My Muses: Music

My co-author, Alex Zabala, requires absolute silence when he writes. I know there are many authors like that, but I am not one of them. Music has proven to be so influential to my writing process that I thought it would be appropriate to finally discuss it. A lot of people wouldn’t dream of working out without music, and that’s how I am about writing.

When listening to music just for pleasure I have very eclectic taste, and that goes double for when I’m writing. I listen to pop, rock, heavy metal, blues, instrumental, classical, jazz, even some ‘light rap’ and country music, which are two genres I tend to avoid. Hey, to each his own, right? I have so many writing playlists I tend to lose track of them, but here’s how I usually break them down.

Kickstart: These are my favorite songs for kickstarting my writing mood. I used this name a looong time before the famous crowdfunding website came into existence. These songs tend to have strong beats that can get my heart pumping and get me ready to write something awesome.

General: This is my huge, multi-gigabyte playlist that contains bits and pieces of everything else. Nothing really special.
Classical: Classical music is good for the brainwaves, and there are times when I just can’t listen to singing. This has everything from Bach to Vivaldi, from Beethoven to Wagner.
Instrumental Power: There are a lot of classical songs that are more ‘mellow,’ and then there are classical songs that are full of grandeur. This list has the latter songs, and other non-classical instrumental songs that are full of emotion and, as the name implies, power.
Action: This is where I usually put my heavy metal and hard rock songs, but also some pop songs with great beats. Anything that can keep my pulse high while I write an intense action scene.
Emotional: These are the songs that pull my heartstrings, deeply emotional songs that help when I need to write a character’s death or something that needs to hit the reader in the gut. If I don’t feel like I was hurting when I wrote it, how can the reader feel that?
Humor: This is a playlist I don’t use very often, because I tend to fit humor into all parts of my books, but every now and then I want a scene to be really funny. When that happens, what else to listen to except Weird Al?

There are also some songs that I turn to again and again, because they just seem to hit the right notes for me. They are my Greatest Hits. Here are a few in no particular order, and why they help me. Please remember that everybody has different taste in music, so if you hate any of these songs or bands, just relax

Metallica – Unforgiven

I listened to this song more than anything else when I wrote the first few drafts of Avarice Dynasty. I found the subject to be a pretty good reflection of Drevin Cantrim’s journey. I still find the melody to be a quietly haunting sound. It’s a slower song (especially for Metallica) but the steady beat, dour subject, and overall feel of the song was a beautiful companion to Avarice Dynasty. I find it helps in a lot of other books, too.

Evanescence – Imaginary

Confession: There are a lot of Evanescence songs I like. I think Amy Lee has an amazing voice for singing strong emotions, which is why Evanescence shows up on my Emotional playlist more than any other three bands combined. It’s hard for me to pick a single song from them that hits me the most, but Imaginary is always at the top of that list. From the opening to the end it grabs me, and I’ll often sit with the volume high up and put this song on repeat. The rock bridge at 2:48 or so is also great for action scenes in the middle of strong emotion.

Phantom of the Opera Movie Soundtrack – Overture

I will confess that I have yet to see the entire movie or play (it’s on my to-do list), but this song is one of my go-getters for both emotional and action scenes and it’s also a great kickstart song. I listen to it often.

Journey – Separate Ways

I grew up listening to 70s and 80s rock, and I still remember this song from my youth. The powerful beat finds a great use in my Kickstart and Action playlists, but it also shows up in my Emotional list. It’s another song I find myself listening to for a lot of scenes.

I use many more songs to help me get into the proper mindset for certain scenes. Most of the time I’ll just have the music playing in the background, but when I know I need extra oomph for a particular scene, I turn to my special playlists and turn the volume up.