Thursday, August 18, 2011

Eating People With the Juke Joint Pimps

 If you read my other blogs, you know I've been prepping my cannibal manuscript for the Kindle.  When I write I tend to listen to a lot of music.  This song, by the Juke Joint Pimps, has been played more than once ... for the more pleasant moments in the manuscript.

Music is important to viewers while watching a movie.  For some writers, the process of creation practically requires music for it to feel complete.  The other manuscript I'm working on, one that involves a complex mix of sex and violence, has a classic rock soundtrack.  Everything I listen to while writing it is stuff that can be found on classic rock stations.  The Rolling Stones, Edgar Winter, Blue Oyster Cult, Grand Funk Railroad.  You name it.  If it's appeared on a classic rock station, I probably listened to it.

The reason I blast music while writing creatively (for the record, I have CNN on as I write this) is to help set the mood.  Sometimes I find that the rhythm of my writing matches the music, and the scene I'm writing will match the music.  It not only helps set the mood in the story, but it keeps the atmosphere forefront in my mind, as well.  When I listened to the Juke Joint Pimps while working on the cannibal manuscript, it invoked certain feelings, as did old country music and a select few other bands.  It enabled me to stay in the right frame of mind to make sure my characters had the certain swagger I wanted.

Writers are split on whether or not you should listen to music while writing.  Some find it distracting.  Some thinks it actually takes away from the experience.  Others, like myself, find that aids either the creative process or the actual "work" aspect of writing.  To each their own.  I'm going to stick with the Juke Joint Pimps as I edit the scenes where captured teens are being told their fate.  It just feels ... right.


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