when writing central characters chuck likes to build a list of THEMES and CONCEPTS that represent their way. this is a little different than specific personality traits, because the themes i write down are abstract and sometimes hard to quantify. they are swirling ideas that drift in and out, eventually trotting together and creating a COMPLETE BUCKAROO CHARACTER on the page.
interestingly, this approach to building characters easily lends itself to MUSICAL TRANSLATION. music is, after all, often thematic and abstract. it is a way of communicating things that hum along outside the realm of straightforward speech, feelings that cant simply be described. when i am writing characters i sometimes also have these musical identities in mind. sometimes this well even be explicitly stated in the text of a book, by mentioning what the character listens to.
music tends to weave its way through the tingleverse with ease. it makes sense with all this talk of timeline vibrations connecting one reality to the next in a long thread. every time you pluck one of these timeline threads is can resonate across the layers, connecting all things and creating an endless song we will never truly understand.
thought it might be fun to give curious buds a playlist for each of the main characters in CAMP DAMASCUS, along with the concepts and abstractions that created their ‘character theme’ while writing. songs selected are not LYRICALLY relevant, but as a whole they create an INNER TONE for the buckaroo they represent.
ROSE
THEMES: INTROSPECTION, CURIOSITY, RESILIENCE, GROWTH, HUMANITY, KNOWLEDGE
Days Ahead – Bruce Hornsby
Angel In The Snow – Elliott Smith
Old Friends – Pinegrove
Farewell Transmission – Songs Ohia
Say Goodbye – Beck
Futile Devices – Sufjan Stevens
I Know The End – Phoebe Bridgers
Going To California – Led Zeppelin
Which Will – Nick Drake
Fruits Of My Labor – Lucinda Williams
Give Up The Ghost – Radiohead
Paper Bag – Fiona Apple
These Days – Nico
More To Life Than Baseball – Petey
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright – Bob Dylan
SAUL
THEMES: CHAOS, THE UNKNOWN, PASSION, INDIVIDUALITY, CONFIDENCE, PERSEVERANCE, PAIN
Bleed – Meshuggah
Forget – The Chariot
Hostile Architecture – Every Time I Die
Gnashing Teeth – Bermuda
Saint Matthew Returns To The Womb – Botch
Rapture – Deftones
Let’s Not Keep In Touch – Retox
Exit, Exist – After The Burial
1-800-GHOST-DANCE – Hella
Human Swarm – Humanity’s Last Breath
Dagger – Vildhjarta
New Noise – Refused
No Man Is Without Fear – Fit For An Autopsy
Recyclable Body Fluids In Human Form – The Locust
Hangman – Spite
WILLOW
THEMES: ORDER, REALITY, TRUTH, NATURE, DISCIPLINE, HONESTY, RHYTHM, TIME
Bring Da Ruckus – Wu-Tang Clan
Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck) – Run The Jewels
Dance Yrself Clean – LCD Soundsystem
Low High – Shing02
Cat Rider – Little Dragon
Shadowboxin’ – GZA
Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Virus – Deltron 3030
Two Bodies – Flight Facilities
Brooklyn Zoo – Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Grits – RZA
Them Changes – Thundercat
Hot Chip – The Warning
Take Me To The Hospital – The Faint
Above The Clouds – Gang Starr
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Parody art based on Sony Walkman advertisement circa 1983
Chuck Tingle is a mysterious force of energy behind sunglasses and a pink mask. He is also an anonymous author of romance, horror, and fantasy. Chuck was born in Home of Truth, Utah, and now splits time between Billings, Montana and Los Angeles, California. Chuck writes to prove love is real, because love is the most important tool we have when resisting the endless cosmic void. Not everything people say about Chuck is true, but the important parts are.
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