BoM/TWS Message Forum

Yeah, we're eerily alike.

I use music when I write for exactly the same reasons. Most of what I listen is either video game music or metal, though on the more technical scale of things: either European power metal (i.e. Nightwish, Epica, Sabaton, Powerwolf; YMMV on Delain) or prog metal (sp. Dream Theater), though I can also fire up the classics (like Metallica or Slayer). Very rarely I do another genre if it feels like it. For example: one scene I wanna write has "Love Will Find a Way" by Saigon Kick as the background music, if only because I already devised that'd be the "song" of the protagonists. I've taken to listen to "Stream of Consciousness" by Dream Theater when I need to focus on something.

It's been a while since I've read manga or seen some anime, but I definitely wanna see Goblin Slayer, if only because, again, I'm a big fan of D&D, and the series deals pretty interestingly with the theme.

That said: one story that impacted me a lot for various reasons (had to "read" it for a Spanish class, ended up seeing the theatrical presentation of it, plus the theme is quite absurd) is "La Celestina" by Fernando de Rojas, which is part of the "Golden Age" of Spanish literature. (Long story short: think those romance comedies from yore, except the love's false because a witch is intervening, and everything goes to shit at the end.) I often used to focus on stories with knights when I had English textbooks, which heavily influenced my tastes for literature; I fell in love with the Arthurian cycle thanks to a sort of summarized story done for a series of Spanish literature textbooks commissioned by the island's Department of Education (prev. Department of Public Instruction), which phased away from classrooms by the time I was getting into middle school.

Still wonder why I have preference for urban fantasy, though. Maybe it's because it's easier to make references to and it's a much more entertaining way to see the modern world, compared to what we have now.