So does anyone else find certain types of music just suite their MC's. Or do you listen to a song and just forge someone from that song? Say if your listening to a more aggressive song you create a villian or a disjointed hero? Also do you find it helps you to create your characters. I personally would be lost if I could not give my characters a "song" that in serious cases of block you listen to a song over a few times and then your lovely just jumps out and comes to life for you? Or is this just me? Also does anyone else write up a short story of history for their characters? Like I make character sheets just so I can refer to them if say I take a break or go travelling (which I do a lot) and I need to refresh my mind I'll refer to these sheets. I also make little histories for them, to breathe life into them. If you do whats your set of questions you ask yourself about your characters prior to giving them flesh?
This sort of reminds me of an old Bill Cosby routine, in which he talked about (as a child) always "having his music with him". The only time I got into anything like this was when I was working on a novel about a group of middle aged musicians who form a band to help out an old band-mate. Each had his/her own favorites that the band worked into their playlist. Yes, I sometimes do this, but I don't have a list of questions I ask myself. I just make notes about their most striking characteristics, flaws or problems.
My MC just likes AC/DC and it's stuck with her since it became the first inkling of art and beauty she experienced. Other then that, music really doesn't come into play much with my characters.
When I hear certain songs - ones that hit me in just the right way - I can instantly create vivid scenes in my head.
Interesting, see music is a large part of my character building, for me everyone has a song to which they love, and so I feel its the same with my characters, one song/genre is just perfect for them. I generally think I would be lost if they didn't have a song attached to them. ed - See I make like a full report on them, albeit it will be notes because I find detailing them to much constricts me, but enough to get the grounding for them, I even have ones for characters that are deceased so that I can give their parts, if i decide to give them any at all, a bit of depth. Maybe I just look to far into it though I do have a habit for doing that.
I tend to look for songs for them a little too hard. To the point where I become completely convinced that a particular song was practicaly written for my character. Having a soundtrack helps a lot. Whenever I hear a particular song, it's associated character immedietly invades my brain. But the character always comes first. I try to keep the backstories straight, but I rarely write them down, actually. And when they are written down early in the game, they get quickly archived, changed and forgotten. It's a lot of fun to go back to my old sketchbooks and look at the descriptions I had for these guys 3-5 years ago. Completely different, and preposterously underdeveloped. (In my first sketch of John Goodwin, he's wearing a hat. Pfsh. As if any hat could contain his rediculous hair.)
