turn it back, it's my fault.
Your destiny is forlorn,
have to live till it's undone.
I'd give my heart, I'd give my soul.
I'd turn it back and then at last I'll be on my way.
Roughly two months after Marylyn 'disappears' from the capital, things get deadly and Ryle and Gale flee. Fifteen days out, they come across a farm house and ask to spend the night. Turns out it's Marylyn's house. Two months to try to move on passed Ryle, who she had been trying to accept never seeing again. Just when she's starting to put it behind her (a master at apathy) he pops up. She feels overwhelmingly guilty for not telling him, at least, about her plans, though she tries to counter it with reason. She apologizes, she silently wishes she had acted differently, and goes through all the emotions she had smothered when she first left. She doesn't waver in her decision to leave, however, and maintains that, no matter what she did, she would have gone her own way and left Ryle behind with everyone else.
Ryle gives her news of the capital, and she's surprised to find out he intends to go back to it all and set it to rights. She tries to tell him it's no life worth living, he insists. Tries to tell him that if he pursues this path, he won't ever be able to quit, not until he dies. Their paths split again. Ryle goes on with his politics, Marylyn returns to her simple and happy life.
I've been living for so long,
many seasons have passed me by.
I've seen kingdoms through ages
rise and fall, I've seen it all.
I've seen the horror, I've seen the wonders
happening just in front of my eyes.
Will I ever, will I never free myself by making it right?
Marylyn (before running away) lamenting her life, she feels she's seen it all, all the ugliness in the world seems to be paraded in front of her eyes with every opportunity, and she's sick of being sick of it. She feels old and wearied and she's still in her youth. She accepts death as something that will happen and feels apathetic towards it, seeing it as a relief of life, a well deserved break, but not something she'd go out her way to get.
Jillian our dream ended long ago.
All our stories and all our glory I held so dear.
We won't be together
for ever and ever, no more tears.
I'll always be here until the end.
Jillian, no more tears
Jillian, no more tears.
Marylyn, saying a mental goodbye to Ryle as she leaves the capital, and again when he leaves her farmhouse.
[/spoiler]
Mine for Gale:
[spoiler]Welcome home
While away
They have tampered with the locks
And your things they rearranged
Things are getting more and more out of hand, ambassadors becoming more angry and demanding, parliament fighting more amongst themselves, rumors that Tamzi (god of tricks) is about, working his trickery. After a twenty hour session in which Gale insisted that no one leave until an agreement was made, she goes back to her room to find it destroyed.
"We propose a better way"
Said the note they left behind
In their wake of disarray
You fell in place
Gale's pretty sure Ralph behind it, but other than feelings and intuition, there's no proof to act upon. The raiding of the Kray's room was as good as an open declaration of rebellion. A "better way." She begins to go through the motions of being Kray, doing only what she needs to while mentally working out how to get rid of Ralph. Doing what people want, what she needs to do = falling in place.
Don't fall asleep
They'll find us here
I know a place to disappear
As a voice proclaimed
Later, when she and Ryle escape the Kray House (and an early death) Ryle's wounded, near passing out. Gale urges him to stay awake until they could get off the road. Gale decides to travel north to the Kray Lands, her homeland open only to those of Kray blood. She had left them over a year ago to become the Kray and Ruler of the southern empire. Because it's only open/available/accessible to those of Kray blood, Ryle and Gale affectively 'disappear'.
What we are is the sum of 1000 lies
What we know is almost nothing at all
But we are what we are until the day we die
Or until we don't have the strength to go on
Gale's a trick witch, a 'daughter of Tamzi' the trickster god. Daughter, descendant, or lover, any one with relation to Tamzi is considered evil. And who have his blood in them (can usually tell by the black hair and green eyes) is considered evil by nature, a lover and causer of chaos, and has black power in their soul. Ironically, those with Kray blood have Tamzi's blood. Meaning everyone who has ever taken the seat in the Kray House to rule over the empire has been a trick witch. The public was just unaware of the matter. It was the truth that they could do things others can not, and it's true that they believe in chaos -- 'chaos is how we grow' is a common motto for them, as they believe times of trouble yield lessons and show the true character of a person, while times of peace are times for contemplation and, overall, stagnation. The Krays have survived as long as they have for spreading false or exaggerated rumors on what to look for in a trick witch, for condemning them, for acting as though they weren't one of them. The sum of a thousand lies, but they are what they are until the day they die.
Let us cry
Let us be
Let us open up our hearts
Without fear of anything
Ryle finally snaps under the pressure and gives into grief, anger, and self pity, wanting to give up on life, but not quite capable. So because he's away from family politics, Kray House politics, and society politics, he cries and lets loose, finally confiding in someone and saying everything he couldn't before, letting his true feelings toward certain events and people show through (both good and bad).
