I like to have a sort of sound track for the books I write. Not handpicked songs put on one cd but rather several cds that play mixed together- all day long- or the whole time I'm writing one particular book. It's my trigger to get into the book faster when I sit down to write. Of course it takes a couple weeks to get the automatic jump start when I hear the music, but it works for me.
Today, while in the thrift shop(I always browse the books, cds and dvds), I found a cd of western movie title tracks. Now the story I bought this to hopefully work for isn't a typical western because it will be mainly set inside a logging camp. But what I failed to think about when purchasing this cd was the fact many movie westerns are set in Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. Nearly half of the songs have the Latin beat, trumpets, and guitar stanzas. I have a feeling this cd will have to wait for another book.
The last Halsey books I wrote I used bluegrass cds and Celtic music. Two of the heroines had Irish and Scottish backgrounds.
For my contemporary westerns I used contemporary western singers' cds. Chris LaDoux, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Reba. Okay, so contemporary to me. Reading the list aged me a bit.
While writing the spirit trilogy I listened to Native American cds. The flutes, the drums, the wailing... these brought out different tempos and emotions as they played in the background.
My love of music and the inspirations I've had in my life from music helps to ground me in the lives of my characters.
Anyone have some ideas for acoustical bluegrass and perhaps Norwegian music? My heroine in this last Halsey book is Norwegian. Or logging songs?
www.patyjager.net
hmmm, no ideas here. I tend to listen to Pandora or live365. I think live365 might actually have a western movie theme but I can't remember.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting concept. I often listen to cd's while writing, but I never thought of tailoring them to fit what I was writing.
ReplyDeleteI'm Norwegian and I remember a song (parts of it) my mother used to sing. I'll call my sister and see if she remembers it. There's also a Norwegian song that used to be sung at weddings, Ich liebe die (though that's German) but it was written by a Norwegian.
Joan