Getting Inside Your Characters Heads

[Black Razor]

Just curious...does anyone else watch movie scenes or listen to music to manipulate your own emotions to match the emotions your characters would be feeling while writing?

I find movie clips to be great for visualizing my FX, Action Sequences, and Choreagraphed Fight Scenes. Even more inspiring is my collection of movie scores, which I conveniently have categorized by the emotions they invoke in me.

Anyone else do this?

 

[j d worthington]

Myself, no. I do sometimes listen to music, but not for such a purpose (at least, not consciously). And I never watch something for that reason. But each writer is likely to have their own set of inspirations. My only concern with what you describe, I think (and this may not be a problem for you in the first place) would be a caution about how much such clips might influence the scenes you describe, making them perhaps too artificial or stagey, rather than flowing more naturally. If that's not a problem, then it obviously doesn't bleed into your own work, and go for it.

As for my own methods.... I generally have either an image or a line (usually something a character ends up saying or thinking; most of my work tending to be first-person narration) when I sit down to the actual writing; something of that nature where, nonetheless, I can feel the weight of an impending story behind it. And then I just let it flow from there. For me, if the characters aren't real, I don't tend to feel the impetus to write. If I can't capture (for myself, at least, only someone else could tell whether I convey it well or not to another party) them as people, then I tend to dry up. (Which has occasionally ended up with some very strange experiences where I've been told off by my characters......) So that I can "feel" their moods, as I would those of people around me.

But, as I said, each writer has their own form of inspiration, so go with whatever works well for you.

 

[Sapheron]

I play certain music types when trying to play out a fight scene in my head. The beat and pace of the music, if appropriate to the combatants, is really useful.

 

[jackokent]

Just curious...does anyone else watch movie scenes or listen to music to manipulate your own emotions to match the emotions your characters would be feeling while writing?

I don't think I could watch movie scenes, it would intrude on what I was trying to create not help. I do however try very hard to take real like scenes and turn them into something my characters might do. A few weeks ago I had the oportunity to go on a SAS survival course in the Breckon Beacons (for those of you not familiar with Britain they are some wildish mountains in Wales). We had to make our own camps and walk through freezing rivers etc and it was great material for my characters.

I love listenning to music though, it can really get you into a character's mood.

 

[jenna]

I definitely listen to music when I'm writing. I also find I have to get out the notebook on the tram when I'm listening to random songs because a line or a melody inspires me.

 

[The Pelagic Argosy]

Just curious...does anyone else watch movie scenes or listen to music to manipulate your own emotions to match the emotions your characters would be feeling while writing?

Anyone else do this?

Excuse No. 87 why I don't get more writing done: It's hard to get into the quasi-medieval/magical mindset necessary for writing fantasy when you're sitting in front of a computer, when Mt. Dew ads are blaring, and don't get me started on freaking Elmo. I wish I was the kind of person who could dash off a few sentences while my Mac 'n' Cheese is in the microwave, but I need plenty quiet time to switch gears.

Ideally I'd put on some Enya and light some candles before sitting down in front of the computer for a few uninterupted hours. (If was militant about immersion I'd also be writing on parchment with a quill pen, but...c'mon, you've seen my need for spell check.) Or I could write outside, but it's currently December.

Celtic music is an obvious choice if you're writing fantasy. Another good way to get into the mindset is to put in a fantasy DVD like Lord of the Rings or reread some of my favorite passages in books. However, you do have to be careful that you don't let these other sources influence your own style.

 

[goddess_of_hades]

I always listen to music while I'm writing. Usually darker music, or celtic. I like Midnight Syndicate, Theatre of Tragedy, Arcana Nox, and Epica especially. Also Celtic Woman for celtic music.

 

[LauraJUnderwood]

Depends on what I am writing. Sometimes the music benefits. Sometimes it is just there to drown out the telly in the livingroom (my stepfather is deaf in one ear, though he will not admit it... ;-) ).

And sometimes it is to set a mood. But I often write without music.

Because it can also be a serious distraction (especially if it is a song I like a lot).

Laura J. Underwood
Author of DRAGON'S TONGUE and HOUNDS OF ARDAGH
WANDERING LARK forthcoming in 2007

 

[Black Razor]

15+ Posts ...Now I can post links. MWHAHA!

Anyhow, now that I can post links, check out these links for examples of what I am talking about. I try to listen only to music that is either in a language foreign to me, or no words at all.

Cirque Du Soleil - Marelle This song I use for putting my brain into the mind of my character Remi, the little girl who was abused.