Faith alone
Is all we need
To traverse this burning bridge
Now before it gets too late
You said "it's fine"
Pretty close to Gale's motto throughout the journey to the Kray Lands: it's fine. Not exact, but close enough. She's wanting to move on to the solution to the problems, while Ryle finds himself dwelling and lamenting his wasted childhood and la-di-da. She's trying to get him to move on.
But the heart reveals
What smiles betray
Your sad, sad eyes gave you away
Don't you know
Gale from Ryle's eyes. She smiles, waves it away, hides behind blank faces, tends to only talk about the future rather than what has passed, but Ryle can see she's bothered by it, that she's upset and angered by it. He sees her as avoiding thoughts on what happened, her obsession with future plans to fix everything as a distraction so she won't need to deal with and accept what had happened. He sees her as if she's in a state of denial, and is trying to get her out of it.
Our shoulders bear an awful weight
But still we trudge on just the same
Literal: journey to the Kray Lands. Figurative: Gale has the weight of an Empire, Ryle has the weight of a family that had been around almost as long as the Krays.
Our colors run then leave a stain
They blacken our once honest name
Ralph tries to spread the word that Gale's a trick witch, ultimately fails. On the way to the Kray Lands, Gale passes for a travelling Trick Witch, just passing through, not interested in magic that day, but maybe for the next town where she might cause mischief... etc. People don't know she was/is the Kray. All they see is black hair and green eyes. Her coloring blackens her once honest name.
But how can we argue, tell me
Over the fury and the fire
Before madness erupted and Gale and Ryle fled the Kray House, Ryle, Ralph's cousin, is trying to dissuade his cousin from his chosen course of action without making it sound as though he's siding with The Kray (Gale). Ryle soon realizes the full extent of Ralph's plans, decides his cousin's beyond the point of reason, and manages to slip a message to Gale just before the plan takes effect. The close timing means that there's no time for them to separate, which means they're seen together, which means they're forced into an exile together.
How many times can we tell you that we
Are not like you, we see right through
Your poor disguise that fails to fool
The wary eye that is trained on you
Gale towards Ryle. One of her gifts as a descendant of Tamzi prevents people from lying and getting away with it. They can lie all they want, never spit out a word of truth, pretend they're not bothered, they don't care, act tough and strong, etc, even start to believe it themselves. She knows every time they do it, though. So she gets frustrated with Ryle, who's lived a large part of his life behind walls and false outside appearances. He was raised to be a politician, after all.
[/spoiler] -
David's theme is Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd. He wants to be a pilot. Another nifty tune for him would be Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance by Paul McCartney. He's secretly very silly, shh, don't tell anyone.
Claudia doesn't have one yet. Not really. The last verse of No. 1 Fan by Voltaire works for her and how she feels about David:
"you are the sea and the sky
and I'm content to not know why -
you are so great, I am so plain
I am the moth to your flame.
wish I was good enough for you." -
I love giving my characters theme songs.
Masudo's is "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. I can't point out any specific stanzas, just the general feel of the song--the feeling of having once been great but then losing that. I see Masudo as the "king" in the song who now "sweeps the streets he used to roam". Back in his youth, his people, the time mages, were very powerful and influential, and lived lives of happy abandon--but a plague 12 years ago took them from him. He's lost his wife, his power, his influence.
Jyuna's song is "Starlight" by Muse. Again, I can't really assign each stanza a meaning; it's just that the general feel of the song fits him. He's basically like a traveller who's spent so long journeying, searching for someone, chasing a starlight, basically ("I will be chasing a starlight/Until the end of my life"). And I wanted it to be that the "starlight" in the story is Tey, his eventual lover ("You electrify my life/Let's conspire to reignite/All the souls that would die just to feel alive" and "I'll never let you go/If you promise not to fade away"). I just love the feel of love and longing that I get from the song, and I think that fits Jyuna's character arc perfectly. Plus, it fits because his last scene in the novel is lying beside Tey, watching the stars. -
The Raven
"Breakfast on Pluto" by Don Partridge
Go anywhere without leaving your chair
And let your thoughts run free
Living within all the dreams you can spin
There is so much to see
The power of imagination and stories -- the Raven's not sure whether she's mad or dreaming or the stories are real, but she's going to enojy it all, anyway.
If you can't fly high
No need to feel low
The world is a merry-go-round
Look at the sky, and up there you'll go
Peacefully floating along
And because it might all be a dream, why bother about anything? She's a happy bunny for 99.999999% of the time, with her head in the clouds.
No cares to care and no races to run
Flying up in the air
no time to change and no time to learn
and no time to wonder where
When you're dreaming, nothing really matters that much.
Up on the moon
We'll all be there soon
Watching the earth down below
We'll journey to Mars
And visit the stars
Finding our breakfast on Pluto
Even though she's a pet, she feels somehow superior to everyone else, because they haven't realised what she, a lowly hybrid, has known for ages: there's no point in caring about anything, so why do it? She's looking down at everyone stuck on the earth while she has her freedom in the skies, breakfasting on Pluto, which the people around her don't even know exists. -
I'm not going to go in deep and pick apart the songs and dissect the lyrics, but I'll match up a couple of songs for my characters.
