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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Camp Damascus
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.
