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pikestaffMy book has a "soundtrack" of sorts that goes along with it. Basically I compiled a bunch of music together and listened to it while writing. Some songs were just played for general ambiance but others had very specific characters or scenes associated with them.
I decided to share some of them here for posterity more than anything, (and for my own benefit). It's probably not really in any particular order, other than maybe roughly chronological.
WARNING: Possible spoilers.
The Unofficial Windshifter "Soundtrack"
James Horner - An American Tail: The orchestral score to this film definitely played a major role in the book's general feel. Just listening to it for its own merits reveals very soulful and emotional melodies that succeed in being very bittersweet: hopeful and melancholy at the same time. And I think that's ultimately what I was going for in the story's tone.
The main title was inspirational in more ways than one. See, the big thing about the opening of this movie (at least back in the 80s when it first came out) was that there were these giant 3D snowflakes floating around, and it was this big cool thing to start with the closeup of a snowflake. So I was sitting at my computer on Day One of my NaNo, trying to figure out how to start this book which I still had no outline or real plot for in my head, and I decided to start out with the specific, "close-up" image of an object the way An American Tail had started out with the snowflake.
I decided to start with the image of a pocket watch. And that's... basically how the whole story started.
Another important track was "Reunited", which I can't seem to find on YouTube anywhere, but it was the theme that played during the end of the film when Fieval was walking along alone and dejected and then suddenly reunited with his family. This is an absolutely gorgeous piece of music and it became the main theme for a scene towards the end of the novel involving Suncaster and Sparktender-- so much so, in fact, that you could basically start playing this piece at a given time in the novel and it would match up to the words on the page disturbingly well and at just the right times.
"The Great Fire" (another track that I cannot find on YouTube) was what was running through my head as I came up with a new scene which I have yet to fit into the novel but which I think is important: one where Windshifter discovers a watch factory and declares it profane.
All-in-all, this soundtrack did much to advance my novel. Much love.
James Newton Howard - Dinosaur: I was never a big fan of this film as a whole, but the music is simply amazing. Before I'd started writing and before I knew what I really wanted out of the book, I knew one thing: The Egg Travels was going to be the "airship theme". I sort of consider this to be the novel's main (orchestral) theme song, perhaps even more than the American Tail music... it's just so hopeful and optimistic.
The theme is revisited in "Epilogue" which, yes, I had playing as I wrote the novel's final paragraph.
James Horner - Casper's Lullaby - A haunting song used mostly for ambiance during Chapter Two, when Windshifter meets Sparktender and the former learns of his past for the first time.
Thomas Newman - Various Titles from Wall-E and Finding Nemo - Another composer well known for his bittersweet melodies. In particular, "2815 AD" from Wall-E was used for general atmosphere (particularly during Chapter Two) and "Jellyfish Forest" from Finding Nemo was used for the scene where Windshifter, Profferlink, and Hailshaker chase the floakling around in the Zydekon District. (I had... a LOT of fun writing that scene.)
James Newton Howard - Treasure Planet - The entire soundtrack was used for general flavor during the first half or so of the book. By the second half I had shifted more towards...
Michael Giacchino - Star Trek (2009) - Used for atmosphere music throughout the second half of the novel. In specific, the track "Labor of Love" was used for the scene where Windshifter stands on his automaton and makes his little speech.
Rebecca Kneubuhl & Gabriel Mann - Spyro Flying Theme - I have no idea what this song is actually called, except that it's in the Legend of Spyro game. All I know is that I love it and I played it pretty much anytime I needed to get into the mood to work on the story. It just brings to my mind flying airships and that whole mystical sense of curiosity that is so central to the story as a whole.
I think if "Windshifter" ever became a movie I might try to con Kneubuhl and Mann to do the music... *grin*
Bulgarian Women's Choir - Transformation - Doesn't really have any specific link to the story, but it's another song I could play to get me in the appropriate writing mood.
