@MaryHerself Aw, thanks! And yes, playlists 🎧
What usually happens with me is I'm driving along, minding my own business, and a song comes on the radio and suddenly my characters start moving, playing out a scene in my mind, like they're in a music video (stupid #writer subconscious)
So I grab that song and add it to the playlist, and if I'm lucky, every time I play it I get a bit more of that scene. Or at least a bit more of that character.
Hero in current #wip seems to like James Arthur...
@SusannaKearsley @MaryHerself My playlist is so important for fleshing out my characters, especially with my WIP, which is set in present-day New Jersey. The setting's music is all New Brunswick basement scene (Smithereens, Screaming Females, etc.), punctuated with the occasional burst of Springsteen. A secondary character from Texas didn't pop for me until I tried to figure out what country music she'd grown up with (The Chicks, early Taylor Swift, etc.).
@SarahAvery @MaryHerself I love it when a song gives you an insight into character. In the book Mary mentioned, The Vanished Days, my hero walked onto the page as a fairly quiet, reserved dude, but then one day I was in the car and THIS song came on the radio and he started moving around and I thought: Huh. 🤔 Guess I don't know him as well as I thought I did. Obviously a few more layers there I need to peel back...