Melanie- Cut by Plumb
Lee- Feels Just Like A Love Song by Sara Evans
Christian- Apologize by OneRepublic
Peter- Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts
Melissa- I'm Gonna Getcha Good by Shania Twain
Jon- Gotta Be Somebody by Nickelback
Peter and Melanie- Untouchable by Taylor Swift -
Oh this seems like fun! You know, originally in my character creation process I made these playlists where I put songs that go with each of my characters
Okay, here I go.
Othello goes first for this one, I picked "I'm Still Here" by the Goo Goo Dolls
I am a question to the world
Not an answer to be heard
Or a moment
That's held in your arms
He is supposed to be one of a kind, because he is the first human to be completely done with evolution and doesn't really fit in any established category.
And what do you think you'd ever say?
I won't listen anyway
You don't know me
And I'll never be what you want me to be
And what do you think you'd understand?
I'm a boy, no, I'm a man
You can't take me
And throw me away
He is sicken tired of people judging him and telling him what to do like he's an experiment or animal. He wants to be taken seriously.
And how can you learn what's never shown?
Yeah, you stand here on your own
They don't know me
Cause I'm not here
He believes he's not able to feel human emotions and that he isn't worth of being called human at all. Due to evolution he is in complete control of himself and since his mind has been sort of brain-washed, he's always in a numb state emotion-wise but he wants to be normal and feel like everybody else.
And I want a moment to be real
Wanna touch things I don't feel
Wanna hold on and feel I belong
And how can the world want me to change?
They're the ones that stay the same
They don't know me
Cause I'm not here
He is constantly irritated by the fact of the entire world telling him his wrong but he realizes the ones who are wrong are his authorities, not him.
And you see the things they never see
All you wanted I could be
Now you know me
And I'm not afraid
And I want to tell you who I am
Can you help me be a man?
They can't break me
As long as I know who I am
These two stanzas represent Othello's goal and longing. He wants to belong and to be taught to fit in, yet later on in his quest he realizes he is meant to challenge known facts and that he has what it takes to be a formidable leader.
They can't tell me who to be
Cause I'm not what they see
Yeah, the world is still sleepin while I keep on dreaming for me
And their words are just whispers and lies that I'll never believe
This is Othello's obstacle; his stubbornness, and lack of patience and faith on himself.
I'm the one now
Cause I'm still here
I'm the one
Cause I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here
Finally, this represents Othello's legacy which is to be one of a kind and the one with the power to right the wrongs his government has caused.
I had fun doing this! I have a song for each of my characters but I picked this character because he is the one that goes best with his song. -
I've been considering songs for my characters for ages, but the one that really sticks out at the moment is Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve, which I've given to Pooley.
You're a slave to money then you die
Because Pooley's always making money at his young age (18) and feels like he has to. -
I'm too lazy at the moment to pick out specific phrases from songs.
However, most of my characters are based on Disney songs. Or, at least, the songs suit them.
Tickoo-- "Strangers Like Me" from Tarzan
Sashi-- "On my Way" from Brother Bear
Ratenok-- "I'll Make a Man out of You" from Mulan
Bonzu-- "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King -
I'm writing this thing called 'Remorse'. Here are the characters:
Lucy: Well, she killed herself at the begining of the story, but we get flashbacks of her life before her ex-bff screwed it up. Her song would be Where I Stood by Missy Higgins. The song has really nothing to do with the story but this specific stanza is really good for Lucy, plus the rhythm of the song fits.
There were sounds in my head
Little voices whispering
That I should go and this should end
Oh and I found myself listening
Chloe: She's the gossipy little snob everyone loves to hate. Of course, they all pretend they love her and since she can spread a rumor faster than a California wild fire, no one wants to get on her bad side. She's of course, the cliche perfect girl. Her dad's dead and left a hell lot of money for her and her brother. Her mom is a French art colector and is barely home. She is hated but never realizes it. Her song would be Hated by Nikki Cleary:
I hate you, I hate you
Cause I see through
To what a fake you are
You disgust me, thats why you must be hated
You got a lot of stuff
Stuff you don't deserve
You got a lot of friends
You got a lot of nerve
Trust me, you must be hated
Brooke: She's the queen bee but ends up losing her place after people find out that she was BFF with the suicidal loser, Lucy. She's not really a LOSER but she isn't what she used to be. Of course, if it wasn't for her, Lucy probably wouldn't have killed herself. Her song would be Turn Back Time by Cher:
I don't know why I did the things I did I don't know why I said the things I said
Pride's like a knife it can cut deep inside
Words are like weapons they wound sometimes.
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