How Music Helps Me Write

I am a lover of art in all forms. Which means I take inspiration from art of all forms. And music is perhaps one of the biggest tools I use when I'm writing. I'm certain I'm not the only one who does this. After all, plenty of people listen to music when they write. But I'm quite intentional about how I use it, so I thought I'd share how music helps me through my writing process.

Setting the Tone

I find that my writing flows a lot easier when I immerse myself in the scene. It keeps me focused and allows me to visualize the scene in a way that can sometimes be very difficult for me. I typically find a song that evokes the setting or action I imagine. For example, one of my favorite ways to world-build is to listen to songs that feel otherwordly and play the scene out in my mind—like a movie to a soundtrack.

But I don't really have time to spend curating playlists tailored to my work (although this seems like a lot of fun) so I tend to find a pre-existing playlist. You'd be surprised how niche some of them are.

One of my favorite playlists on Spotify lately is "Epic Dark Sci-fi Ambient Music"

This is so fun to me that I wish I could embed music in my eBooks. Maybe one day I'll be one of those people with theatrical audiobooks rather than simply narrated so I can have a little soundtrack playing too! But until then, ya'll are on your own.

Keeping Focused

If you are like me and can't work in silence, then this is not going to be news to you. But I quite literally can't get anything done without something happening in the background. Don't ask me why. It's a blessing and a curse. But it truly helps me stay on task. Usually, it has to be instrumental. Otherwise, I start to sing along.

Me and Lo-fi Girl go way back! But lately I'm hooked on these little fall, fireplace, coffeeshop, jazz vibes. There's tons of these on YouTube, but here are a few of my favs:

• Cozy Cabin Ambience

• Cozy Cafe Jazz

• Bookstore Jazz Cafe

Drawing Emotion

This is the one that I think might be new for some folks because it is essentially emotional self-manipulation.

I saw another author on Threads talking about how she writes better when she's sad, which is not necessarily the case for me, but it made me think about how I use music to put me in the same mood as my characters so I can draw on that emotion more easily. It works really well for heavy emotions, but I think it is immensely helpful for the subtle ones. Or those emotions that maybe we aren't so familiar with.

Now...whether or not emotionally gaslighting yourself to write your novel is recommended by your therapist? I wouldn't know. But it sure does work.

Cadence & Musicality

I place an inordinate amount of weight on the musicality, or sound, of my writing. And sometimes the easiest way to achieve what I'm looking for is to write to the music. And I mean that literally. As in writing so the words follow the rhythm, rise, and beat of a particular song.

There is a scene in The Fall of Souls - Book 2 that was written to 'The Plagues' from The Prince of Egypt soundtrack (very fitting) and I'm very proud of it. Bonus points to anyone who can guess what it is when they read it!

Alright, that's enough of my ramblings. You know the rules.

Have fun, be safe, feel good!

Until next time.