Learning From The Music

Nanowrimo is less than a week away and while I had been planning to write a different book I ended up deciding on book two in the series I began last year. I had been looking for that one project that stood out the most. I wanted to hear my characters calling, asking to share their story. There were a few tentative hands raised but it wasn't until I started jotting down notes for book two, then three and realized there was actually a fourth as well that I knew I would be finishing the series within the next year.

One of the things I have noticed is that the music I put on my playlists help get me into the right frame of mind to write the books. Book one, Voices In My Head, had a very angry and aggressive playlist filled with artists like Korn, Marilyn Manson and Judas Priest. I still have the same playlist but with added songs that speak more to the current main character. Chelsea, who ran the show in book one, was more refined. She was thirty eight years old, a best-selling romance novelist and part time guest lecturer at the local college. She had an ex husband and estranged daughter as well as a younger neighbor who was a friend and protege. That neighbor, Samantha Peters, is the focus for book two.

Also a romance author and with a style similar to Chelsea, Sam was drawn into the world of characters that can sometimes take on a life of their own as she watched Chelsea battle her inner demons. As time moves on and Sam moves further into her own writing journey she begins to wonder exactly what Chelsea was dealing with. None of her characters have ever given her problems. Chelsea was diagnosed with a brain tumor and though she didn't want to believe it, Sam finally starts to think that the hallucinations were just side effects of the tumor. It isn't until Sam begins to really look at what Chelsea last wrote before her diagnosis that she awakens the same sinister character Chelsea had fought so hard against.

The music for Sam is still aggressive though she is younger and much more prepared for the battle she is facing so I have added songs to signal that strength and determination. I think the most interesting thing is that of all four books this is the one I know the least about and everyday I find a song that speaks to me as though coming from Samantha herself. Through the music I am learning about the character and from her I will get the story that will continue on the Voices In My Head series.