My absolute favorite character building exercise was creating a playlist for my main character. It's good way to get into her head and differentiate her voice from my voice (which can sneak in more than I like to admit). I have to remember that my MC is a contemporary 17 year old, which means she was born in 1993. Smells Like Teen Spirit is an oldie to her. So I've had to push myself and discover what kind of music she'd listen to. Here's some background about Keely (my MC): she considers herself to be emo-lite she lives in a small town in Arizona with her mom and grandmother she's a senior in high school and thinks a lot about the future Based on that, I decided on these perimeters of her musical taste: her favorite band is Green Day she likes Johnny Cash because her grandmother does she listens to a few '80s band because her mom listens to them (Police, Violet Femmes, The Cure, etc.) she likes songs that are a little rebellious but not too dar
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