So, I've figured out recently that by figuring out what kind of music my characters listen to, I can get inside their head and get tons of scenes - which means I spend a lot of my writing time looping their favorite stuff. Of course - almost all of my characters are women aged between 27 and 47 living in the year 2035...which meant a lot of them have a bunch of old records including but not limited too Taylor Swift, Lorde, Katy Perry, etc. So the question then is whether it's worth it for me (as a 27-year old man) to loop Taylor Swift songs for three hours if that's what gets me writing. It's a rhetorical question - if it works I'm sticking with the method - but wondering how many others have similar methods that make them wonder whether they're going insane. As a sidenote - Taylor Swift's album "Red" is super-haunting if you're listening to it from the point of view of a 39-year old alcoholic woman mourning for her lost idealistic youth. That was almost scary.
It could work. If you can stand it - lol. I don't think a writer has to immerse themselves too much ( heaven forbid the writer of Silence of Lambs getting too much into the character of Hannibal with the exception of eating a dish of Fava beans. ) When I was working on a novel circa 80's I listened to 80's music. Whatever keeps you motivated is a bonus!
Luckily I only have one psychopathic character and she writes herself without a lot of help (if anything she overwrites herself and I have to hold her back). On the rest of it, I think I just respond to auditory cues.
This really depends on the writer and what makes THEM tick. I can see how it could work, because immersing yourself in the story in that way should help, or at least I can't see why not. I'm writing a story based in the 40's and 50's so I am doing something similar myself, but as stated above by peachalulu, you wouldn't want to delve too far. You are the god and the ruler of your book. You write the rules and everything else that fills those white blank spaces. So I don't see the need to follow a kind of method actors route in your writing.
Yeah trying not to get too method. No desire to exist inside the psychopath's head for very long. But audio cues definitely work, especially since I'm making heavy use of modern "teen" music lyrics in the story itself - basically my story is about the future of people who are young children in the present and the choices society makes - so I'm actually doing a lot of research on teen music inasmuch as the works of people like Taylor Swift, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, and One Direction function as haunting voices from the past in my 2035 reality where today's young people are running the world.
See when you put it that way, it makes a lot more sense. If it is helping you to get stuff down then keep at it. I applaud you for having the mind strength to listen to all of the above on repeat. We all do crazy things in the name of a good story.
I have my limits: No Bieber. Helps that I like country music to begin with and most teen pop uses the type of beats and harmony that I like to begin with.
