[ SECRET POST #3307 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3307 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 078 secrets from Secret Submission Post #473.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

08. http://i.imgur.com/z0EkVQB.png

[loracarol]

One of the authors I follow would post a link to a "suggested listening" song at the beginning of their story/chapter. She then managed to rickroll all her readers, at least once, but still, you could try that?

[(Anonymous)]

This is what I'm doing for my series. I'll leave notes at the top or the bottom of the chapter to mention which song would be playing on the radio at the time, or mention it specifically in the text:

"Mark hummed along to the baseline of Smoke on the Water to give himself something to occupy his brain with while he waited."

[loracarol]

That's also a good way to do it.

(Not that you do this, I was just reminded)

I know that you can put hyperlinks in for AO3 (at least, I think you can?) But IDK if I'd recommend it myself. I can't speak for everyone, but it throws me out of the story. :/

8tracks playlists can also be used, though, and I'd think it fun if an author had made such a mix for the reader to listen to. :o

[silverr]

Yes, you can include hyperlinks; in the notes use [a href="URL of song"]name of song[/a]" type format
(replace the [ with < and the ] with > )

[loracarol]

Yeah, I knew I'd seen them! They were sort of helpful? Because it was an MCU fic where the fashions were described in detail, but I had no idea what anything looked like, but on the flip side, it was a bit distracting.

Could just be me, though.

[silverr]

The pictures were distracting, or the descriptions?

[loracarol]

The links. I would have liked it better if it had been a series of links in the authors notes, I think.

[caecilia]

all I have to say to this is that I was just thinking about songfics the other day! good times.

[ninety6tears]

I don't like the songfic model, but I'm fine with authors being open about the fic being inspired by a song (though I try to put it out of my mind if it's music I don't like).

[(Anonymous)]

Are you me? I have a lot of songs that it's honestly hard to imagine weren't written for a certain character/pairing/fandom, even though of course they were. I've never followed the classic song-fic model in my writing, but I have linked to songs in the text, or put it as my Current Music in the LJ days, and even scored a chapter of a fic using the soundtrack of a movie (I still associate those tracks with that fic and pairing). So basically, yeah, music definitely heightens my bond to characters/pairings/fandoms and I kind of love it.

[(Anonymous)]

I actually like songfics.

[(Anonymous)]

I do, too. Mainly 'cause I just love music in general and it's fun to come across a writer who might have the same sort of musical taste as me, or be introduced to a new artist/song as a result of a story. And it's fun to tie certain songs to my favorite characters, too.

My biggest issue with songfics is that sometimes some authors are like, "Oh, I love this artist/song, so my favorite characters will, too!", without really putting much thought into what sorts of music the characters themselves may or may not listen to. But then again, sometimes that's not always an easy thing to gauge, and some characters' musical tastes could be quite varied and unexpected, too, so...

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think there's anything wrong with linking your viewers to a song which you feel resonates with the fic. Also, that's not really what songfic is...or at least I don't think that's what songfic is.

Maybe I'm just operating from an outdated definition of songfic, but to me, songfic involves one or both of the following:

1. The author has worked actual lines of the song into their fic. (They have done this in a way they believe to be clever and innocuous, but in all likelihood, it's actually really obvious and trite, and it breaks the fourth wall and takes the reader out of the story.)

2. The author interrupts their narrative in order to drop song lyrics into it in places they feel are particularly applicable. Said lyrics are usually italicized, and the author seems to feel that by doing this, they can make the reader experience the fic as though it were a film with a soundtrack playing over it. (They cannot.)

[(Anonymous)]

You don't think the second technique is useful for putting readers into the scene? Does it distract from the action?

[(Anonymous)]

No and Yes. If I come across lyrics inserted into a fic it's an immediate back-button because I totally lose the momentum and it absolutely detracts from the action. Unless they're serving some very specific, plot-related purpose, there's no reason you can't just mention a song in the authors notes, saying 'FYI this song goes really well with this scene, or this song inspired me, or I think this song pairs really well with this fic'.

[(Anonymous)]

This is what I do, and it seems to work okay for readers in general (and a few of them have actually given the songs mentioned a listen, too, which is nice).

