#rowanwrites

[daddyellis]

[rowanwritestoomuch]

How to Make a Playlist for Your WIP

Do you just desperately want your brain to rot about your characters? Do you want to feel inspired lyrically toward growing plot points? Do you need to input auditory stimulation while you write? Don't you just want to go apeshit about your wip?

But every time you make a playlist for your project, it's got 10 songs you eventually get sick of and the vibes are all over the place? Or is it too aesthetic to improve your process and flow? Do you have a hard time considering even what genre of music would fit the tropes and themes you are playing with in your current work?

Well, do I have some tips for you, motherfucker.

Make sure you set aside some time to do this because it's going to take all day.

Let's go ahead and start by doing the usual thing; add every song that rots your mind about your characters to your playlist, right now. Good, that's a baseline. Now, click on each of those artists, and listen to their entire discography--- or just the first ten songs. I have found consistency in the voices I'm hearing can really improve my immersion in juxtaposition to a playlist that only features a single song from each artist, which can be jarring in my ears. By adding these songs to your list sequentially, you can listen to blocks of sounds or moods without reorganizing your list excessively. Alternatively, this can give your shuffle a greater variety, because songs from the same artist will be cast all over the list instead of grouping up on accident. If you find the song you're hearing is an outlier within the artists music after listening to a few tracks, it's okay to move on from that vibe. Don't add things that don't fit the vibe just because it's a new song that you like, remember to only toss those in your general library. We are creating an atmosphere here, people.

Our next stop is going to be some character building, which will help you overall, so don't skip it. Consider for a moment-- what is your character's favorite song? (Or if your canon exists outside our current world, what would their favorite song be if they were sitting next to you right now?) Add that to the list, listen to other songs in the same genre or discography, and add songs you think they would like. These Do not have to be songs that fit the themes of your story-- such as, if you are writing a grimdark, but your character loves Britney Spears, add Toxic to your playlist. Give your character as vivid and real of intersts as your own.

If you are existing in a fantasy-based timeline, consider what kind of instruments your fantasy world would contain, and find the most niche tracks you possibly can using those intruments. Find out what sounds you like and what sounds you don't, and move forward from there. Listen to classical, listen to death metal, listen to pop, listen to synth, listen to folk, all using the instruments of your world. When you find sounds that fit into the place you are creating, add those tracks until you feel a genre is forming. This can be lyrical or non-lyrical, don't confine yourself. Immersion is so important, and the sounds of the world in which your character lives should be as real and vivid to you as the world around you. Because in that moment when you think 'huh, they should really have some sensory input right now.' You will be hearing what sounds they would hear in the distant public places, the elevator noise, the market sounds, the stillness of night, the bright waking of morning, and in all those places, there is music. Let them hear it.

Now, if you are existing in an earth-based timeline, you can do something extra cool with the advice above--- listen to music that your character would have listened to growing up. For example, I was born in the 90s, but my main character grew up between 1975-1990, that would have been the era of their childhood and teenage experience. And what is more important to kids than music, I mean, c'mon, we were all teens with a favorite (and least favorite song). Listen to songs of the time in genres you think your character would enjoy, and add ones you think they would want to hear on the radio or own a hardcopy of to your list. Don't add the ones you think they'd hate (unless it helps you), but do consider, would they hate this song? And why? For extra depth.

Think about their life. What song played at their wedding? What song was chosen for their class prom? What song did they sing at Summer Camp? What would they choose at Karaoke when they are sober? Which song would they choose when they're drunk? Which song do they want to hear during a break-up, what makes them want to dance? Do they like lyrical or instramental, can they play music or sing themselves? Are they bad at it? How do other people feel about their tastes? Do this for every character that's important to you. It'll help.

If you are writing inside your own culture, do make sure to include some of those tracks on your list--- things you may have heard at the supermarket growing up, or while walking down the street, in your grandma's kitchen, or something your character may reflect on fondly. If you are writing outside your culture, I have a single all encompassing tip that will help you far beyond playlists---

Research. Research to avoid stereotypes. Do not confine your characters within stereotypes, but do search for niches, inside jokes, cultural booms, impactful tracks and oft-referenced lyrics. Do this by asking questions. One thing I gleened immensely from Stephen King's On Writing is that he asked a lot of questions; do not rely on ChatGPT or Google to be your only source. Go to the Library, go to your neighbor, ask a stranger, post out polls on forums. Ask questions. The best way to be sensitive and immersed is to respect the experiences of the people around us. We do not need to water down or sanitize their experiences for our own comfort or with insecurity-- you will not fail your characters or your readers if you include the experiences of real people around you. The goal is to reflect that spark of life with accuracy and grace in your writing. You create multidimensional characters by sowing in bits and pieces of depth that you've gained through careful listening. To be a writer is to be a reader of the world around you. Only you can prevent flat characters, so don't be afraid to ask questions.

Now that you've done your research, add all that stuff to your playlist.

