Give your latest work a soundtrack

One thing that helps me write sometimes is to pretend my works are movies (perhaps a bit of wishful thinking on my part) and come up with the songs I'd want in its soundtrack. Whether its related to a character, theme, or idea.

How about you? What would you include in your latest work's soundtrack? I'll start:

The Adhan (Islamic call to prayer): Because a good deal of the story is set in or at least related to the Middle East

Moonlight Reflected on the Er-Quan River (Hua Yan-Jun) - Lei Qiang: Although its set in the modern day/near-future, I wanted to include some traditional Chinese music to represent one of the characters

107 Degrees In The Shade - Alex Bugnon: Again as a sort of introduction theme for one of my protagonists. It sounds kind of French (like him) but I just can't put my finger on why.

An instrumental version of Auferstanden aus Ruinen: Represents one of my antagonists.

Anglia - Laibach: A distorted version of the British national anthem mainly to represent another antagonist/actions by his government

My Body Is a Cage - Peter Gabriel: Leitmotif for another protagonist (yes there are a lot of characters). Deals with how he feels after losing his wife

Instrumental version of Shape of My Heart - Sting: Theme for another protagonist (and the Anti-hero of my other novel)

Exodus '04 - Utada: Honestly, I'm not really sure why I'd include this. I just liked it and felt it was relevant

Vote with a Bullet - Corrosion of Conformity: Deals with people getting fed up with their politicians (and that's all I will say about that!)

Notorious - Rick Braun: I just like how (sort of) dark it feels. Perfect for a hero sliding into Villain Protagonist territory

Mongolian national anthem: Another Leitmotif/earlier and later portions take place in Mongolia

Heil dir im Siegerkranz (Imperial German anthem): Leitmotif and Germany is featured prominently in the story

Europa - Globus: A big part of the story is a war in Western Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, and France especially)

Horizon - Eri Sugai: It's supposed to represent a sort of rebirth of Japan after a period of extreme hardship and death

Hymn to the Fallen - Kathrine Jenkins and the Metro Voices: The story revolves largely around a third World War, so it's kind of self-explanatory

Ordinary Life - Liquido: Realizing that despite all of the death and destruction around the characters, that life does go on.

I've been listening to Flaming Lips and Gang Starr while writing it. So my soundtrack will just be those two artists' entire discography.

A barbarian fantasy set to psychedelic alt rock and 90's East Coast hip hop.

I like to listen to so-called tribal music when writing my current WIP, which takes place in a jungle. My favorites come from the soundtrack to Disney's Tarzan.

I do this all the time. I have entire playlists on my iTunes dedicated to the soundtracks of certain stories, and many of my characters have their own "theme bands" (e,g., a surfer character and The Beach Boys). Because my stories are always set in a specific time (e.g., fall 2000 for my vampire novel), the soundtracks reflect that with the song selection (though I try to avoid Nothing but Hits). When it helps, I also include pieces of film score to better set the mood (e.g., "Frankenstein's Monster" when a telekinetic character is on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge). I, too, imagine my works as movies, and having a soundtrack certainly helps me with the writing process.

edited 24th Jun '13 6:16:58 PM by shrikecatcher

I mostly listen to either Blue Lagoon (by Gackt) or Live Free or Let Me Die (by Skillet) for when Matthew is doing something cool.

Ein Woe mainly gets discordant or dark songs, including Voltaire's When You're Evil, or Rammstein's wollt ihr das bett in flammen sehen, which captures his flavor of Blood Knight very well.

Dark Matthew mostly does what he does to Hollywood Undead's Undead. Its basically saying what flavor of character he is. To contrast Matthew's Beware the Nice Ones and Beware the Honest Ones, Dark Matthew is vulgar, completely without any form of honor, and will do anything to kill the targets.

Innerpartysystem's Don't Stop is basically the soundtrack to Vonh and Balmunc's battles. Some of the lines can be interpreted as Balmunc's boasting.

edited 24th Jun '13 6:58:02 PM by NickTheSwing

I find that lyrics distract me so I listen to instrumentals when writing. classical or opera - I know opera has lyrics but they're in languages I don't speak so they don't take my attention away from my story. I'm focusing on drama more than action or horror so there's less call for high-energy tunes. Also, just about anything with cello or piano is really useful.

I don't usually do this, but when I do I think in terms of actual movie soundtracks, not independent songs-with-lyrics.