I generally think the best way to go in regards to putting lyrics in stories is to quote the most relevant line or verse from the song at the beginning or end of the story. Gives you an idea of the mood of the story, the basic theme of it, and then you can get right into the story and not be constantly interrupted with lyrics throughout.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Not if it's done the way I'm thinking of it. I'm not talking about a few italicized lyrics at the beginning or end of a fic, or fic chapter. I actually like when fics do that, especially when they use poetry instead of song lyrics, but songs work too.

I mean when the fic writer inserts the lyrics right into the story, between one paragraph and the next, for seemingly no reason except that they seem to think it complements their fic and makes it more profound or something.

In all fairness, I hardly ever see this kind of songfic anymore, and when I do it's usually on a fic archive that's dominated by a much younger demographic of fic writers.

[wannabe_influential]

Would you mind posting the list of songs, for those of us curios to listen?

[(Anonymous)]

I write not-songfics all the time! They're based on, or at least heavily inspired by, songs; but I don't shove the lyrics in, which is what people really object to (rightfully - shoving lyrics in never, ever improves a fic, no matter how wonderful author may think they are).

I state the inspiration in an author's note either at the start, or play a subtle "see if you can spot what this is based on" and state it at the end, which is more fun if the song is really distinctive. (I don't think having the characters reference the song in-fic is a great idea, personally, because this can also be jarring.)

...But I'm never much interested in following up others' recommendations for playlists for their fics, because music is so subjective, and my musical tastes are apparently weird, and if it's a song I hate it will make me like the fic less. Songs that people think are awesome moodsetters, are often complete moodkillers for me. One person's soulful, deep and romantic wonderfully melodic ballad, is another person's creepy, narcissistic dirge, set to the sound of nails down a chalkboard, so you might well achieve the opposite effect to what you were going for.

(And honestly? Most songs that are 'perfect' for X Y or Z only seem that way because of how generic they are. I find it so, so easy to fit at least a third of what I listen to on the radio in the car each day, to whatever fandom has my attention currently.)

Hmm.

[(Anonymous)]

You can always include the song in the notes. But if you feel the need to make a song more integral to your story, you should realize that some people just aren't going to like the song and some of the ones that do aren't necessarily going to be put into the same mood that it would put you into.

[(Anonymous)]

Heh, I have a number of songs that I feel the same way about. And, in fact, they sometimes do influence what I write and maybe would set the mood if they were listened to with the fic. Generally when that happens, I'll use a lyric for the song title in the hope that it will put at least some people in mind of the song when they're reading the fic. No idea how well that actually works out.

I did do what amounted to a songfic once and made it pretty obvious, but since the point of the story was explaining the origin of the song, I'm not too bothered about it.

[(Anonymous)]

Just last night I stumbled across a songfic where the author had clearly put a lot of thought into how to integrate the song with the story.

The song was presented as having been written by Character A about their feelings for Character B, and the fic had A perform it on stage, filtered in 3-4 lines at a time between prose passages describing all the feelings people were having about the performance - B in particular, who had turned up unanticipated in the audience, and this was a big revelation moment about A's feelings, etc.

As songfics go, it was really well done! - except for the part where it fell completely flat, because the song that the author thought was oh so perfect to describe the relationship between the two characters, I couldn't connect to them at all. I was like "Yeah, that song is kind of angsty... and I guess their relationship until now has been kind of angsty (sometimes, like most long-running relationships between people are sometimes), but - other than that, I got nothing." So all the prose passages and the big reaction at the end made no sense whatsoever. The author would've done much better to leave the lyrics out and just describe the effect.

Lyrics will very often not have the effect on other people that they have on you. Literally the only time I've ever seen this kind of thing work was in humour fics, where people chose deliberately inappropriate songs on purpose.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Songs associated with a story is something I have had ever since I first had a discman in my teens. I'd listen to something while reading, then when I go back to listen to that song later, it reminds me of that book - sometimes specific parts of it too. It happens for fanfics and games too, and I don't have to be listening to the song while playing, just in between play sessions.

I am not a huge fondness of songfics that break up the narrative with lyrics, because it is far too easy to put too little actual story in and fall back on the song to carry the fic, but a story inspired by a song, even if the relevant stanza is posted at the start, can be good. Hell, I once prompted such a song on the Hobbit Kink meme. The resulting fic was spectacular, though heartwrenching it was a sad song to.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I just went hunting for that fic I prompted, it does insert lines between narrative. I still love it because it works.