Fic Talk > General Discussion
Just a general pop in thread
RokofAges75:
We were talking about movie scores on Twitter, so I thought I'd bring that conversation here, since that's my typical writing music. If I remember correctly, you don't usually listen to music while you write, right, Mare? Is that still true?
I go through phases as far as what I listen to (or don't listen to) while I'm writing, but in general, I find that instrumental music helps me focus. I've been firmly back on the music kick for my past couple stories. I've found a few YouTube channels that have ambient music from movies set to pretty backgrounds or videos. My favorite is Ambient Worlds because their videos are really pretty and an hour or more long, so I can put them on my TV for background ambience when I write in my living room. My other favorite is The Ambient Score, which has shorter videos that are typically around 15-30 minutes.
It's been fun discovering good music from movies I haven't seen. I really love the score from The Last of the Mohicans. I've never watched the movie, but I kept coming back to the music from it while writing My Brother's Keeper. I listened to that and "Arrival of the Birds," which was used in The Theory of Everything, a lot. How to Train Your Dragon also has a really good score. One day, I clicked on a video of music from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and as I was listening, I was like, "This is just an instrumental version of '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' by Bryan Adams." That was when I learned that that song was from that movie. Never knew!
My nerdiest new music discovery of the past year or so has been this playlist of medieval renditions of Star Wars music: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9PLUrw0CbcSx6jZ5sO1W8wY_P0QsiVkb&si=h8FF_MlZrOR28b5M Apparently, there is this whole genre of music called "bardcore" that does medieval-sounding covers of pop songs. It's pretty great! Might be some fun music for your workouts, cooking, and cleaning!
Today I've been on a James Newton Howard kick. I love a lot of his scores, especially The Village, Lady in the Water, and King Kong. He's one of my go-tos when I can't decide what to listen to.
Do you have any recommendation s for me? I tend to like pretty, sad-sounding music when I'm writing, but sometimes I go the opposite direction and listen to more epic, action-packed stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean and any John Williams score just because it's good.
I hope you don't mind all my posts today! I'm clearly in summer mode and having the kind of week where I'm glued to my computer. But I've been doing more writing than playing The Sims, so that's progress!
mare:
Thank you for the AO3 info. I did what you mentioned, and I was able to find my work.
I'm not sure if I'd still be able to write if I were still working. I had taken so much time off from writing that if I was actually still teaching and decided to make my way back, I'm sure I'd be going at a much slower pace, if any at all. It makes sense you really slowed down when you were going for your masters. With all the extra work.
I love that people clicked on your story based on the tags you used. Some of those tags are just...yikes! in general. Let alone that people really use them for real stories. LOL
I don't think I could do the little bit each day way of writing, because of my awful memory. I'd most likely just start repeating myself and the particular way I write, you would probably be able to tell that's what I was doing. I've never been a very good stop and go writer.
mare:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 19, 2024, 12:59:20 AM ---We were talking about movie scores on Twitter, so I thought I'd bring that conversation here, since that's my typical writing music. If I remember correctly, you don't usually listen to music while you write, right, Mare? Is that still true?
I go through phases as far as what I listen to (or don't listen to) while I'm writing, but in general, I find that instrumental music helps me focus. I've been firmly back on the music kick for my past couple stories. I've found a few YouTube channels that have ambient music from movies set to pretty backgrounds or videos. My favorite is Ambient Worlds because their videos are really pretty and an hour or more long, so I can put them on my TV for background ambience when I write in my living room. My other favorite is The Ambient Score, which has shorter videos that are typically around 15-30 minutes.
It's been fun discovering good music from movies I haven't seen. I really love the score from The Last of the Mohicans. I've never watched the movie, but I kept coming back to the music from it while writing My Brother's Keeper. I listened to that and "Arrival of the Birds," which was used in The Theory of Everything, a lot. How to Train Your Dragon also has a really good score. One day, I clicked on a video of music from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and as I was listening, I was like, "This is just an instrumental version of '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' by Bryan Adams." That was when I learned that that song was from that movie. Never knew!
My nerdiest new music discovery of the past year or so has been this playlist of medieval renditions of Star Wars music: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9PLUrw0CbcSx6jZ5sO1W8wY_P0QsiVkb&si=h8FF_MlZrOR28b5M Apparently, there is this whole genre of music called "bardcore" that does medieval-sounding covers of pop songs. It's pretty great! Might be some fun music for your workouts, cooking, and cleaning!
Today I've been on a James Newton Howard kick. I love a lot of his scores, especially The Village, Lady in the Water, and King Kong. He's one of my go-tos when I can't decide what to listen to.
