Do you make playlists for your characters? Does it help?

[LVAdams]

Hi

I'm curious about if you make playlists/soundtracks for your stories/characters? Why? Why not?
Or is there a specific song that describes your main character perfectly?

I would love to hear what kind of songs you associate with your stories/characters and your thoughts on how music and writing go together for you in general

[VibrantFox]

so far i've only made a playlist for one of my comics, hellcats+hellhounds/h+h, and it's mostly a collection of songs that helps me get in the vibe or headspace of my characters and their story.

like my mindset when putting it together is essentially this

link to op

as for the playlist this is the one i've been building on (usually add if i hear something that matches the vibe or reminds me of one of the characters)

personally i prefer to have music going while i'm writing since it helps me get into a flow and build an athmosphere reminiscent to the story or it's setting but i've also met folks who prefer silence. Thats like being a fan of animation and film i like to imagine or consider potential for a song as a backing track like for a show movie or game ost. obviously i'm not making those things and i'm only making a comic but music is definitely a boon for me when creating

[LVAdams]

I'm pretty much on the same page with you, I also don't make lists of what the characters would listen to, like you i also focus more on songs that remind me of them or could be about them. Interestingly this time as i was thinking about songs that fit my main character Audrey (from Campus Romance) i actually added some songs that i think she would listen to or like sing at karaoke haha

I never really understood how people could listen to music at the same time as writing haha bc i need absolute silence or like classical music with no lyrics so as not to distract me. I wish I could listen to music at the same time tho, it just doesn't work for me.
I have one friend who gets things done better if there's a lot going on around them, so at uni we didn't get together to study that much because i on the other hand get nothing done if there's people talking around me lmao

[ThunderChicken]

I made a playlist for my first story, Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days. It’s a true story, and the songs in the playlist relate to things that happen in the story.

[ueonts]

No, I have trouble writing with music.

[Zixixibi]

I love listening to music while writing! I tend to make playlists based off of the emotions of the songs I listen to, so I haven't exactly explicitly made a playlist for my series' or characters, but now you've got my inspired juices running, LOL. I say explicitly though because when I was writing my comic Legacy Of A Fighter I was in a really weird headspace and the story deals with some pretty philosophically morbid ideas, so I ended up creating a new playlist for myself while writing those darker parts of the story. Also, sometimes if I do character sheets for characters, I'll list their favorite songs.

But what about you, do you like to make playlists for series' or characters? I'm curious to know too!

[Llyrel]

I like to make playlists for my story and characters, though I never listen to them while writing, because most of the songs have lyrics and I find them too distracting :'D I do listen to them while drawing, tho!

I have a bunch of different playlists for different things, btw, such as "songs that remind me of my characters, even if they wouldn't necessarily listen to them", "songs my characters would actually listen to" and "songs that sound like the kind of stuff my musician characters would play"

[llobucervallince]

I based many of my comic on song and animatic I made up in my mind, the whole story came up after listening a specific song from Hadestown

[LVAdams]

Cool! As your story is autobiographical to some degree, is it like also songs that you were listening to at the time?

[LVAdams]

Same! I can at most have classical music quietly on in the background lol but i prefer complete silence haha

[LVAdams]

I wish I could listen to music at the same time as writing but it distracts me too much haha

I haven't really made any actual playlists yet but for my romance novel (Campus Romance) that I'm writing at the moment, I have compiled a few songs that I think fit the vibe of the characters in it, which i found to be really fun to do! But its just for fun, it doesn't actually seem to help me in my writing process, same as making aesthetic boards on pinterest lol its fun but im basically only doing it bc its fun and not for any other reasons

I dont really include songs that the characters themselves would listen to tho, except for one song that i think my main character Audrey would listen to which is Obsessed by Mariah Carey lol

What do you include in your character sheets other than fave song?

[LVAdams]

Nice! Good idea to have multiple playlists!

I wish I could draw but unfortunately im not very good at it but i still do it sometimes just for fun and i actually do also listen to music when i draw, i think it works better to listen to music when drawing than writing since i also get distracted by lyrics otherwise haha

[GumshoeComix]

I actually found that once my partner and i made a playlist for our story we were able to settle on tone for it, so its super helpful

*note that this is for my second comic

[LVAdams]

That's so cool! I also get inspiration form songs, but it usually stays in the idea stage like im like wow this song would make a good story but then i just never sit down and actually write it haha i think for example Taylor Swift is such a great storyteller in her songs that any of them could easily be made into a book lol

once i actually did write something based on a song, it was flash fiction based on an old Finnish song that we used to sing as kids (song: Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen)

I like Hadestown btw so which song was your inspo?

[abigaillmartin]

Yeah I have a classical music playlist for Elsie. It’s got waltzes, nocturnes, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Camille Saint-Saens, Dvorak. All the greats of their time.

I also listen to Celtic music while working on my works.

Cracking Eggs doesn’t really have a playlist but my love for The Beatles has influenced the comic a lot because I’d listen to my personal playlist.

Several classical pieces would make great background music for animations if I ever decide to do that.

[LVAdams]

Fun! music really can help explain the tone or vibe your going for, sometimes better than trying to explain it in words!!

[LVAdams]

True, music can be part of the writing in many ways; as soundtrack for oneself or for the characters or vibe etc

[ThunderChicken]

It is absolutely songs that I was listening to at the time, which is why most of the songs are 80’s and 90’s. Every song in the playlist represents and is tied to an event. They say that the sense of smell is the most directly tied to memory (ie if you smell a certain thing it brings back memories of that thing, like your mom’s perfume, the smell of a friend’s house, etc). With me it’s music. With most songs I am brought back to the first time I heard it, no matter how mundane the scene might be. For example, in 1984 my friend Aiden had a boom box (we called them Ghetto Blasters back then), and he was playing a mix tape. Just as we were passing through the gate of the local sports field the song I Wanna Be Somebody by Wasp ended and the song Balls to the Wall by Accept started.

There was absolutely nothing special or remarkable about that moment, and it didn’t even make the cut to be included in my story (but the songs are in the official playlist!). Almost 40 years later I am still brought right back to walking through that gate whenever I hear one of those songs. I actually have them arranged on my phone so that they play together and in order just because of that.

[Zixixibi]

Music REALLY helps with my writing process, so it's very interesting to read here that it can be so distracting for other writers! I totally understand though, sometimes I do need to pause so that I can really deeply think, or sometimes skip songs with vocals because they're too distracting at the moment.

I've tried to make some aesthetic boards for my series on Pinterest before, but after recommending like 2 really good things to me, Pinterest will become a doofus and none of the other recommendations will fit the vibe I'm looking for! Very naughty Pinterest...

OH GEEZ the character sheet I made was inspired by Hirohiko Araki's (Creator of the anime/manga Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, if you're familiar at all) character sheet, so it has quite a lot to fill out. I edited it a lot to make it more relevant to the kind of characters I want to create... Araki didn't have a tab for what a character's dance style would be, LOL. I could show you a picture of it, if you would like to see it!

[TheLemmaLlama]

Not really, since I basically only listen to OSTs and I already associate the music with characters/etc in that story

I do make (rudimentary) music for my series though, and oh yes, it HELPS. I feel more hyped up about my comic since writing those songs

is there a specific song that describes your main character perfectly?

It won't be apparent why until the final arc, but this song I wrote recently