Novel Soundtracks 1: The Basics + Songs for Team Good
For all of ye (heh, I said ye) who don't know what a novel soundtrack is or have never made/used one, let me define the term. A novel soundtrack is like a movie soundtrack, only you don't have to work with other people who say your music choices are bad/incorrect/all different music genres and don't match. Ha! And it's for your #WIP and not a movie. And. . . oh yeah. You're the only one who will probably ever listen to it.
But seriously, these are awesome. I have done one for every NaNoWriMo novel I've done so far (which is, uh, two) and one for a different novel I did in the middle of the year. I guess you can make one for a novel you're writing longhand, but I don't really see the point unless the novel is one that you're writing on your computer.
Basically, you just throw together a bunch of songs that you think go with your novel (hopefully in order), and you listen to it when you're writing. That's basically the short version of all the greek above.
This post is on the songs for the good guys. Y'know, the protagonist and the mentor and all their friends. Enemies are for another post. The other posts I have planned in this series will be 1)villain songs 2)action and emotional songs, and 3)songs for different parts of the story. I'll link them once they're out.
Now, without any more introduction (because we already have enough introduction to sink a small yacht), let us begin my blathering about music.
Good Guy Songs
Item number one! Your protagonist needs a theme song. Pick a song that goes with their personality. For Lexie in Crash and Burn (my first NaNoWriMo novel), the song was 'Bottle of Bad Ideas' by VanLadyLove. I ran across it as the background song for a YouTube video I was watching, and it matched her so well. Lexie's a skateboarder and a troublemaker, and she's viewed so poorly in her hometown it drives her to make bad decisions.Item number two! Your protagonists' friends should also have their own theme songs. You can give them all their own theme song, or you could just give your protagonist one and stop there. For last year's NaNoWriMo, I had a song for the protagonist (well, sort of), one for the villain, one for the best friend, and one for a pretty important foil character. My suggestion would be to give one to at least the protagonist, the sidekick, and the mentor.
Also! If your protagonist has a particularly awesome character arc, I would also suggest giving them a song for before they begin their arc, and one for after the arc has ended. I've never done this, but I think it would be AWESOME to try.
Music Choice Suggestions
For any and all songs that you may put in your novel soundtrack, have a couple of suggestions on where to look. In case you don't know what kind of songs to include, this is the part of the post you want. This blog post is a really good one with lots of different ideas for songs. Some other good places to get songs for your soundtrack are:- Disney musicals. So many good character songs, especially in the second Lion King soundtrack.
- Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'm serious. They have a huge variety of pop songs that are super good for adding to novel soundtracks. This is the first place I look when I'm constructing a novel soundtrack. Find their movie soundtracks, look through the songs. You might find a gem.
- Broadway. Need I say more? So many good, catchy songs. You might find some good ones.
- If your novel happens in a specific era, you could look for music that was written in that era. My sister found entire albums of 50's music once for something she was writing
- Pop albums. Look through the albums of your favorite artists. I've used some Owl City, especially for whimsical parts of the story, and some Taylor Swift. She's good for angry songs and love songs especially, but there are some good character songs in the album Reputation.
- I've heard that this website is good for novel soundtracks. Forgive me, I haven't tried it myself just yet, but word of blog tells me that it's good.
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