Do you have any recommendation s for me? I tend to like pretty, sad-sounding music when I'm writing, but sometimes I go the opposite direction and listen to more epic, action-packed stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean and any John Williams score just because it's good.
I hope you don't mind all my posts today! I'm clearly in summer mode and having the kind of week where I'm glued to my computer. But I've been doing more writing than playing The Sims, so that's progress!
--- End quote ---
Yup, still need complete quiet when I write. If the TV is on in the other room, I have to shut it off or close the door. If I were to listen to music, I'd be completely distracted and just end up listening to the music and conduct along. It's a musician thing. I don't think any of us can just listen to an instrumental piece without conducting it, especially if your bands have played them and with a lot of those pieces they have. LOL
I tend to enjoy TV scores more than movie although my go to movie score guy without a doubt is Danny Elfman. I can listen to his music all the time. The Braveheart soundtrack is great as well. Don't recall who that was though. When I want to feel sad it's, John Williams score to Schindler's list. The main theme music in particular.
As far as TV. Can't go wrong with Ramin Djawadi - he did the music for game of Thrones. Bear McCready, the Battle Star Galactica and See soundtracks are great. Nicholas Brittel who scored all of Succession, and Andor, which is another great score.
A great sad sounding track Langsam - we gave it a go. Nicholas Britell - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkSNb2iVyXI
There's also Andante Risoluto -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2l-GKWBbtw
okay now I'm going down the rabbit hole, so I need to stop trying to find all these soundtracks and write. LOL
I love when you post a lot! Keep it coming. I have to say I'm back because I didn't write a single word this morning. LOL
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on June 19, 2024, 09:36:12 AM ---Thank you for the AO3 info. I did what you mentioned, and I was able to find my work.
I'm not sure if I'd still be able to write if I were still working. I had taken so much time off from writing that if I was actually still teaching and decided to make my way back, I'm sure I'd be going at a much slower pace, if any at all. It makes sense you really slowed down when you were going for your masters. With all the extra work.
I love that people clicked on your story based on the tags you used. Some of those tags are just...yikes! in general. Let alone that people really use them for real stories. LOL
I don't think I could do the little bit each day way of writing, because of my awful memory. I'd most likely just start repeating myself and the particular way I write, you would probably be able to tell that's what I was doing. I've never been a very good stop and go writer.
--- End quote ---
It's definitely harder to write when I'm working full time. It was almost impossible when I had homework to do for my master's classes on top of teaching, so I really only had time to devote to fanfic on my breaks and over the summer.
It has helped me to get into the routine of writing in the morning instead of trying to do it in the evening after I get off work because I'm usually too exhausted. But working on it a little bit every day at least keeps me invested and makes it easier to get started on weekends when I have more time. It does sometimes lead to me accidentally repeating myself though LOL. If it's within the same chapter, I usually catch it when I'm rereading and revising, but I've also started using the search tool on my site to look up words and phrases that I might have used in previous chapters of the same story to see how many similar discussions the characters have already on whatever topic LOL.
Yeah, some of those tags... yikes is right! I took them all from existing tags on other people's stories and laughed the whole time I was adding them all. I can't imagine trying to write about some of that stuff, even as a joke, let alone seriously. Maybe it's easier when it's about purely fictional characters, but that may make it even funnier, especially when you consider some of the media people write fanfic for.
That made me think of another question: Do you find it easier to torture fictional characters than the Backstreet Boys? I know you never wanted to kill a BSB in a fic, but would you kill a Succession character? Just wondering if your mindset on that kind of stuff has changed now that you're not writing RPF.
RokofAges75:
What you said about wanting to conduct the music makes sense! I didn't think about that, but I can see how that would be distracting. I can't usually listen to music with lyrics for the same reason; I tend to sing along and get distracted. If I'm already in the zone and really inspired, then sometimes it's fine, but that's not usually the case.
Thanks for the music recommendation s! I like all the composers you named. Braveheart is one of my all-time favorite scores! That was by James Horner, who is probably my favorite composer. He also did Titanic and Avatar, which has a beautiful score as well. Schindler's List is on my writing playlist too, as is music from Game of Thrones. I haven't watched or heard the music from Battlestar Galactica, but Bear McCreary also did the music for The Walking Dead, which was also great.
I like the piano music from Succession! I enjoyed both the ones you linked. It's interesting listening to music from something I haven't watched because I don't associate it with a specific scene like you probably do. In some ways that's better for writing because I can make it fit whatever situation I'm writing about, but I always wonder how it was used originally.
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