Guest Blogger - J Lee Moffatt

[naomi_jay]

My guest blogger today is the awesome J Lee Moffatt, editor of Drops of Crimson (an ezine you should all be reading, btw), and also my critique partner :). I leave you in her capable hands as she helps your muse find it's music.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let the Music do the Talking

Music has always been a big part of my life. I learned how to read it when I was in the third grade, played guitar for years and years. I was even in choir and glee club in high school.

As a writer music has become even more important. Selecting the music for the character I’m writing is an integral part of the creative process. The only thing more important than the music is the computer, and conveniently it holds the tunes too.

Each character speaks to me. I let them tell me what music they like. For Denver Sinclair, scumbag vampire, it’s all classic rock all the time. Denver may have been born in 1864, but he listens to no music after 1985 except for Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. Yes my vampire likes Bon Jovi. Blaze of Glory is his theme song.

Jace Winters, a freshly turned vampire and detective with Las Vegas Metro, prefers dark angst filled alternative tunes. Jace isn’t a happy boy, and neither is his music. Jace hasn’t told me what his theme song is yet, but I’m sure he will.

God forbid I sit down to write for a character and play the wrong music. There’s a mutiny in the making. Even harder when Jace and Denver are in the same novel, vying not only for who gets the words, but who gets to pick the music for the day.

Another character of mine lives in the 22^nd century in Japan, where the feudal system is once again in power. Toya’s music is Hyde, Gackt and a lot of other JRock. You don’t have to understand the words to let the music help to spin the world.

There are some great sites out there where you can build and store playlists too, so you don’t have to fill your MP3 player or go broke buying downloads. I don’t encourage illegal downloads of any materials, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to listen to something online before you buy.

Project Playlist – www.playlist.com – On Project Playlist you can create an endless list of playlists up to 99 songs each. As a member of the Playlist.com community, you can create your own personal music experience by building playlists for every mood, genre, activity and occasion. You can recommend music to others. You can follow the musical journey your friends are taking. You can share your playlists on your social network profile or blog. I use the free version of Playlist, but they are starting a premium service too.

Grooveshark – http://listen.grooveshark.com/ - I discovered Grooveshark through Twitter, and I use it to tweet songs. You can also build playlists there, and they have a radio function that will automatically build a near endless playlist for you. It’s free with ads or $3 a month for no ads. The advertisements don’t interrupt the music, so I don’t see a reason to fork over the cash other than to support the site. You can find just about anything there to listen too, and you can upload songs too.

Last.FM – http://www.last.fm/ - Was my first online radio station. Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too. The Last.FM Scrobler scans what music you are listening to, and uses it to match you with more music over time. The service is free, but you can opt for a memberhip as well for extra services.

There are more music services out there, but these are the three I use and trust. I haven’t had to deal with viruses or junk mail by using them which is always a plus.

Thanks to my friend Naomi Clark for letting me fill up her Blog.

See Ya – J. Lee Moffatt – www.jleemoffatt.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remember, to be in with a chance of winning an Afterlife Bag of Swag all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Go!

Comments

[cherith.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly second your Last.fm recommendation. If you're a music lover, having the scrobbler catch everything you're listening to so that you can see what your habits are over time is a big bonus. If you opt for memberships so you can listen to your own playlists the subscription fee is pretty nominal - I switch back and forth all the time from paid to free as the month/mood/money fits. :)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Ugh, this a thousand times. I can't write without some kind of background noise, and I usually wind up attaching various songs to characters and building a playlist from there. Last.fm has been vital for when Winamp crashes for me to figure out what I was doing at the time, and for getting recs for new music. I love being on the constant prowl for something new, I never know what it's going to kick out of my brain.

My most recent revelation was finding out that my badass faeirie soldier dude is a totally unironic Lady Gaga fan. He is so full of pep, it's almost embarrassing.

[obfuscationofreality.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

It depends for me. Sometimes I feel like music and sometimes I don't. :-D

~Tyhitia