Last week, when I wrote about my brain storming process, I mentioned how a lot of it involved listening to music and creating a playlist. This week, I wanted to talk a little about playlists.
A lot of authors create playlists for their books and post them on their websites. Sometimes, the playlists can provide some idea of what's going to happen in the story, just from listening to the lyrics. Other times, it just sets the mood to the story. Sometimes it's just songs that the author happened to write while writing the mood.
For me, it's all three. I have a few songs I added just because I liked the mood, like this one:
With the exception of the title (though I can't tell you WHY it fits), the lyrics really don't match the story at all. But, the mood of the song does. So I guarantee that whenever I need to get in the mood of the story to write, that will be the song that goes on repeat.
Then, there are a few songs that match the plotline or at least have a few verses that match perfectly, like these two:
Not only does the music get me in the writing mood but these lyrics especially fit the story line:
I thought you said you'd be home by now
I heard you sang that you'd come back here
So I wrote to remind you
Not only does the mood fit the tone of the music, the lyrics fit a large part of the storyline. My favorite lines, and the ones that were major inspiration during the brainstorming process are
Can it stay until we know ourselves?
I’m torn as I tell
You’re the story that I know and fell from
I’m so far into your story I don’t know why
We think we’re in control
When we lie between the lines
Finally, there's the songs that are just going to end up on the playlist because I like them and feel the need to listen to them repeatedly, like this one:
What about you? Do you have a playlist? Do you listen to author's playlists? Judging from the songs I mentioned, any guesses at what might be going on in my WIP? (If I've told you what it's about, shhh!)
Love and music,
Harmony