Escape Key - Mal's Song - Beautiful extended version of the theme from "Firefly". Hailshaker's Theme. I played it multiple times when trying to really get into his character. In fact, toward the end of the book he had really just become a personification of the song, which I figure isn't a bad thing.
Steve Burns - Mighty Little Man - Interestingly this song doesn't have a whole lot to do with the story but I ended up listening to it a lot while writing because it still seemed to feel like it tied in somehow. I sort of loosely consider it to be Windshifter (the character) 's Theme.
The Clockwork Quartet - I can't recall if I stumbled across this band before or after I decided I was going to redo the book and make it steampunk. Either way, those events happened at right around the same time, and it's safe to say that both The Watchmaker's Apprentice and The Doctor's Wife were very heavy influences on the novel's atmosphere and some of the themes.
Vernian Process - Another steampunk band that I unearthed at some point while researching the novel. (This section will sadly be sans-links since last I checked most of their music was still officially under a "works-in-progress" banner and as such it is somewhat difficult to obtain, although you can gernally find it if you do enough digging around on steampunk LJ communities or forums).
Specifically the songs "The Maiden Flight", "Interlude III: Into the Aether", and "Maple Leaf Rag" were staples on my playlist as airship songs/atmosphere music. In addition, I frequently paired up "Her Clockwork Heart" with the Dinosaur "Epilogue" I mentioned earlier for a one-two punch of Closing Theme + Credits Song, because apparently I work best when I visualize everything as a movie, including credits. (The lyrics of "Her Clockwork Heart" have pretty much nothing to do with my book, but I liked the music.)
Coldplay - The Hardest Part - Arguably the main theme of the novel. Let me explain. (Warning, again: Possible spoilers!!)
Okay. So I had the idea for Sparktender and his whole mystery backstory at the beginning of the novel, in fact, it's pretty much the one thing in the story that's remained consistent throughout the course of writing. And very early on I had this little storyboard in my head of that backstory, and I don't remember how but somehow that storyboard got set to this song.
(As an aside, I actually really wanted to sit down and get that mental storyboard on paper, but I ended up not doing so because of the gaze of the Almighty NaNo Word Count Meter.)
Regardless, this mental storyboard/music video was constantly in my head and had some tangible influences on various story details (for example, the song's mention of "silver lining in the clouds" and Sparktender's memories of cloud-gazing).
Ultimately, this is Sparktender's Theme if not the entire novel's theme, and I can't hear it without really getting into the mood to write or draw Windshifter stuff. So it's all good.
EARLY/LESSER INFLUENCES:
John Rzeznik - I'm Still Here - Was Windshifter's Theme back when the book was still going to be a Princess Bride/LotR fantasy hybrid, but his character has changed a lot since then. (I still really like the song.)
Phil Collins - Take Me Home - Was another Windshifter's Theme when it was aforementioned fantasy. Again, a lot of character changes made it a little irrelevant, although the song still reminds me of my book because of all the previous association I'd had with it.
REM - Various - Daysleeper and Nightswimming, in particular, were theme songs to full-blown movie scripts that I'd previously written and that I poached from freely when coming up with plot ideas for Windshifter. Specifically "Daysleeper" was a song that provided the character's only link to his past (much the same way the pocket watch does in the book) and "Nightswimming" symbolized a scene where the character is separated from his parents as a baby. So, there was some thematic/creative relevance here.
Moby - Beautiful and Margot & The Nuclear So & So's - Quiet as a Mouse - Both loose influences on Wingbender Corporation, the former for the chorus and the latter for the general theme of hiding and being afraid of something.
Gustav Holst - St. Paul's Suite - I considered this to be the orchestral theme of the book in its fantasy days.
Simon & Garfunkel - I Am a Rock - This song was the (very) early inspiration for the story and character idea that would later become Sparktender. Basically Sparktender wouldn't exist if it weren't for this song. "I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died / If I'd never loved I never would have cried..."
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy (various) - Obviously!
Men Without Hats - Various - ...moral support. What?
