Does Your Novel/Project Have It's Own Soundtrack?

Jehhillenberg · Jul 5, 2011

Just coming from a thread where I wanted to explode, but in a good way. Doesn't music make everybody happy? Doesn't music inspire us all to an extent? My works usually come from some song, or many, that moves me to write. What songs move you to write, or drive your current writing? Made a playlist for a story or anything? Have a song or a bunch that you can't shake? Introduce some new tastes. Share!

Dix · Jul 5, 2011

No sound track for my novel but, since I caught your thread and I'm sitting here, how about some beautiful jazz and an introduction to Clark Terry?

Go here and just listen: http://clarkterry.com/

(Wish I could join you but my dog howls anytime he hears a trumpet or a flugelhorn and everybody in the house is asleep right now. Well, except me.)

areteus · Jul 5, 2011

I usually think about ideas while walking and listening to music... and a lot of my work is based in nightclubs so I always think what music might be playing there.

My upcoming novella does have its own soundtrack... well a single song which is playing at the start of one of the scenes and which I got permission to use the lyrics for...

Anninyn · Jul 5, 2011

I imagine scenes to music all the time. I find that music can create an image in my head which really works for what I'm writing.

So I have a (very) long playlist of my best pieces for encouraging imagination.

Jonathan Dalar · Jul 5, 2011

Yes, most definitely! A different one for different works, each specifically crafted with a purpose to be exactly that. Simply listening to the songs in it can propel me into a creative mindset for that particular work. It's a major muse.

Chris P · Jul 5, 2011

Many scenes in my stories have tunes associated with them.

WIP#1, Scenes of traveling through remote areas: Driving too fast on bad dirt roads with nothing around for miles: Bruce Springsteen Radio Nowhere, driving slowly on good roads, the passengers dozing in the warm sun: Brandi Carlile Turpentine. MC meeting a woman he really gets on with, after struggling with lonliness the whole trip, and then having to leave with just a gentle kiss: A Fine Frenzy Almost Lover.

WIP #2, Scene where the MC is in a Nashville honkytonk having a scotch to sooth his nerves when a reporter he's been trying to avoid walks through with her friends: Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles Streetwise man.

The songs don't always have anything to do with the scene, it's just cool background music.

ETA: Ooh! Oooh! Current project: MC shows up at a friend's house thinking he might have tried to hurt himself, and First Aid Kit's Hard believer is blaring on the stereo on a loop.

Faide · Jul 5, 2011

Absolutely. I usually listen to a few different songs/soundtracks that etch themselves into my brain and won't leave 'fore the WIP is finished. The ones I usually listen to for this WIP are:

Devil's Dance Floor - Flogging Molly
Norwegian Pirate - Two Steps From Hell
The Brotherhood Escapes and City of Rome - Jesper Kyd
Palm Tree Escape - Hans Zimmer

Jehhillenberg · Jul 5, 2011

Dix said:
No sound track for my novel but, since I caught your thread and I'm sitting here, how about some beautiful jazz and an introduction to Clark Terry?

Go here and just listen: http://clarkterry.com/

(Wish I could join you but my dog howls anytime he hears a trumpet or a flugelhorn and everybody in the house is asleep right now. Well, except me.)

Love it.

Jehhillenberg · Jul 5, 2011

Anninyn said:
I imagine scenes to music all the time. I find that music can create an image in my head which really works for what I'm writing.

So I have a (very) long playlist of my best pieces for encouraging imagination.

Ha! Who are you telling?

My complete ms I'm revising is dark and heavy, very moody. Some of the songs inspirational for that piece I constantly listen to right now are: "Odd One" by Sick Puppies, "Bound for the Floor" by Local H, "World Behind My Wall" by Tokio Hotel, "Medication" & "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" by Garbage, "6 Underground" by Sneaker Pimps, "Come As You Are" by Nirvana, "Fell On Black Days" by Soundgarden, "To the Moon and Back" by Savage Garden, "Fine Again" by Seether, "These Things" by She Wants Revenge, and of course The Smiths - "There's a Light That Never Goes Out" & "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" & "How Soon Is Now"

Pretty self-explanatory. The music is very reflective and more succinct than I can put into words.

Jehhillenberg · Jul 5, 2011

Jonathan Dalar and Faide, that's great! Chris P, that's awesome how you put background music to your scenes and I like that song by Bruce Springsteen.

ryannj5 · Jul 5, 2011

I love listening to music while I write, and created a playlist/soundtrack for my most recent novel. It has songs that echo the mysterious feeling of the book. I posted it on my blog - check it out!

Kweei · Jul 12, 2011

I create to music, so absolutely.

It's an eclectic mix, though mostly rock.

Maryn · Jul 13, 2011

I'm a weirdo. (So tell us something we don't already know, huh?) Even when I play music which seems appropriate to what I'm writing, once I get going I don't hear it. At all. So I guess I have no soundtrack for my novels, but I do for my AW-ing. At the moment, it's Wolfsheim.