Roman Flugel - Gehts Noch
This song actually inspired me to create an entire city, Techno City. A cyberpunkish city where a lot of the cyber enhanced criminals hang out. My world is not post apocolyptic, but its by no means utopian. Its kinda my version of the cantina from star wars but an entire city.

Cirque du Soleil - Steel Dreams
This track inspired me to pick Techno City as the place for my main character to find Remi. I'm still trying to find a better name than Techno City, suggestions?

Klaus Baddelt - The Medallion Calls
I use this track for a sense of calling. The heros must take up the challenge and fight for what is right.

Hans Zimmerman - Tribal War
Isn't it obvious...this music helps me write my Big Baddies, and some battle scenes. Particularly helps me envision the bad guy lair.
---

Oh, in case any of you wonder where you heard The Medallion Calls, its from Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack.

Also, does anyone have any good instrumentals in their music collectio. I've only been working on my novel for about a month. I only have a handful of good instrumental stuff. Music really inspires me.

 

[mosaix]

When I write I need almost total silence, no music no nothing. Everything distracts me. I immerse myself in the world I am writing about so that it almost becomes reality. I'm sure that's why characters 'take over' stories - they seem to do and say what they want not what I intended originally.

 

[RyFrye]

Also, does anyone have any good instrumentals in their music collectio. I've only been working on my novel for about a month. I only have a handful of good instrumental stuff. Music really inspires me.

I love to listen to music while I am writing. Like you, it allows me to focus on what is happening in the scene and really visualize it.

Try finding some stuff by "Sigur Ros". They are a band from the Netherlands( I believe?). They also did some songs along with another band called "Hilmar Orn Hilmarsso" for a movie sound track that is really good. All of Sigur Ros' lyrics are from a language comprised by the band. They interpret them on their web site. It is great atmospheric music with a rock twist.

Hope this helps,
Ryan

 

[jenna]

When I write I need almost total silence, no music no nothing. Everything distracts me. I immerse myself in the world I am writing about so that it almost becomes reality. I'm sure that's why characters 'take over' stories - they seem to do and say what they want not what I intended originally.

I would love to try writing in silence, but unfortunately where I live that's never going to happen. I have the noisiest neighbours of all time, and I've found that it's not easy writing to a stupid techno beat coming through the ceiling.... So I write with my iPod in, which blocks out all of the outside world and lets me concentrate...

 

[goddess_of_hades]

Midnight Syndicate is instrumental. I'm pretty sure.

 

[j d worthington]

Midnight Syndicate is instrumental. I'm pretty sure.

For the main part, yes. An occasional bit of spoken word. Nox Arcana have a few things that include spoken word or vocals, but it's usually only two or three per CD. And slightly off-topic: Nice to run across someone else who likes Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate!

 

[mosaix]

I would love to try writing in silence, but unfortunately where I live that's never going to happen. I have the noisiest neighbours of all time, and I've found that it's not easy writing to a stupid techno beat coming through the ceiling.... So I write with my iPod in, which blocks out all of the outside world and lets me concentrate...

I pity you Jenna and realise how luck I am. My house is built into the side of a hill. I have door in the back of the house that leads into a cellar under the hillside (as opposed to under the house). It is always quiet and always the same temperature.

Sometime in the next year or two I'm going to turn the door into a bookcase so that the cellar will be totally secret. I may have to murder the carpenter who does it to keep the secret to myself (a bit like the Egyptians walling up the slaves in the tombs)

 

[Lusted]

My writing is powered by the music of the band Muse(they have songs for all emotions), and i always try to "Be" my characters when im writing them so that i can get more emotion and feeling into my writing.

 

[Admiral Ryouhei]

haha, kill the carpenter, funny...

Whenever I've tried to write a story or even a snatch of fanfiction, I either get immersed in the details of trivial things or all the characters become myself and it all gets dull very quickly, some advice to help a poor writer?

 

[Faceless Woman]

Try a character profile. There's one in the Workshop.

 

[goddess_of_hades]

Yay! I don't think I've ever before met someone who'd even heard of Midnight Syndicate or Arcana Nox, before!

Another good one is Shape of Despair. It has some vocals, and they are in English, but they're background and not continual. Just phrases here and there. If you like Midnight Syndicate, you'll probably like Shape of Despair.

 

[Talysia]

I find that I don't need to listen to music/watch anything to get inspiration for my characters or writing. I usually have a fairly good idea of what my characters are like and how they'd act/react in certain situations, although if I do hear a piece of music I like it does tend to give me other ideas for future storylines.
I'm lucky, in that I can write just about anywhere - with any kind of noise in the background - just as long as I'm not interrupted. There's nothing worse for breaking the creative flow than having to put pen and paper down to go and see what somebody wants.