Sometimes it's the type of music that sets the feel - a sophisticated classical music character or a lively country music characters - and sometimes it's the lyrics in a song that fit.
When I was writing about Dawn Bell in Thief, a character who is in her mid-20s and had just discovered she has a strange ability, Just a Little Girl by Trading Yesterday seemed to fit very well with what I was trying to get into her character. The lyrics talk about a character who runs away from a relationship because she couldn't admit she'd done something wrong and couldn't understand 'the demons that I faced'. The next line is 'So go ahead and bat your eyes and lie right to the world / For in everything you are / You're just a little girl'. While Dawn wasn't running away from a relationship, she was running away from something she'd done and was trying to justify it to herself while pretending to the world that she was a normal person, and in some ways feeling like a lost little girl in a big grown up world. If I ever found myself writing what seemed to be out of character for her, I'd pop the song on and she'd be back on track again very quickly.
So to sum up, I know that writing to music isn't something everyone can do or likes to do, but personally, I find songs and music a very useful tool to help with character development.
Challenge for today - find a random song or piece of music on YouTube and write a character based on the feel of that music.
I always write to music. It helps me get into the right place.
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Very interesting post! I had never thought of music as a form character building. I often listen to classical music while I write. I will have to try this. Thanks for posting this information. :)
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