It took a while to find the right music for WARPAINT.
First, this is the music I have playing in the background while I write, so it has to fit the universe, the characters, and the “feel” of a lived-in place full of real humans, real needs, and the themes of the story. And it has to not grate on my nerves or distract me from my words.
It has to become subliminal, has to leak into my subconscious mind and feed the story I want to write.
So the soundtrack places HEAVY emphasis on Jim Tozier’s guitar work, which fits Cady like her skin.
The rest of the music in the soundtrack hits plot points, characters, or some element of theme or characterization I want to have in my head.
But Tozier is the backbone of the whole track.
So here’s the WARPAINT soundtrack.
(Link is to iTunes. It’s quick and convenient, and every other listing option I’ve tried has proven a giant pain in the ass.)
Consider it a sneak preview.
On a personal note, I still have the damn headaches and migraines. I’m getting some work done—putting the soundtrack together was a little bit of relaxation when my head hurt too badly to do anything else.
can you post just the artist and titles as I do not use or have itunes and thus no way to see the list
At the point where I don’t have a migraine, I’ll type out the list. Right now, the headache is still blinding, and I’m barely able to get work done.
Okay, thank you. I’m excited to see what songs set the tone for your story.
I do love a good playlist and thank you for this one! I had to smile when I came upon Nick Drake’s ‘Cello Song’–since I already have the Jose Gonzalez version (artist ‘The Books’ ironically)
I’m going to check out Jami Sieber as well, and of course the Jim Tozier. Time to load up the iTunes account.
Hope your headaches take a turn for the better soon!
Hopefully the stress of your novel isn’t doing it. If so, maybe you can take a day to write on something else? Just to see if it helps? Never mind, you know your own health. The only headaches I ever get are usually due to dehydration. Anyway, good luck.
I barely get a chance to write fiction at the moment. I can squeeze in time on weekends, and that’s pure playtime. The work that’s giving me the migraines is getting the How To Think Sideways site and Writers’ Boot Camp community set up with all my written courses on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and in print, and getting the mechanism set up so students of my other courses besides HOW TO THINK SIDEWAYS and HOW TO REVISE YOUR NOVEL can join the community.
I’ve been working on this for nearly a year now, and we’re about ready to go—but it’s been a long, long, long hard slog, and what’s coming next is going to be an intense student-support ordeal for a couple of months as I get everyone’s account fixed and shut down the existing versions of the course to NEW students (students already in the courses will stay, complete them, and be comped into the new versions).
Someday I hope you put together a lesson for short story writers like me. I have already used a lot of what you posted on here. It helps, thanks. But I think I am coming up on twenty rejections about now, and nobody wants me
*sniffle*
Any way, thanks for the plotting and structural advice especially.
But I do still want to do something on structuring short stories.
Thanks:) That helps.
Twenty times you had the guts to put your stories under the scrutiny of editors, hoping they’d put the stories under the scrutiny of audiences?! Well done! And crazy, but we like that around here, right?
Ha! I do the same thing! I just finished my first novel, and the tone of the piece is kind of weary-but-dauntless. It’s an old, dead world crushed under fear and superstition, and a girl must walk miles and miles. Dead Man’s Bones’ song “Pa Pa Power” provided the backbone of the corpse-world setting, and Elisha Eagle’s “One” is my eleven-year-old protagonist’s private anthem.
iTunes didn’t pick up on my instrumental section, but here’s a selection from my core playlist.
http://c.itunes.apple.com/us/imix/world-of-ash/id505901078
The full thing sprawled out to 30+ songs, but these are the heartbeat.
PS: Thank you for introducing me to Jim Tozier. This stuff is glorious!
You’re welcome on Jim Tozier. I just found him. I have him on endless loop on my computer at the moment. He’s great to write to, but listening to his clean, crisp guitar while I’m doing site setup and endless miserable slogs through testing, linking, testing, breaking, testing testing testing is making my day go much better.