Method Writing & The Use of Music

Truthfully, most of the time I find it a lot easier to write without music than with it, yet there are some times when I feel the need to alter my emotional state to match the state of the characters in the story and the fastest, easiest way to do that is with music. I've found that it can be pretty hard to do the first draft of a sad part, or a very exciting part without a musical score of some kind accompanying me. When applied to acting, where I get this term of 'method writing' this mood-altering technique is called (obviously) 'method acting.' When applied to acting this can be anything from the directer telling a child that her dog has just died and somebody firing a shot gun out of sight (yes, this did apparently actually happen at a film studio, I'm not sure where) to make her upset or, for another example, an older actor simply standing in his dressing room trying to think of things that make them sad. It's the same with writing, only with writing it's different, because as author, you're not only the actor, but ALL the actors as well as the stimuli that your protagonist is responding to. Lights, camera, action - you're a 300 person film crew all in one.

I'm quite sure that one can write without the use of mood alterations like music, but to me it feels like it would make getting the feeling harder. When I write of Keel and Hunter fleeing, I feel for a mood of something fast paced and heroic, like 'The Man with the Machine Gun' from Final Fantasy VIII, where our heroes aren't sure if they're going to survive what they're doing, but they're going to damn well try.



I find orchestral music to often be the best. Music with words (even in other languages) can be extremely distracting when you're mentally trying to form words for things yourself. Orchestral music can be distracting too, but not so much. For the most part, I only really listen to video game music like the scores from Final Fantasy, because that's what I'm inspired by. (I grew up watching such things!) It might seem surprising, but I'm not usually all that overly inspired by movie soundtracks like The Lord of the Rings, because despite the fact that LOTR is indeed fantasy and even from a book, it's music just isn't as moodily dramatic as what's in video games. There's something a bit more raw about a video game score; it's like emotion made of sound. Heck, the stuff is actually designed to make games more thrilling!

I'm not going to blabber on on this for long. I'd rather show off a few more songs that I enjoy using (and since I can't give out spoilers, perhaps these songs will give you guys a feel for what I've been writing.)



Yes, I know I just said that a lot of movie scores don't get my blood up for writing, but Hans Zimmer's stupendous soundtrack for Sherlock Holmes (2009) really does. It's dangerous, edgy and unique and it really has an old fashioned English feel to it with the use of a harpsichord, a rarely used instrument in today's modern music. This soundtrack makes me think of secrets that are deadly and that trying to find out what those secrets are may indeed be hazardous to your health! For me, it's iconic of the city of Serenity in my world and all its hidden darkness.



'Opening Bombing Mission' (another FFVIII track) is a song I really favour for action sequences lately. It's another heroic tune, but unlike 'The Man with the Machine Gun' it's a lot darker, which is excellent for scenes where the situation isn't very safe at all for our heroes. It's also nice, because it really has that 'war' flavour, which of course helps with Emperor's Blood, seeing as it's story with a lot of that going on.



When it comes to the sketzine, there's only one song screwed up and evil enough. These guys can be absolutely psychotic; they're pretty much anyone's worst nightmare, even potentially that of the people they are supposed to be protecting. These are guys who never hesitate to kill and heaven help you if you so much as twitch in a manner that they don't like! They're pretty much like land mines - unpredictable and brutal, yet to the common people of their world, rather demonic and godly.



This is a very character driven story and quite obviously, there are some parts that aren't all teeth, fangs and sword blades. On the subject of character development, here's a cover of a popular song that for me really capitalizes on one of the key relationships (and works better than the original for this relationship because it's sung by a male.) This is also an example of a song I would listen to before writing, not during, because it has lyrics.



Sometimes, there are songs which just seem to fit as a general theme. Emperor's Blood's old theme used to be 'Animal I Have Become' by Three Days Grace which still fits part of the story like a glove, but doesn't fit all of it any more since I split the manuscript into three. However, it's still useful for method writing in other parts of the trilogy, even if it fits one part more than the other two. It remains something of a theme song for one of the protagonists.



Another song for general inspiration is 'Feet of Flames' from Lord of the Dance.



Another reason music helps is that for me at least, it blocks out the second train of thought that's always running through my head and it allows me to concentrate. As an artist this blocking becomes even more important, but I don't need emotional music for drawing. Instead I frequently listen to this nonsense for hours and hours repeatedly, over and over... the high speed pace of the song somehow keeps my pen/pencil strokes flowing at a good clip. It's also awesome.



And then, occasionally when nothing interesting is happening and both music as well as my surroundings are bloody distracting, I listen to clips of rain falling over and over and over and over...

It suits Sloveniska. It's always raining there, even in summer.