The Music of the WIP

Earlier this week I posted the opening notes to this series: Music in Text. I've turned off the blog's sound track for this next installment in favor of a new music playlist. Read on.

Capturing the essence of a tune within the printed word is a tricky thing to do. Lyrics alone, even if you manage to get the permission to use copyrighted material, doesn't carry the same emotional weight as the actual melody coupled with the words and how they're sung.

As I've often said, I don’t write to music…but I muse to it. Listening to songs on my way to work is how I enhance plot details and embellish character and story details in my head. Some of these songs started as muse fodder.

Let me share a few examples with you from my current WIP in progress.

The Music of the WIP

When my character "informed" me he's a musician, it piqued my interest to select particular songs that reflect his feelings and what's going on in the plot, either directly or indirectly. Let me give you a partial list of the Music of the WIP. (I can't provide a complete list because the songs themselves would be major spoilers.)

Playlist

I've embedded a playlist of these songs to accompany this article. Click on the title to hear the song (or just a portion of it) as I explain why I chose them.


Music Box Dancer
The female MC often gazes into her musicbox--a gift from her late father--for comfort and nostalgia. The uplifting tune of the 1970s instrumental is the melody it plays. I used descriptions like "light" and "buoyant" to describe the melody as well as describing how it started with a single piano and then an orchaestra joined in. This music box, by the way, has some very special properties.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens
This is my character's introduction as a singer, when he's shanghaied by his peers into providing the evening's entertainment. The female MC is clueless about her love interest's particular talent at this point in the story, so this comes as a total surprise--for both her and the reader. I chose this particular song because of the amazing vocals and the contrast with the setting, in both time and place.

Riverside by America
The female MC is invited to the male MC's band practice with his friends. This largely overlooked America tune carries an instrumental introduction that's a perfect opener for the band's mellow rock jam session (a bit of an antique in their time...and maybe in ours, for that matter). The song also carries subtle clues of his philosophy. “I said, the world don’t owe me no living.”

You Can Do Magic by America
The male MC follows up Riverside with another America song, this one offered as a serenade to the female MC, and her first real clue that his feelings for her may be deeper than he's able to admit or that his recent actions have shown.

Say (What You Need to Say) by John Mayer
The male MC knows something is amiss and is frustrated that the female MC is unwilling or unable to talk about it. “Fighting with the shadows in your head” is his not-so-subtle way of telling her he knows she's not being completely forthcoming, and it throws her into internal conflict and a temptation to back out of the spot she's put herself in. Or maybe the spot she's put them both in.

(I Think I'm in) Trouble by Lindsay Buckingham
Editor's note: Please overlook the first few garbled words of silliness. In case you're wondering, he's saying "two...uh-three...uh-four...two...uh-three...uh-four." And yes, translation is necessary. From the moment the actual vocals kick in, this is one of my all-time favorite melodies. This song represents a pivotal moment in the plot where the male MC must decide whether to accept the life-shaking revelations he's just discovered about the female MC and the fact she hadn't disclosed a major truth to him. (If this sounds like a cliche' situation, trust me as a writer, it's not.) Through his music, he's trying to decide whether to cut and run, or work through the bombshell she's just dropped. She overhears him singing his lament and realizes she's responsible for his confusion.

Silence by Delerium
A haunting, modernized Gregorian chant that captures the loneliness, fear and heartache behind a decision the two MCs must make, and as the music implies, its a dreamy and surreal situation.

I hope you liked reading about the plot points behind The Music of the WIP. I'm curious to hear your thoughts or experiences on this subject. How do you use music in your manuscripts? Is music an important element, or does it just get a mention or help flesh out setting? Have you ever tried to work a particular song or lyrics into your story?

Next week: The Power of Music

Using Music in Text

Does music translate to the printed medium?

Much to my surprise, one of the main characters in my current WIP evolved into a musician. Well, maybe evolved isn’t the correct term. It was more like he informed me via his actions that this was an important part of his life and no matter what else I inflicted on him, his music is going to be a part of his story.

OK. I needed some time to think that over. He’s not a professional, just a hobbyist—as is the case with a lot of people—but his music is very much a part of how he reconciles his feelings and at times communicates them. Trying to show these traits in a novel is easier envisioned than written.

Many write to music (I don’t) and believe a certain theme or atmosphere manifests itself in the printed word as a result, but how can a writer actually incorporate music into prose? There is no way to “show” the essence of a favorite song. If the reader knows the song, you might be able to invoke their memory, but if they don’t know it they can’t “hear” the melody in their head no matter how well it’s described.

The actual lyrics don’t usually work. First of all, lyrics are copyrighted, and even if I were to get the proper permissions, I think song lyrics lose too much in translation without the melody that makes them so haunting, humorous or heartfelt. So instead of using lyrics, I hint at snippets of the melody, the character’s expression, what the song is saying and how it’s an interpretation of what’s going on in his life at that point. Another character may also reflect what he’s thinking about or where he is emotionally (especially if they are either the cause of that mood or close to him personally).

Later this week: The Music of the WIP