/lit/ - Literature

>>23434442
Different people are different so I use any and all music that I think captures their personalities or story arcs.

I've got a character that's a naive young woman torn between wanderlust and her obligations to her home so her playlist sounds like this:
https://youtu.be/Pvb1F6ob_hI

Another character is a doctor that's fixated on curing death but is so deep in the weeds that they create something like a zombie outbreak without realizing it, so their playlist is all high-minded orchestral stuff:
https://youtu.be/C3skXjCmvVc

Another character is schizophrenic so all of the songs on their playlist have at least two vocalists:
https://youtu.be/PmBnpapppN4

Another character with undiagnosed ADHD has a lot of noisy introspective songs:
https://youtu.be/tdC3-XhOzNM

Another character is leading their community through a major conflict so their playlist is very "combative":
https://youtu.be/F7Ex-ubaU6A

Another character lives vicariously through the people they support because they're a coward so their playlist focuses on themes like regret and overcoming fear:
https://youtu.be/T8obR2hx6Og

Another character is in law enforcement but also has a LOT of anger issues and struggles to be fair and just when dealing with criminals so their playlist has a lot of heavy metal and harsh vocals:
https://youtu.be/qyYmS_iBcy4

Another character is cop that was an orphan that's never fit in anywhere... until they go undercover with a criminal group and start being treated like family, so their playlist comes from a BROAD range of genres to capture them not fitting in, but every track tends to focus on themes like loneliness, not fitting in, found family, etc:
https://youtu.be/GEGieUB4b3c

etc, etc, etc.

I like the approach so far. It does get a little tricky when writing scenes with multiple characters interacting because it's cumbersome to switch playlists constantly. I currently make an outline for major interactions that contain the major beats for each participant and write them all separately for each character and then try to integrate them piece by piece by plucking actions and responses from my outlines and placing them in the main text and editing them for coherence, if that makes sense.

My main problem is I've noticed that the side and background characters tend to match the energy of the playlists of the characters that are the main focus. If I'm listening to thrash metal because I'm writing the character with anger issues, I tend to write the one-off bad guys they're fighting with the same energy. Which is a problem if one bad guy is scared and another is composed and calm.

I'm not sure I want playlists for every side character. I'm considering some "neutral" playlists for general moods like "scared person", "sensible person", "chipper service worker", etc, but some of that might end up being elevator music or something.