Musical Muses
Greetings and salutations Scribblers!
Today, I’m talking about one of my favorite parts of the writing process–the soundtrack.
Now, everyone has a different method for writing and some people need absolute silence, but some of us, including me, love having a soundtrack on in the background that helps to set the mood. Music is something that ties humans together across cultures. We all have genres or styles we prefer, but it has the same effect on our brains. Science has proven that music accesses our brain and causes our body to release dopamine.
This is why movie soundtracks are so crucial. Have you ever seen a video clip where someone changes out the music for a scene? It can shift the entire mood and tone of what we’re visually seeing. In a book, we don’t yet have the technology of turning a page and having a song start to play, but we do have authors who share their soundtracks once their book is published. I’ve even seen authors and agents use songs as a pitch for a book. In short, music is a vital part of the writing process!
One of the ways music affects us is through emotional resonance. We hear a melody and some primal part of our brain responds. We tap our feet, sway our bodies, or bob our heads. If you’ve ever heard something and felt the sudden urge to cry, you’ve experienced emotional resonance. For me, it’s during concerts and live music where I get this feeling the strongest. At the Eras tour, I was singing along and crying because some part of my soul was absolutely vibrating with happiness in that moment. Another example is when you’re watching a film and that score crescendos and your body responds, it commands all of your focus. In K-Pop demon hunters when all three girls come in on This is what it Sounds Like, it’s like a smorgasbord of dopamine and joy in my body. That part of the song really hit for me.
So, how do we apply this to writing since the page doesn’t produce audible music? One way is by curating a soundtrack that might remind us of our characters or the overall theme or mood of our work in progress.
My project soundtracks are a mix of both and they run the gamut of genres–it tends to become an eclectic collection. I also usually end up having a particular artist that, if they existed in the fantasy world I created, my character would be a huge fan. In my current project, Finian would have gone to every Panic! At the Disco concert and every Mike Shinoda concert. The songs those two write and produce capture the core essence of who Finian is as a character. As soon as I hear them, my mind immediately goes to him–I love when I hear their songs outside of my playlist because then I can pretend that Finian is reminding me he exists and that I should probably get back to writing and get him out of whatever trouble I left him in.
Another POV character from that project is Kyrdra, she gets all instrumental music–mostly dramatic piano by Jennifer Thomas. Rook, my third Point of View character doesn’t have a particular artist yet, but she would listen to a lot of indie pop that’s reminding her of how strong she is, especially if it’s along the lines of Taylor Swifts Folklore album.
In general though, I listen to this while I’m driving, at the gym, while I’m getting ready for work, or walking Bellamy. As I focus in on different lyrics, I’m able to make connections to my characters and better understand who they are. Sometimes listening to a song sends me down a path of a very particular moment or feeling my character has and my mind explores that in the background, priming my creativity for when I am able to sit down and write.
My playlist for this project is just under 4 hours long. I listen to it mostly when I’m not writing, although there are times, if I’m struggling to get into a particular emotional mindset to write a scene, I’ll pick a song and listen to it on repeat to help me get there. I once listened to Taylor Swift’s Exile for almost 2 hours straight when I was writing a pivotal scene between two characters as they navigated their way through a parting of ways. And when I hear the song now, my brain immediately goes back to that scene.
Now, when I write, I like to have something more ambient on that allows me to get into my focus and flow state. My favorite is a track on the Calm app called Lunar Lullaby. It’s supposed to be a sleep song, but I can’t sleep to it. It’s by Lindsey Stirling and for whatever reason, my brain locks into that song and gets focused. I get so much done. The track lasts an hour, so when it’s over, it’s a reminder to me to get up, move around and take a break. There are a lot of options out there for focus music, so definitely do some searches on your music app of choice and try a few out.
Now that I’ve found my focus track, it’s a go-to sound for me to write or work to and each time I listen, I’m training my brain to lock in and get work done, which is incredibly helpful when I have to do quick switches between responsibilities or squeeze writing into a specific time slot.
And of course, like any sane, rational author, I also like to think about what song would play at the opening and closing credits if my book were a TV show. For my current project, SAMM, I think my opening song is The Good, The Bad, and the Dirty, by Panic! At the Disco and my closing song is Premonitions by Vault. These two songs just really hit the overall vibe of what I want the story to be.
As always, your mileage may vary! So, tell me in the comments how you use music to enhance your writing, and, if you have your opening and credits songs all picked out, I’d love to know what they are!
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