Let's look at your characters again; what do their voices sound like? Consider adding songs by artists that really sound like your character, especially if they have the same mood or feeling you are going for, but sometimes even not. If you can hear the voice of your work inside the song, it'll be useful. Some people have deep and graveled voices, some are light and airy, and the way they sound can affect speech patterns and how the people in the world around them percieve the things they say. This extra level of introspection can develop a character further than you would ever imagine. Give it a try. Writing an old man? Listen to Willie Nelson. Go on. Listen to Willie.

OKAY--- It's getting pretty chunky now, isn't it? I have one more thing for your to keep in mind;

Avoid pre-made playlists by others. These can often be surface level and I find myself wondering if my playlist is 'good enough' or has the right 'aesthetic' after listening to alot of these mood playlists on youtube. That isn't what matters. What matters is that you get in the zone. What matters is your characters. What matters is the flow, the vibe, the feeling, the mind-numbing waking hallucinations that bring life to the page, the mood. What matters is you and getting it on the page.

Always remember, write because it hurts if you don't.

til next time

[rowancries]

NAVIGATION

"AND IF NANA WAS A BOY, SHE'D THE LOVE OF MY LIFE...."

rowan (19) infp—t!

burnt out uni student ☹️

atv's biggest fan. pink & navy blue. letterboxd warrior. all a's since elementary school. 2021 discord group chat survivor. harry lewis 🤤. huge lurker. jon snow fan girl. multi-fandom girlie. i watch a lot of movies. swans. chrismd10 🤤.

masterlist | request | anons

requests are almost always open!!! read the rules then feel free to shoot it in my inbox

[caliro]

i would

tear out my heart and hand it to you

i would 

transplant my face. onto your face. inside out so we kiss

i would

sleep in plaster. sit in plaster. straddle the plaster! freeze my form for you

i would

fake my own death and give you everything you deserve instead of me. everything you may want. instead of me.

i would

never tell you any of this

[daddyellis]

Frissonfic Chapter 18 reactionary meme

bonus below the cut

[daddyellis]

no context

art by @raydiantdmg

[rowanwritestoomuch]

How to Create Your Own Symbolism

with rowan

gather round children, I want to tell you about symbolism.

The wall isn't always blue, but when it is, what does it mean to you?

I often see young writers (and even some of us veterans) using symbolism in the most banal ways, simply because they believe they have to. The world said 'we think this thing means such and such' and the writer feels confined within that analysis.

But to be blunt, what if we weren't so anal about it?

What if we, the author, got to decide what exactly a certain motif, a certain quirk, a specific flower, a sound, a sensation, meant more than what it does and it meant exactly what we wanted it to?

We do this through research, as all good things are done. Recently when setting up a scene in my current work, I explored the symbology of flowers for my original plan, and I inserted flora that I was familiar with and felt right. Then I realized I live in Michigan and my characters are standing in a field in Georgia. Oh boy, what a mess. So it was that we must find out what exactly blooms in Georgia, in this particular month (being that of early August). I looked for a long while at various photos and descriptions, percipitation charts and spreadsheets about bloom patterns, and when it was that I found several flowers that aesthetically pleased me, I created a bouquet in my mind. I wanted this scene to encompass the characters in the somber beauty around them. But where to begin figuring out what these flowers mean?

We look first into the meanings that other people lend to these things. We ask the florist 'what does it say when I hand someone a frond of grey goldenrod? Is it different from early goldenrod?' and the answer may surprise you with its affirmative yes. We may consult the spiritualists, 'in what context of ritual do you place this flower on the altar of worship?' and we can consider the metaphor of their response in our own character's interactions. We look to the biologist and we say 'how does this flower exist within our world? What are its strengths--- its weaknesses?' and we ask our characters the same thing.

We then look into ourselves. Can this information we have collected be arranged and placed and fed to the reader in a way that describes what I want to portray? Will I remember to continue to weave those threads, that lasting impression, throughout the text? Does it speak to me with the same rich voice that a symbol should?

Bringing all of this together, before I choose the symbols I was going to use in finality, I reflected on my text. Did the appearance of this blossom fit the color language I have used so far? Will it remind the reader of earlier moments, of foreshadowing I have previously set down, of events that have brought our paths into this moment? Will it be jarring, in the revelation of what deeper meaning I have placed upon it? Will that shock be what I desire?

Often I think we don't ask enough questions, or perhaps, we are not guided to which questions should be asked in order to inspire us. Anything placed within a scene can be a symbol. Make it memorable, make it unique. The walls are blue because she is sad, and we see that throughout the entire body of the text, and never do we forget that those walls are closing in, they are weeping, they are longing, they are cold, they are solitude. The breadth of the text remembers that. And perhaps, in your own way, blue can be happiness, it can be light, it can be like the air, or the calm ocean, or the perwinkle opening its petals to dawn. If only you decide.

Always remember, write because it hurts if you don't.

until next time.

[daddyellis]

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Ellis/Nick (Left 4 Dead)

Summary: Ellis explores his teammate’s body

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Wrote this for a friend