Maryn, whose tastes are heavily influenced by her kids

Wesley Kang · Jul 13, 2011

I couldn't write my manuscript with music, just couldn't do it. But with the editing, I compiled a long list of book "theme" music. I picked a bunch of stuff that kinda fits my themes, a lot of Coldplay and U2 on there. There are definitely "in the zone" moments where I have to turn off all the music... and sometimes when I'm completely out of the zone, I have to turn it off too.

artemis31386 · Jul 13, 2011

Every single one of my novels has its own soundtrack. The music usually helps me to keep a cohesive theme and tone.

Selah March · Jul 16, 2011

I've got an iTunes playlist for each of my books. I often spend hours searching out appropriate music and rearranging the songs to suit the order of scenes -- all the while brainstorming dialogue, characterization and action, so it's not wasted time and effort (or so I tell myself). I play the soundtrack in the car, and while cooking and cleaning, so the mood of the current project is always with me.

By the time I draft, polish, sell, and revise a book to editorial specifications, my poor family is heartily sick of its soundtrack. Oh well. Sucks to be them.

lcwrite · Jul 17, 2011

One of my books is set on a remote island. The MC is the owner of an eco-friendly resort there and there is little electricity, no television, etc. After dinner each night the guests generally hang out in the dining hall. A couple of the resort guides, and my MC, play guitar and I have them perform. I'll say they sang a particular song or artists like The Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, etc. I also have my MC thinking through the incidents that have taken place (it is a cozy) while (a) tinkering with the motors on his dive boat or (b) working out or(c) playing a guitar.

There are scenes involving characters with certain traits. One is a serious traditional country music fan and when writing scenes where he plays a significant role I tend to have his type of country music playing. Another character is into hard rock and grunge and when writing scenes focusing on her I'll have some relevant music going

AbielleRose · Jul 17, 2011

Selah March said:
I've got an iTunes playlist for each of my books. I often spend hours searching out appropriate music and rearranging the songs to suit the order of scenes -- all the while brainstorming dialogue, characterization and action, so it's not wasted time and effort (or so I tell myself). I play the soundtrack in the car, and while cooking and cleaning, so the mood of the current project is always with me.

By the time I draft, polish, sell, and revise a book to editorial specifications, my poor family is heartily sick of its soundtrack. Oh well. Sucks to be them.

I do the exact same thing.

Its so nice to just put the music on, let it blend into the background and focus on the book with the right "mental setting".

My "soundtracks" each have about a 50/50 blend of instrumental/vocal music and touch probably every genre.

Jehhillenberg · Jul 19, 2011

Thanks God for iTunes, right! Some organization with playlists.

Arclight · Jul 19, 2011

I used to use playlist.com to build a playlist for my story, so I could share it with other people. Since playlist.com ruined everything by making all songs inaccessible to Canadians, I started building a playlist for my story in iTunes. I pick songs based on characters and the situations they experience and decisions they make. Sometimes, I pick songs based on a certain mood they have. My playlist is mostly industrial or darkwave, because that's the kind of music that fits my story. It also happens to be my favorite music, and the kind of music that puts images and stories in my head.

Snitchcat · Jul 19, 2011

Nope. I have no soundtracks for any of my works. I block out all noise, including music, when I'm immersed in my writing, so I may as well be writing in silence.

That said, however, when I notice it, I'm usually writing to something creepy, sombre, mystical, or instrumental and relaxing. Mostly compilations and classical (East and West).

DragonHeart · Jul 22, 2011

I don't normally listen to music while I write, but I've been listening to the soundtrack of Assassin's Creed II a lot while working on my current project. It fits well, since the book is about assassins and in fact partly inspired by the series.

The downside to doing so is that listening to the music makes me want to play the games lol. Especially when the track Notorious comes on.

flygal716 · Jul 23, 2011

What a great thread. While I've never actually created an iTunes playlist, I definitely had about 6 or 8 pieces of music that I played over and over and over again while writing. Even now that I've finished the novel, certain songs just bring up certain characters. I mentioned either the songs (as playing in the background) or the groups/CDs here and there throughout the book. Lots of Booker T. and the MGs, Clapton, and songs from Northern Exposure (that I have on CD).

For the next novel, instead of constantly swapping CDs in the player and pushing "repeat" all the time, I'll make a playlist.

flygal716 · Jul 23, 2011

iTunes question: I just created a playlist with a specific song order. When I burned it to a CD, it changed the order so that the songs were alphabetical by artist! How do I make sure my playlist order carries through?

Many thanks to the techies out there!

Jehhillenberg · Jul 23, 2011

DragonHeart said:
The downside to doing so is that listening to the music makes me want to play the games lol. Especially when the track Notorious comes on.

That sounds like some good background music I can use!

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