Apart from writing, music is my life. When I’m not creating music, I’m listening to music; and when I’m not listening to music, I’m thinking about music. And when I’m writing a book, I NEED MUSIC TO INSPIRE ME – whether I’m writing a long conversation to a mellow soundtrack or plotting in the car to epic trailer music. I NEED MUSIC. And maybe you do, too.
To celebrate our perilous journey through NaNoWriMo, I made a bunch of playlists, filled with the very best writing music, just for you!! SO THAT’S WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY. I have a playlist for every writing mood* according to genre, scenes, emotions happening in the scenes, etc. I PUT A LOT OF THOUGHT INTO THIS, OKAY? (Also I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to making playlists shhhh don’t tell.)
But when I was making these playlists I wasn’t sure what to use: only instrumentals or songs with lyrics, too? So I did a Twitter poll to figure it out and IT ENDED UP BEING ROUGHLY 50/50. My solution: make a set of playlists each! One collection without words, one collection with words. THAT’S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU GUYS.
There are 17 playlists in total – all of them are over 1 hour long, and they cover a wide range of moods, from Epic Fantasy Battles to Kickbutt Spy Missions to Teenage Rom-Coms to EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. Music inspires my writing more than I can even describe. Sometimes I can listen to music while I write, and other times I need silence – EVERY WRITER IS DIFFERENT and sometimes it just depends on your current mood. That’s why I’ve created all these playlists. THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, so I’m pretty sure I’ve got you covered. Let’s talk music, shall we?
*Hopefully. Maybe not?? MAYBE THERE ARE OTHER MOODS I DON’T KNOW ABOUT. But these are all the ones I could think of.
EPIC FANTASY BATTLE
ORCHESTRAL, INTENSE, CLASSIC.
MAGICAL NEW WORLD
EPIC, FANTASTICAL, DISCOVERY.
Mood: Stumbling though a portal into a whole new world. Sunlight filtering through trees and young, fascinated eyes beholding things they never dreamed of. Chills, magic, and new possibilities.
KICKBUTT SPY MISSION
MYSTERY, THRILLER, SUSPENSE.
Mood: Top-secret missions. Kids wearing leather jackets and sunglasses. Car chases and guns firing. Jumping over fences and cracking secret codes and running for your life and fighting for justice.
LOSING HOPE
SAD, LONELY, DEPRESSED.
Mood: The feeling you have when you have no idea what you feel. All hope is lost. The best character probably just died and now the other characters don’t know what to do with themselves except cry.
BACKGROUND MUSIC
CHILL, QUIET, CONVERSATIONAL.
Mood: Not a lot going on. Something for the author to listen to (instead of the wall clock ticking) while writing a mellow scene. This one also doubles as a good studying playlist, so… bonus!
SOMETHING IS UP
CURIOUS, SLEUTHY, DETECTIVE.
SCARY HAUNTED HOUSE
CREEPY, DARK, JUMP SCENE.
Mood: The feeling of being watched by someone – or something. Shadows that move. Whispers in the dark. Flickering lights. Abandoned places. That general feeling of unease right before a ghost jumps out of the wall, or something.
SENTIMENTAL CRYBABY
REMINISCENT, MELLOW, WEEPY.
Mood: Looking through old Polaroids, remembering all the good things you miss. Stargazing with someone you love. Reminiscing childhood summers and golden hour and a first kiss. Smiling because good things have happened to you.
THE PLAYLISTS: WITH WORDS
EPIC TRAILER MUSIC
DYSTOPIAN, WAR, DARK FANTASY.
Mood: ASDFGHJKL. Epic trailer music turns me on. I don’t know how else to describe it!!!! This is my collection of favorites.
HAPPY ADVENTURE
CAREFREE, FOLKSY, ROADTRIP.
Mood: Jumping into a car with your best friends and driving across the country. Living free and enjoying every second of your delicious life on planet earth. Open windows and new places and beautiful, smiling faces.
GHOST STORY
HAUNTING, DARK, ETHEREAL.
Mood: Songs that remind me of abandoned houses after dark and whispering in the shadows. Haunting vocals, with some southern gothic flair. (And Ruelle. Lots of Ruelle.)
TEENAGE ROM-COM
CONTEMPORARY, FUN, PUNK ROCK.
Mood: Bad puns and bubblegum. First kisses and high school drama and avoiding eye contact. Passing notes in class. Falling in love for the first time. Making a fool of yourself, because that’s what teenagers do.
WILD CHILD PARTY
GRITTY, REBELLIOUS, CAR RACE.
Mood: Songs for the characters who run away from home. Racing cars through the desert and getting in trouble for stupid things. Rebel kids with wide eyes and loud music and ridiculous motives.
BRB CRYING
SAD, LONELY, HEARTBREAK.
Mood: All my favorite sad songs that make you (or your characters) want to just cry their eyes out. Heartbreak, tragedy, disappointment. Whatever you like to use to break your characters into tiny little pieces.
HARDCORE SPIES
GRITTY, COOL, ESPIONAGE.
Mood: Superheroes! Or just normal kids who think they’re superheroes. Top-secret missions, running from the bad guys, just being awesome spies in general. SPY MUSIC, OKAY? SPIESSS.
I LOVE YOU
ROMANTIC, SWEEPING, BEAUTIFUL.
Mood: The most beautiful love songs I know and use to aggressively ship my OTP until I want to scream happily into a pillow.
TALK, BRO
Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? What are some of your TOP FAVORITE songs that you plot your book to/ship your characters to/imagine your book-turned-movie to??? I know that made zero grammatical sense I’m 100% done with grammar at this point. I HOPE YOU LIKE THESE PLAYLISTS!!
rock on,
abbiee
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