Do you soundtrack?

[Christa M. Miller]

I'm thinking I can pose this question to both writers and readers...

Do you think in terms of soundtracks for the books you read, or write? Do you take an extra step and actually create them?

I made a soundtrack for the novel I'm currently working on. Rain Dog (husband) has done them for both short stories he wrote last year. (And then expects me to burn CDs for him. The nerve of that techo-challenged man...) He does his to listen to while you read, but I do mine for inspiration if I hit a snag with the writing.

Anyone else? If so, who/what are your influences... or do you tend towards a pretty eclectic mix?

[Victor Gischler]

J.D.

Ah. Another writer secure enough to admit he likes ABBA.

Welcome to the club.

VG

[Jennifer Jordan]

Oh, I listened to them for four hours the other day. "Take a Chance on Me," and "Fernando" being repeated far too often.

[Victor Gischler]

Yeah, but us tough he-men aren't supposed to listen to ABBA.

Uh ... everyone thinks of me as a tough he-man, right?

Right?

Uh-oh.

[Jochem van der Steen]

... I can do worse... I used to like the ABBA covers of teen-band A-teens...
Luckily I also have Johnny Cash in my cd-collection so I figure I also still
count as 'hardboiled' ;-)

[Laura Benedict]

Totally eclectic! I've been listening to Belle and Sebastian for years. My fourteen year-old daughter picked up "If You're Feeling Sinister" off of my itunes--I told her it was okay, but she wasn't allowed to listen to the words!

[Jochem van der Steen]

J.D., you might like to know that I listened to a lot of Kyuss and the dutch band
(with a Motorhead like sound) Peter Pan Speedrock when I read your first novel.

[J.D. Rhoades]

Good call on the Kyuss. I'll try to find some Peter Pan Speedrock.

[Robert Gregory Browne]

The closest I come to a soundtrack is when I'm driving, thinking about the book I'm working on, I often find myself humming some made up "thriller" type music...

I'm weird that way.

But when I'm actually writing, I listen to the sound of a waterfall.

Weirder still.

Back when I was screenwriting, I actually wrote and recorded soundtrack music for my first script...

[Paul Guyot]

I cannot START writing until I've found the right music.

I have to have the soundtrack (and often the score) to the story before I can write anything decent.

iTunes and the iPod was the greatest thing that ever happened to me as
a writer. I create a playlist for every piece I'm working on.

I will listen over and over and over to those songs - might be as few as eight or as many as twenty-five.

I have to have music. Silence is a creativity killer for me.

And here's a funny thing... there's quite often music in the scenes I write. Source music as the industry calls it. My characters are always listening to music. Huh...

[Jennifer Jordan]

Paul , have you ever had a song(s) inspire a whole short story/book/character?

Leonard Cohen is great for that.

[Paul Guyot]

I have definitely had a song inspire a character, and as for a whole story... I did have 3,000 words down on a story based on a certain Springsteen tune, then the anthology came out "Meeting Across the River"- without me in it - and so I chunked the story.

The really threw me into a tailspin for about a day and a half. I tried to remember if I had told someone at a conference that I was writing a story on it, or what. But to have an anthology out based on the exact song I was a story for, was odd.

I have a screenplay inspired by/based on a song, but it's a rough first draft and I've never gone back in to improve it.

[Christa M. Miller]

You know, I don't listen to Cohen, but I do own Stranger Music. I should go back and read it again.

I keep waiting for Tom Waits to inspire something, but his songs are so complete as is. However, they have fit works already in progress. Can't complain about that, I guess.