A song for a character

I'm up later than usual tonight. I decided to make a soundtrack for my current WIP. I've always liked to listen to mood music when I write. When I was younger, I tended to pop in the Corrs first album, Forgiven Not Forgotten, or Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing Album. It wasn't until a few years ago when I was reading a book called Plot & Structure that I had ever heard of anyone actually making a "soundtrack" to a novel. The author calls it a brainstorming tool.

While writing my last book, I did create a soundtrack and discovered I could still write well to pop and R&B songs. So, this time, I went through my CD and itunes library and picked out several songs, but I got inspired to give each character a playlist and make a special folder just for this novel in my itunes library. It was interesting to do because I realized each character had a mood. One of my suspects is into early jazz (Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday) and her songs are moody and melancholic. All of her songs feature lost love, wrong love, or unrequited love.

Both my hero, Sebastian, and the victim in this book both favor pop. Their songs are overtly sensual and in-your-face. Sebastian favors Usher and Justin Timberlake while the victim favors Fergie. My heroine likes Natalie Imbruglia's first album.

I had never before considered having songs for each character. But, I find that now that I've thought about it, I like it. There is a sense of individuality in the songs, something which I hope will come through in the writing.

Do you pick certain CDs or songs for your novels? And, do certain songs specifically reflect a character or do they tend to reflect on the relationship or the tone of the novel as a whole?

Do Your Heroines Resemble You or Anyone You Know?

When I first started writing romance in the eighth grade or so, I generally chose dark-haired heroines. I had a thing about making a blond heroine the star of the books. I also tended to write about tall heroines (I'm a 5'8" brunette). Today, I write heroines of differing hair colors and heights, but I wonder if there is a natural tendency to write heroines that look like us or maybe even a sister or close friend.

While I do sometimes pick actresses or models who resemble my character, I haven't yet made a character look like a friend. However, there is one particular story that I plan to write eventually in which I will base the look off of a girl I've seen who works at a local bookstore. I just noticed one day that she had beautiful features and looked like what I want my heroine to look like. Interestingly, a friend of my mom's looks a lot like this character and like an older version of the girl in the bookstore. But, these things kind of came to me after I already had the character in mind.

So, do your characters look like you? Or, someone you know?