My New MC Is Taking Over

From YA Highway:

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question to write about on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic: What music has been your summer soundtrack?

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: I don’t normally do blog fests, but this one was timely. So timely that I already had this post almost ready before I saw the topic.

What music do I listen to? This summer I found Purity Ring, for myself, but I’ve also noticed some not-so-Liz (me) like music creeping into my soundtrack. The MC in my current WIP (summer contemporary YA) is sneaking in her own songs.

It started with a few innocent songs that I normally wouldn’t listen to (or at least I tell myself I wouldn’t listen too). Um, Call Me Maybe? That’s not a question, it’s a song I have been love/hating on for the past several weeks at the urgings of Alice, my MC.

But it’s not just one or two songs she’s making me listen to. She has taken over presets in my car! I used to only have two presets: MPR News and The Current (which is also MPR, awesome alternative music). My new MC has programmed all the other presets and I now have several radio stations in there that I wouldn’t normally listen to. I am talking serious pop music here! Haven’t listened to pop since I was thirteen. So it’s a bit weird for me.

My last WIP was written from the point of view of a teenage girl who was channeling my inner teenager, so it made sense that while I was writing it I listened to angsty alternative music.

This new character is someone I never was, but in order to write from her point of view I need to get to know her. I want to get to know her. It’s just a bit of a culture shock for me. I feel like I’m Drew Berrymore’s character in Never Been Kissed. I wouldn’t say I grew up a Josie Grossie, but I was definitely never prom queen. So now I’m having to relearn what it was like to be a kid, in someone else’s shoes. It’s been kinda crazy, but it’s also been fun.

So, if you see me bobbing my head and singing along to Call Me Maybe, don’t hate. I’m a writer, this is how I have to explore my new MC. And also, okay, I admit, I kinda like the song.

Does anyone else listen to different music depending on what they are writing?

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