I may come back and edit this if I left some stuff out. Next time: literary/intertextual influences!
I decided to share some of them here for posterity more than anything, (and for my own benefit). It's probably not really in any particular order, other than maybe roughly chronological.
WARNING: Possible spoilers.
The Unofficial Windshifter "Soundtrack"
James Horner - An American Tail: The orchestral score to this film definitely played a major role in the book's general feel. Just listening to it for its own merits reveals very soulful and emotional melodies that succeed in being very bittersweet: hopeful and melancholy at the same time. And I think that's ultimately what I was going for in the story's tone.
The main title was inspirational in more ways than one. See, the big thing about the opening of this movie (at least back in the 80s when it first came out) was that there were these giant 3D snowflakes floating around, and it was this big cool thing to start with the closeup of a snowflake. So I was sitting at my computer on Day One of my NaNo, trying to figure out how to start this book which I still had no outline or real plot for in my head, and I decided to start out with the specific, "close-up" image of an object the way An American Tail had started out with the snowflake.
I decided to start with the image of a pocket watch. And that's... basically how the whole story started.
Another important track was "Reunited", which I can't seem to find on YouTube anywhere, but it was the theme that played during the end of the film when Fieval was walking along alone and dejected and then suddenly reunited with his family. This is an absolutely gorgeous piece of music and it became the main theme for a scene towards the end of the novel involving Suncaster and Sparktender-- so much so, in fact, that you could basically start playing this piece at a given time in the novel and it would match up to the words on the page disturbingly well and at just the right times.
"The Great Fire" (another track that I cannot find on YouTube) was what was running through my head as I came up with a new scene which I have yet to fit into the novel but which I think is important: one where Windshifter discovers a watch factory and declares it profane.
All-in-all, this soundtrack did much to advance my novel. Much love.
James Newton Howard - Dinosaur: I was never a big fan of this film as a whole, but the music is simply amazing. Before I'd started writing and before I knew what I really wanted out of the book, I knew one thing: The Egg Travels was going to be the "airship theme". I sort of consider this to be the novel's main (orchestral) theme song, perhaps even more than the American Tail music... it's just so hopeful and optimistic.
The theme is revisited in "Epilogue" which, yes, I had playing as I wrote the novel's final paragraph.
James Horner - Casper's Lullaby - A haunting song used mostly for ambiance during Chapter Two, when Windshifter meets Sparktender and the former learns of his past for the first time.
Thomas Newman - Various Titles from Wall-E and Finding Nemo - Another composer well known for his bittersweet melodies. In particular, "2815 AD" from Wall-E was used for general atmosphere (particularly during Chapter Two) and "Jellyfish Forest" from Finding Nemo was used for the scene where Windshifter, Profferlink, and Hailshaker chase the floakling around in the Zydekon District. (I had... a LOT of fun writing that scene.)
James Newton Howard - Treasure Planet - The entire soundtrack was used for general flavor during the first half or so of the book. By the second half I had shifted more towards...
Michael Giacchino - Star Trek (2009) - Used for atmosphere music throughout the second half of the novel. In specific, the track "Labor of Love" was used for the scene where Windshifter stands on his automaton and makes his little speech.
Rebecca Kneubuhl & Gabriel Mann - Spyro Flying Theme - I have no idea what this song is actually called, except that it's in the Legend of Spyro game. All I know is that I love it and I played it pretty much anytime I needed to get into the mood to work on the story. It just brings to my mind flying airships and that whole mystical sense of curiosity that is so central to the story as a whole.
I think if "Windshifter" ever became a movie I might try to con Kneubuhl and Mann to do the music... *grin*
Bulgarian Women's Choir - Transformation - Doesn't really have any specific link to the story, but it's another song I could play to get me in the appropriate writing mood.
Escape Key - Mal's Song - Beautiful extended version of the theme from "Firefly". Hailshaker's Theme. I played it multiple times when trying to really get into his character. In fact, toward the end of the book he had really just become a personification of the song, which I figure isn't a bad thing.
