Music for YA Writing?

MerryDay · Jul 28, 2007

Before this summer, I never listened to music while writing. It was just too distracting, but that was before I was living in super close quarters with three other people! If I had waited for peace & quiet, my WIP would be non-existent. So, I started listening to music while writing, making sure it was in the same emotional level as whatever chapter I was working on. It worked!

It actually worked better than silence ever has. I've talked to some other writers about their music/no-music opinions, and it seems that YA authors are much more likely to use music to get in the mood of their story. We were wondering if this wasn't because YA writing is much more likely to have emotional turmoil so the raw emotion of some music really suits it. After all, high school really is a bitch.

For me, I'm totally addicted to the Spring Awakening original cast recording. It's rawness is perfect for getting me in the right zone...and I've heard so many times now that I can tune everything else out and just write. Other writing favs: Death Cab For Cutie, Snow Patrol, Stars, Feist, Rufus Wainwright, and Schuyler Fisk.

So, do you use music while writing? If so, which bands or soundtracks are your favorites for writing?

Shady Lane · Jul 28, 2007

MERRY DAY...I am in love with your music selection. I'm JUST about to download Spring Awakening, and I'm going to see it this fall. And I love Death Cab and Snow Patrol and Rufus Wainwright and I LOVVVVE Stars.

Okay, now that my gushing is complete...I usually watch TV when I write...apparantly hardly anyone else does this, but I'm a hardcore supporter of brain-deadening-while-writing. But I do listen to music....if not while I'm physically writing, when I'm in the throes of a book, trying to work things out....I'll listen to a few songs over and over and over. Every book has a song or two.

Historically, these songs have been:

Under the Gun by The Killers (My first book)

Live Forever by Oasis (Book 2)

Teenage Wasteland by The Who (The Sublime)

Josiah by Peter Himmelman, Your Ex-Lover is Dead by Stars, Could I Be You by Matchbox 20 (Carnival)

Together We'll Ring in the New Year by Motion City Soundtrack (<3) and Christmastime is Here from Charlie Brown Christmas (Christmastime)

The Only Child by Jackson Browne and The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice (Singleton.)

I'm still shopping for Nimble's song.

MerryDay · Jul 28, 2007

Omigod...you are going to see SA? You have no idea how ridiculously jealous I am right now. I'm trying to get some friends together for an NYC trip this fall just so I can see it on Broadway. You are going to LOVE the soundtrack, if you haven't heard it yet. Really...any second now I'm about to turn green from all the envy.

That's so funny that you write to the t.v. - my best friend/cp does the same thing and we thought she was the only one! Your song choices for your novels are amazing as well...The Blower's Daughter has to be one of the most beautiful songs ever written. And Motion City Soundtrack? Amazing! Okay...sorry, I had to gush too.

Don't you love how music can make something really connect for you when you're struggling during a book? Even before my music/writing epiphany, I would make playlists for my character if something wasn't gelling well...it really does help to clarify things.

Shady Lane · Jul 28, 2007

I absolutely do the same thing. And as soon as I have a name for my MC, I go to iTunes and find a song with his name as the title. You find some FANTASTIC songs that way....Josiah (like I said,) Noel by Grasshopper Takeover, Sasha by Splitsville, Charlie by Crosby Stills...you should totally try it.

Motion City Soundtrack...gahhhh I love them. I spent the whole day watching their videos and drooling over dear Justin. I'm thinking of getting a MCS avatar, actually....

MerryDay · Jul 28, 2007

Wow. That is a really great idea...I'm definitely going to try that. I've searched for songs with my name before (always fun, since it's the most common name on earth), but I've never carried it over to my characters.

...and I fully support all MCS avatar changing. I'm twiddling my thumbs till I hit 50 posts and can play around with mine.

Shady Lane · Jul 28, 2007

Hannah by Chaselounge = most kickass song with my name.

I'll stop hijacking your thread now.

Zoombie · Jul 28, 2007

Well, my music ranges from Tom Leher, Weird Al (Weird Al has some great advice when it comes to writing...or anything else: DARE TO BE STUPID!), Queen...

But right now, I'm addicted to this awesome song by Michelle Dockery

It's Mal's Song

moondance · Jul 29, 2007

I don't like music with lyrics whilst I'm writing - I get caught up in listening to the song instead of writing. Unless it's Irish ballads that are kind of lilting and not heavily beat-driven. Similarly, radio is a no-no. At the moment I find I write best to film/show soundtracks or ambient stuff.

