I waited until this morning to write my blog post. Then I found our wireless router had died, and my laptop didn’t have a connection. *sigh* That’ll teach me for procrastinating.
My friends came up with a fun little writing challenge last night. Open your entire music library, hit shuffle, and then play on random. The first 30 songs will be your chapter titles.
Here’s my list:
1. Dum Diddy – Black Eyed Peas
2. This Is How A Heart Breaks – Rob Thomas
3. Violence – Blink 182
4. Don’t Wait – Dashboard Confessional
5. Invisible – Modest Mouse
6. Sexy And I Know It – LMFAO
7. Missed The Boat – Modest Mouse
8. It’s My Life – Bon Jovi
9. Oh Love – Green Day
10. Payphone (Solo Version) – Maroon 5
11. Race Car Ya-Yas – Cake
12. Wheels – Cake
13. I Will Survive – Cake (at this point, I think my software is biased)
14. Two Princes – Spin Doctors
15. I’ve Been Around – The Mowgli’s
16. Hair – Lady GaGa
17. Kick Some Ass – Stroke 9
18. Daddy’s Eyes – The Killers
19. The Monster – Eminem
20. Inside Out – Eve 6
21. Te Dejo Madrid – Shakira
22. Home – Phillip Phillips
23. Otis Redding – Everclear
24. Swagger – Flogging Molly
25. Times Like These – Foo Fighters
26. Interlude (Milo) – Modest Mouse
27. Eyes Like Yours – Shakira
28. Who Let You Go? – The Killers
29. Hooked On A Feeling – Blue Suede
30. Down For The Count – Bowling For Soup
From the looks of it, my next book is going to be about surviving a nasty break up and ending in a romance.
Not sure why Windows Media Player favors certain bands over others. It had close to 1000 songs to choose from. Ah well.
If you were to do this challenge, what would your first chapter title be?
You listen to an interesting variety!
Since I listen to metal and prog rock, my chapters would scare people…
How fun!
Now, put that up against a Save The Cat-style beat sheet and see if it matches up to the plot points. hahaha
What a fun idea. I’m having trouble naming a story at the moment. But I can’t think about it… too much editing to do first. Have a great Wednesday!
How fun — not the dead router — the shuffle. I’m in the dark ages still and don’t have that ability. 🙁
What a neat idea! I rarely ever name chapters, though. Good ol’ 1, 2, and 3, etc. works too. LOL!
My iPod is ALL THE WAY downstairs, so I opened Pandora Radio and let a few play:
“Let Her Go” by Passenger.
“Jumper” by Third Eye Blind.
“Paint it Black” The Rolling Stones
“Pompeii” by Bastille
This is a very cool idea…when I’m not so lazy I’ll bring up my iPod and see what chapter titles await me!
That was so much fun! I’d do it too… if I had a music library. (Am I the only person that doesn’t?!)
No you are not the only one…. 😅
Well, your player may’ve had an obsession with ‘Cake’, mine preferred Linkin Park. Actually, there are songs on here by people I don’t even know… Must be from the compilation CDs I have.
And your list … it has a few songs I want…
So I did this twice, once when Dani and I read about it, but I only had my phone. Still it came through for me:
1. The Ship’s Going Down
Then I let my new laptop spend the night cataloging my music (around 10,000 songs). Not as good, but:
1. Something in the Air – Thundercap Newman
The new mix seems to tilt toward Yes and Genesis.
Oooh. I am totally doing that this week…I have been on such a bloggy dry spell, I needed a prod to fire ye olde brain cells.
I’ve already used a couple songs as chapter titles in one of my WIPs. 🙂
Among them: ‘All Together Now’ (Beatles) and ‘The Moon in Water’ (Underworld)
I like your playlist! And I think there’s something in the randomizer function that might favor more popular bands over more obscure ones. But I’m just guessing.
I have a hard enough time titling books, so I’ve never titled my chapters. I wondered if an editor would make me do that at some point but so far, I’ve gotten away with just “Chapter One!”
That is so cool!! Love that idea! I’ll have to try it and let you know how it turns out. I have a feeling mine might be a heartbreak/romance situation as well. 🙂
I don’t title my chapters, just number them, but this sounds like a lot of fun. I’m doing it…just as soon as I find my iPod.
So you don’t actually have to leave the songs as the chapter titles. It’s more to give you a prompt for each chapter. For instance my second chapter is “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit. In that chapter I have my character doing something stupid that comes back to bite her. I also looked up the lyrics to each song to get a better feel and see if something there poked my brain into action. That was really helpful for songs like “Where Strides the Behemoth” by Mastodon.
Great idea, but wouldn’t this method violate copyright laws unless they were really old songs?
Actually no. According to copyright law, titles are not protected. They might get trademarked, though, so that is something to check for.