Steve Burns - Mighty Little Man - Interestingly this song doesn't have a whole lot to do with the story but I ended up listening to it a lot while writing because it still seemed to feel like it tied in somehow. I sort of loosely consider it to be Windshifter (the character) 's Theme.
The Clockwork Quartet - I can't recall if I stumbled across this band before or after I decided I was going to redo the book and make it steampunk. Either way, those events happened at right around the same time, and it's safe to say that both The Watchmaker's Apprentice and The Doctor's Wife were very heavy influences on the novel's atmosphere and some of the themes.
Vernian Process - Another steampunk band that I unearthed at some point while researching the novel. (This section will sadly be sans-links since last I checked most of their music was still officially under a "works-in-progress" banner and as such it is somewhat difficult to obtain, although you can gernally find it if you do enough digging around on steampunk LJ communities or forums).
Specifically the songs "The Maiden Flight", "Interlude III: Into the Aether", and "Maple Leaf Rag" were staples on my playlist as airship songs/atmosphere music. In addition, I frequently paired up "Her Clockwork Heart" with the Dinosaur "Epilogue" I mentioned earlier for a one-two punch of Closing Theme + Credits Song, because apparently I work best when I visualize everything as a movie, including credits. (The lyrics of "Her Clockwork Heart" have pretty much nothing to do with my book, but I liked the music.)
Coldplay - The Hardest Part - Arguably the main theme of the novel. Let me explain. (Warning, again: Possible spoilers!!)
Okay. So I had the idea for Sparktender and his whole mystery backstory at the beginning of the novel, in fact, it's pretty much the one thing in the story that's remained consistent throughout the course of writing. And very early on I had this little storyboard in my head of that backstory, and I don't remember how but somehow that storyboard got set to this song.
(As an aside, I actually really wanted to sit down and get that mental storyboard on paper, but I ended up not doing so because of the gaze of the Almighty NaNo Word Count Meter.)
Regardless, this mental storyboard/music video was constantly in my head and had some tangible influences on various story details (for example, the song's mention of "silver lining in the clouds" and Sparktender's memories of cloud-gazing).
Ultimately, this is Sparktender's Theme if not the entire novel's theme, and I can't hear it without really getting into the mood to write or draw Windshifter stuff. So it's all good.
EARLY/LESSER INFLUENCES:
John Rzeznik - I'm Still Here - Was Windshifter's Theme back when the book was still going to be a Princess Bride/LotR fantasy hybrid, but his character has changed a lot since then. (I still really like the song.)
Phil Collins - Take Me Home - Was another Windshifter's Theme when it was aforementioned fantasy. Again, a lot of character changes made it a little irrelevant, although the song still reminds me of my book because of all the previous association I'd had with it.
REM - Various - Daysleeper and Nightswimming, in particular, were theme songs to full-blown movie scripts that I'd previously written and that I poached from freely when coming up with plot ideas for Windshifter. Specifically "Daysleeper" was a song that provided the character's only link to his past (much the same way the pocket watch does in the book) and "Nightswimming" symbolized a scene where the character is separated from his parents as a baby. So, there was some thematic/creative relevance here.
Moby - Beautiful and Margot & The Nuclear So & So's - Quiet as a Mouse - Both loose influences on Wingbender Corporation, the former for the chorus and the latter for the general theme of hiding and being afraid of something.
Gustav Holst - St. Paul's Suite - I considered this to be the orchestral theme of the book in its fantasy days.
Simon & Garfunkel - I Am a Rock - This song was the (very) early inspiration for the story and character idea that would later become Sparktender. Basically Sparktender wouldn't exist if it weren't for this song. "I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died / If I'd never loved I never would have cried..."
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy (various) - Obviously!
Men Without Hats - Various - ...moral support. What?
I may come back and edit this if I left some stuff out. Next time: literary/intertextual influences!
