If You Haven't Noticed, There's No Theme

The oddest idea came to me today. One of my biggest challenges when writing stories is describing things and making sure my characters keep the same personality throughout the story. I thought of a great idea to keep the characters' personalities strong! Here it is...

I have a passion for music. So, what if I determined the kind of music my characters would listen to if they were living in this day and age?

Here's my perfect example. For those that don't know, I've been working on the sequel to Prophecy while I've been waiting to get my new computer back.

What is Prophecy you ask? Prophecy is the novel that I've been working on since I was 15. Once my computer comes in, and the hard-drive from the old computer gets put in the new one, I'll be nit-picking the hell out of it to make sure it's spotless.

What's Prophecy about? Simple. It's the story of Lina Rayne, a teenage girl who lost her parents when she was younger and now lives with her aunt Pam and cousin Ian. There was an uncle involved, but he ran three years before the story begins. Her mother had disappeared one day while on a trip to the store. Her father disappeared not long after that to look for her mother. This left Lina a very bitter teenager. Lately, her cousin Ian had been having some weird black-outs, one of those resulting in a freak accident that thrusts Lina into another world.

Lina finds herself nearly kidnapped by a greedy, rapey pimp who's in search of escaped merchandise and is quickly rescued by a soldier in training named Ben. The victory is short-lived when they're captured by a small band of Runaway Slaves lead by a girl named Lorelei. Lorelei believes herself to be the warrior of ancient prophecies. Together, the three of them must travel across the world of Veldima to find a mysterious wanderer so Loreleli can prove herself. It's the only way Lina can get home. They have to do this before the Demon King, Hafusel, rises up and begins to wreak havoc on the world.

Dumb plot? Can Lina help Lorelei and Ben save the world from the evil Demon King Hafusel?

Real Plot? If Lina helps defeat Hafusel, will she be able to move on?

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does that have to do with my music tirade? Simple! Music can usually help you figure out a person's personality, so if you knew the personalities of your characters, what kind of music do you think they'd listen to?

Take Lina. As Lina tends to be a little bitter, and slightly bitchy, she would probably be into My Chemical Romance. Or anything along the alternative rock/emo stage. Sometimes she gets a potty- mouth, so that maybe she goes for bands that have a lot of swearing in their songs.

Ian is focused a lot in the sequel. I've found with Ian, Mars Volta works wonders.

See? Music is one of the greatest companions to writing stories. It takes your story to places you didn't expect. Try it sometime when you're bored and need to either make a character assessment. Or even writing a story! Pick a band, and then start writing to see what kind of story you get when you've got that band playing. It'll be a fun experiment!