MENUMENU
  • About
  • Buy
  • Press
  • Book Clubs
  • Writer Resources
  • Allie Larkin
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • g

Allison Larkin

Internationally Best-Selling Author

You are here: Home / writing / I hide in my music, forget the day . . .

I hide in my music, forget the day . . .

August 14, 2008 Filed Under: writing

Picture from my bike trip.

I did a guest post over at Extra Ordinary today about my love of cheesy music, and it got me thinking of another writing habit I employ.

I make playlists for my main characters. Getting my butt in the chair and getting focused is another really important part of writing (obviously). Playing songs that my character would like or listen to, or songs that in some way trigger something for me about that character is a vital step in my the process. It gets me thinking in their head instead of my own, and makes it easier for me to stay true to my character, so I don’t feel like I’m manipulating their actions, just following them.

I’m not saying I’m channeling anything. No imaginary people speak to me, there’s no voice from the heavens, no deus ex machina action providing me with divine inspiration to solve all my writing problems. It’s more along the lines of what Anne LaMott says in Bird By Bird about listening to your characters so they’ll tell you how to write them. Listening to a character specific playlist helps me listen to my character.

One of my main characters was really into Boston, so I spent a lot of time listening to Boston, Journey, and bands of that ilk (from my post at Extra Ordinary, I’m sure you can tell that was horribly painful for me). It helped me get her on a different level.

When I started writing Bathtub Mary, I decided early on that the story needed to take place during the summer of 1982, and I started listening to a lot of music from that year. Rio by Duran Duran came out in May of ’82 and was a great fit for Margie’s story. It was a song that would have sounded so different and new to her, coming from a household where her mom worshipped Stevie Nicks. I also loved being able to play with the image of someone walking on water (“Oh Rio Rio, dance across the Rio Grande”), and the issues of religion in the story. I could have written the story without the music, but it would have been missing something.

My current project actually started with music. I was listening to a lot of Dar Williams, and started thinking about how hard it would be to actually be a folk singer – the travel, the dive bars and coffee shops, the people who want a piece of you. Then I heard This is the Sea by The Waterboys, and it really struck me. The first line “These things you keep, you better throw them away,” gave me a rush of ideas. I started a story about a girl named River (being very literal to the song lyrics, “That was the river, this is the sea”) who was a folk singer, and left something behind everywhere she went. The story was overly symbollic and heavyhanded and exactly the kind of dreck a first draft should be, but when I got to the end of it, I had a character who, with a name change, and a different focus, is one I’ve decided to keep, and not throw away (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Her song list is heavy on the folk – Jeffery Foucault, Dar Williams, Kris Delmhorst, Peter Mulvey, Josh Ritter, Ryan Adams (Call Me On Your Way Back Home feels like it was written just for my main character at this stage of the game) – but also heavy on The Cure, Counting Crows, REM, and The Lemonheads, because that music taps my teen angst and also puts me in the story’s mid-90’s time period.

I just downloaded a recording of Toad the Wet Sprocket playing live in Arlington yesterday, and I’ve got 20 songs worth of writing inspiration right there. Time to put my butt in my writing chair.

1 Comment

Comments

  1. Willow says

    August 15, 2008 at 3:15 am

    Hello Allie! Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting.

    My grandson is truly a sweet and happy baby. The smile I photographed is what we usally see all day long.

    I love my bike too. I haven’t ridden much this summer. I really do need to remedy that before school starts! Not much time now.

    I like to walk to clear my head and walking along the beach is the best place for me to do that.

    I’ll be back to read more!

    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

  • Home
  • Allie Larkin
  • Blog
  • Book Clubs
  • Contact
  • Writer Resources

allielarkinwrites

Glamour shot. #dailyroxydog #huskymix #chihuahuami Glamour shot. #dailyroxydog #huskymix #chihuahuamix #huskychihuahuadachshund #dog
How’s relaxing going, you ask? Well, so far I’ How’s relaxing going, you ask? Well, so far I’ve cleaned the gutters and raced Roxy to the vet ER to determine she did not (thankfully) eat any of the scrap of composite plastic decking she magically found out of freaking nowhere. (Getting pet insurance was the smartest thing I’ve ever done). I’m extremely bad at rest. Although I do find puttering around the house kind of meditative. Cleaning the gutters exhausted my body, but calmed my mind (briefly).
This is our neighbor, Francis. We visit Francis a This is our neighbor, Francis. We visit Francis a couple times a week and we all like to stand around staring at each other. It’s lovely. Francis seems just as interested in us as we are in them. (And look at that stance! And Francis’s little paw resting on the ledge 😍). #groundsquirrel #groundsquirrelsofinstagram #dailyroxydog #dogstagram #neighbors
I don’t think there’s anything more comforting I don’t think there’s anything more comforting than lying in a hammock. I’m exhausted. I’ve pushed against the limits of my being very hard all summer working on my draft and I definitely need to soak up some calm quiet on a large scale. Which is also to say if I owe you a call/email/text, it might take me a week or two to circle back. I’m going to catch up with myself and then with everyone else this time. Which I think might mean spending as much time as I can lying in my hammock listening to birds. #rest
There are few greater joys than a long walk with a There are few greater joys than a long walk with a curious little dog. #dailyroxydog #seenonmywalk #dogsofinstagram
All I ever want is an endless stream of tiny snack All I ever want is an endless stream of tiny snacks to crunch while I’m working. But since I have MCAS and it limits my diet, most of what I eat is food I make myself. Thankfully, corn tortillas are a safe food for me (everyone’s MCAS is different — so please don’t take my safe foods as any kind of sign they’re safe for someone else who has MCAS). Today, I remembered that I  have tiny cookie cutters, so I made myself a bowl of mini chips. I tossed them with lime juice and salt and threw them in the air fryer. And then, of course, because I don’t want to waste food, I did the same for the scrap pieces (which somehow tasted even better!). So happy! #tortillachips
Load More... Follow on Instagram

© Allison Larkin | Site by Little Leaf Design