Current faves are:
soundtrack to Titanic
soundtrack to Jurassic Park
Riverdance
Lord of the Dance
soundtrack to The Piano

Evaine · Jul 29, 2007

When I have music on, it has to be without lyrics, or I get distracted - or possibly in a foreign language so I can't recognise any words. Usually classical or folk (Scottish and Welsh harps, or Northumberland pipes, for instance) though I have recently discovered Malian kora music, which is a bit like a harp, but played by the praise singers (griots) of the African country of Mali. Hay-on-Wye has just been twinned with Timbuktu, this year, and a griot came over to play for us as part of the celebrations.

Harper K · Jul 29, 2007

Count me in as another who writes to the Spring Awakening soundtrack! I absolutely love it. There's a character in my novel who's a frustrated aspiring Broadway performer, and she references it and other musicals throughout the story. I've also been known to write to the soundtracks for A Chorus Line, West Side Story, Wicked, and Avenue Q.

The band whose music I listen to most while writing is the Decemberists. LOVE them. Most of their songs are little stories unto themselves, which makes for great inspiration ("if they can pack a story into a 5-minute song, then SURELY I can tell a decent story in a 220-page novel. Right?"). Also: Neko Case, the New Pornographers, The Postal Service, Death Cab, Rilo Kiley, Neutral Milk Hotel, Belle and Sebastian, I'm From Barcelona. Actually, I have a soundtrack of songs that I associate with my novel. I have to burn another copy of it today because the old one got all scratched up and worn out. That says something about how long I've been working on this WIP. Heh.

Storm Surge · Jul 29, 2007

I listen to a strange assortment of stuff while writing. Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Traffic, The Moody Blues, Little Feat, Simon and Garfunkel, Weird Al, The Kinks...
My latest favorite is Warron Zevon. I must have listened to the Excitable Boy album a million times.

maddythemad · Jul 29, 2007

I love background noise, but it is usually whatever is playing the café I happen to be sitting in, or the soft chatter of many people talking (this is THE BEST in Denmark, where I am now, because I love writing around other people, but I'm not actually distratced by what anyone is saying, because I only know enough Danish to say, "I don't speak Danish.")

Hillgate · Jul 29, 2007

Surely all you need is Sk8rboy' by Avril Lavigne and 'Teenage Dirtbag', possible with a little bit of Franz Ferdinand's 'Michael' thrown in for angst moments and The Kinks 'I wish I could be like David Watts.'

JLCwrites · Jul 29, 2007

I am currently in the middle of a gruesome, end of the world, dark, fantasy scene. Soooo, I created a playlist of some music that reflects the depressing state my characters are in. Lots of Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, King Arthur), Lisa Gerrard, Dead Can Dance, and Thievery Corporation. As stated in other posts, it is difficult for me to write if there are lyrics in the songs.

It's almost like creating a soundtrack for the movie going on in your head!

britlitfantw · Jul 30, 2007

I recently got into a band called Poets of the Fall. Several songs in particular really rev my creative juices, like Carnival of Rust and Roses. Other than them, Avril Lavigne is sometimes good to write to, or movie soundtracks, or U2, or Sarah Brightman, or Evanescence, or Within Temptation, or ...

Yeah. I love me my music.

roskoebaby · Aug 6, 2007

I had never listened to music while I wrote until I began my last book. I agree that it seems to transport you to the desired mood quickly. It's like a story, but told in 3 minutes.

I listen to David Grey, the Killers, Death Cab for Cutie and (don't laugh) Coldplay. The Scientist is perfect for my book. But another one to listen to is from the soundtrack of the movie ONCE. I think it's called "I don't know you"

Check it on Itunes. It's beautiful.

Shady Lane · Aug 6, 2007

ROSKOEBABY!!! I am OBSESSED with Once. Fantastic movie, fantastic soundtrack. I listen to it CONSTANTLY.

britlitfantw · Aug 7, 2007

I LOVED Once, and Coldplay is great.

HourglassMemory · Aug 7, 2007

I'm reall yinto movie soundtracks.
It then depends on the mood I want to follow.
sinc eI know the soudtracks by heart I just click the piece of music an dlisten to it as I type.
It really helps.
I'm certainly not going to type al the soundtracks I have but the ones I listen to the most is basically:
A Beautiful Mind
Edward Scissor Hands
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
King Kong
Letters from Iwo Jima
Series of Unfortunate events
Jurassic Park
Oliver Twist
Star Wars
Chronicles of Narnia
The da Vinci Code
The Illusionist
Titanic
The Terminal
Pirates of the Caribbean

Music for YA Writing?

MerryDay

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

MerryDay

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

MerryDay

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

moondance

Evaine

Harper K

here's to the girl on the go

Storm Surge

Surfin'

maddythemad

Hillgate

On location

JLCwrites

britlitfantw

roskoebaby

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

britlitfantw

HourglassMemory