In the November RWR magazine there’s an article on finding your musical muse that I really enjoyed. It’s about how music can be submlinal and effect not only impulses (jingles that make us want to buy something)but moods as well. It really made me think about how listening to music works for me with my writing.
When I first starting writing I did it in silence. I live in a small apartment building and work nights so I’d write during the day when everyone in the building was at work. It was always quiet, with a little bit of white noise form nearby traffic. Then I got neighbours with small kids. They drove me nuts.
Small kids next door brought noise. Crying, laughter, screaming, more crying…and it was easily heard through the thin walls of the kids bedroom and my office. So I started using music to tune them out. Not music on a stereo either, because that wasn’t enough. Headphones did the trick though. My neighbours have moved on, and I still wear headphones when writing. I create playlists for stories, and general ones to set the tone of whatever scene I’m writing.
I have a playlist called Sex Writing for when I’m writing sex scenes. Ditto, Romantic and Action. Sometimes it the words of a song that do it for me, sometimes it’s just the rhythm, the beat that gets my fingers dancing over the keyboard without my brain even being connected.
Some Sample Playlists:
SEX WRITING
Welcome to the Jungle- Guns & Roses
Animals- Nickleback
Bad Girlfriend- Theory of a Deadman
Into The Night- Santana
Smooth – Santana and Rob Thomas
Closer- Nine Inch Nails
Feeling Good-The Pussycat Dolls
Love Me Like A Man – Diana Krall
Mercy – Duffy
A very eclectic collection, and thats about half the songs on the actual playlist. Some are raunchy and rock’n, some are more seductive. The same way some of my sex scenes are raw and raunchy, and some are slow and seductive.
ROMANTIC:
Love Story-Taylor Swift
Bring Me to Life-Evanescence
Lips Of An Angel- Hinder
Savin’ Me-Nickleback
Fallin – Alicia Keys
Here With Me – Dido
With or Without You – U2
Playlists have become a big help for getting me in the right mindset when I don’t really feel like writing. They can help with specific scenes, and with stories and inspiration as well. Sometimes I build a playlist for specific books, or are even inspired by certain songs.
For the book My Prerogative I had the character Kelsey pretty much fully developed in my mind, but I was having a hard time getting started on the story. I think I rewrote the first chapter half a dozen different ways before I finally hit on a couple of songs that really spoke to me.
PAIN by 3 Days Grace is a song that really hits home at certain moments for Kelsey. Kelsey drinks a lot, but then again, so do most bartenders I know. I know I certainly did when I worked in the nightclubs. You drink while you work to create a party, you drink after work because there’s not a lot else to do at three in the morning when you’re wide awake and need to wind down… and drinking is not something that encourages a person to look at the positive things in life.
Some lyrics that hit home…
“Pain …without love
….I can’t get enough
Pain… I like it rough
cuz I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all.”
MY PREROGATIVE, the Britney Spears version, was also on the play list:
“I don’t need no permission.
Make my own decisions
That’s my prerogative.”
But the song that really summed the story up for me was an Ozzy Ozborne one. It goes something like this….
*Be aware, the volume on the video is loud. You can turn it down, but it seems to be set to start at Loud.*
I Don’t Wanna Stop ~ Ozzy
I don’t know what they’re talking about
I’m making my own decisions
This thing that I found ain’t gonna bring me down
I’m like a junkie without an addiction
Mama don’t cry I just wanna stay high
I like playing with danger and fear
Everybody’s walkin’ but nobody’s talkin’
It looks a lot better from here
All my life I’ve been over the top
I don’t know what I’m doing all I know is I don’t wanna stop
All fired up, I’m gonna go ’til I drop
You’re either in or in the way, don’t make me I don’t wanna stop
Why don’t they ever listen to me
It’s just a one way conversation
Nothing they say is gonna set me free
Don’t need no mental masturbation
Too many religions but only one god
I don’t need another saviour
Don’t try to change my mind
You know I’m one of a kind
Ain’t gonna change my bad behaviour
All my life I’ve been over the top
I don’t know what I’m doing all I know is I don’t wanna stop
All fired up, I’m gonna go ’til I drop
You’re either in or in the way, don’t make me I don’t wanna stop
All my life I’ve been over the top
This song is about getting high and going hard in all that you do, and while Kelsey drinks a lot, I associated the lyrics with her sexual appetite. The beat, strong, fast, and edgy suited the tempo of the story with My Prerogative, plus I love Ozzy. 
The funny thing? I haven’t listened to this song in a long time, probably because I listened to it so much while writing My Prerogative, but hearing it now, more than a year after the book has been released, it’s inspiring me again with an idea for a while different character. Thats the great thing about words, either in music, poems or books. They hit different people in different ways.
