“So, what do you think about musical scenes?” I ask. “As in, characters suddenly bursting into song to talk to each other and express their emotions or opinions. Would-that-be-too-cheesy-for-you…?”
I take a deep breath…
“I want to add musical scenes in my WIP… but I’m worried, but I’m worried… that it wouldn’t work well. With no music (no music!) it would pretty much read like a poem or normal dialogue, maybe with some movement and actions to break it up. Break it up yo!”
I wave a hand into the air and drum my fingers on the table.
Hopefully you get the idea.
There’s pretty much no way to let the reader know the tune unless it’s from another song (I’m probably not going to do that), and adding music is out of the question here, even if I can make my own.
Some context:
It wouldn’t be out of place–it exactly fits the mood and premise of my story, although it’s definitely not the story’s main point. It can stand without me writing any songs. It’s a portal fantasy story with children MCs, not a story about a theater or something.
There’ll be choices to influence the mood/lyrics of the song, or you can choose not to participate in the song at all, and the scene will continue normally without any singing. This will influence some personality stats and another hidden stat.
I’ll try not to make them happen out of the blue, and I’ll add a prompt when it’s going to happen at least. The characters and the story will definitely acknowledge it, so some characters might even join you. There’s also a setting where music is a big part of their culture, so there’s that too.
I’m not exactly a poet or a songwriter, I just think it would be really fun to include musical scenes. Since there’s no music, I’m thinking that I don’t have to worry too much about lyrics since it will sound different to everyone anyway.
What I’m asking is, would you prefer to read a scene like that normally instead? Would your enjoyment be affected by reading a song without any hint of tune at all?
I know this is all subjective, and there’s always the choice to read the scene normally. I just want to know if this is worth doing.
And if you know a better format, let me know! Here’s a cookie for you if you actually tried to sing that. Hehe.
My next game, Choice of Magics, has a musical number. Here are some thoughts about it:
The beat needs to really come through in the words. You should come up with a melody, but it should also just scan like a percussion part. Strawberry-strawberry! Ha! Ha! Ha!
You can actually play music in ChoiceScript. I chose not to go this route because one, recording music is a timesink, and two, people are playing these games in contexts where they don’t want sound; so now you’ve got to ask ahead of time whether people want sound, and that’s a lot of buildup. By the time the next song rolls around, if you have one, their sound situation may have changed.
You’ve got to accept that no matter how hard you try, it’s still going to read a lot like a poem. Basically nobody is going to experience the scene in your head. But, you can probably still convey the idea “this is supposed to be a musical number!” and people might find the idea fun anyway.
Welp, there are some ways you can make it so people think about at least a partially same tune as you (if you know what i mean, i’m not from an English talking country so…)
The thing is, i wrote some songs (didn’t publish them since ehh…) and if you want i can try to help you with the note/beat/tune thing…
@kgold Ooh, well it’s nice to know I’m not the only one with musicals.
I know you can play music, but yeah, I don’t think it’s really worth the effort. And you’d have no way to control it.
And yeah, I guess the best I can hope for is that people will find the scenes funny/heartwarming anyway. I’m actually thinking of adding an achievement if you sing all the songs. Hehe.
@YeThatFella Heh, thanks. I’ll consider it if I get stuck.
“Um, hello guys!” 
“As in, characters suddenly bursting into song to talk to each other and express their emotions or opinions. Would-that-be-too-cheesy-for-you…?”
