Your creativity playlist

[BiscuitHammer]

Not everyone listens to music while they write, craving peace and quiet. Sanguinius knows, I prefer that to white noise and chaos. Buuuut, when given the opportunity, I certainly have playlists that accompany on my little literary sojourns.

And what I listen to is often completely predicated on which story. When I'm writing The Great Khan, I put on various forms of Mongolian music, up to and including folk metal, like Tengger Cavalry, and The Hu.

If I'm writing somewhere in the Alexaverse, my music tends to be classical, or 70's and 80's rock, as suits the moment. With the occasional metal for balance.

If I'm writing my fantasy story about Amberley Bloodstar, I put up some fantasy/RPG playlists on YouTube.

I'm not kidding, when I wrote Miracle On RR34, I just listened to Christmas music. There's endless amounts of it in various styles, after all. Pity I wasn't writing it during Christmas... :/

For Time Rider, I try to find music relevant to the era they're visiting.

Right at this moment, I'm listening to 'Teenage Rampage' by Sweet, since it suits the scene I'm writing. I'm gonna be earwormed by this for days... gah.

Anyhoo, what about the rest of you? Is your music specific to the story? Or do you just have a genre or style that is your writing groove? I'm just curious.

*spins slowly in the captain's chair, looking at the ceiling*

 

[Bramblethorn]

If I really need to think, e.g. working out a problem with the plot, most music is distracting. I'll probably go with something non-intrusive like Cryo Chamber's Lovecraft themed collaborations, or nothing at all.

Otherwise, I will often put together a themed playlist to get me in the mood for a story. "Stringed Instrument" is about a woman who falls in love with a classical cellist, so my listening for that included a mix of cello (Bach, Glass) and orchestra, as well as more contemporary music for the protagonist's side of things.

Currently I'm working on another stringed-instrument story, with a violin prodigy, but this is a fantasy piece: deals with the devil signed in blood, that sort of thing. One of the characters in that story is driven by cold fury, stemming from betrayal by a lover, and although that backstory is likely to be invisible to the readers I need to feel it to write her.

I have a lot of Lord of the Lost on that playlist, because they cover both the strings and the heavy metal rage. Some others from that list:
Tom Holkenborg's Brothers in Arms (fantastic percussive energy)
And One's Killing The Mercy (betrayal/revenge theme)
Blutengel's Asche zu Asche (more cold gothness)
Umbra et Imago's You Are Poison To Me (love-hate theme)
ASP's Sing Child (temptation by the devil) and Die Klippe - Teil 2: Hang (metal vs. fiddle)

When I need to be in the mood to write sex scenes, that's a different playlist again. Includes:
LotL's Sex On Legs
Umbra et Imago's Viva Vulva and Viva Lesbian
In This Moment's Whore
Garbage's Queer
Type O Negative's Christian Woman

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've written quite a few stories to Marisa Nadler, her July album in particular.

This description probably explains why:

Singing in a mezzo-soprano, Nadler has received acclaim for her vocals. Her voice was described by Pitchfork as one "you would follow straight into Hades", and also "textured and angelic, with just a hint of pain captured within her iridescent falsetto". The Boston Globe said, "She has a voice that, in mythological times, could have lured men to their deaths at sea, an intoxicating soprano drenched in gauzy reverb that hits bell-clear heights, lingers, and tapers off like rings of smoke".

She sings like I write, I think.

 

[Handley_Page]

Total silence; "like an undiscovered tomb".
Music is not to be regarded like wallpaper. It's to be listened to; contemplated.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Total silence; "like an undiscovered tomb".
Music is not to be regarded like wallpaper. It's to be listened to; contemplated.

Music can also be a soundtrack - my teenage years were measured out in twenty minute increments, the typical length of an album side. For some of us, music was a constant presence, a part of who we were, like breathing.

 

[SimonDoom]

I often listen to music while I write, but not always. My tastes are eclectic, and usually I'm playing something from one or more Spotify playlists, ranging from pop organized by decade playlists, or classical. I enjoy classical and flamenco guitar and often listen to that. I'll listen to jazz or blues, too. I don't typically listen to one artist at a time. With Spotify I can mix it up and that's what I usually do.

The only thing I really don't listen to is country music, although I like bluegrass.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Well, most of the time the TV is on. Not loud, but not muted either. And most of the time when I am writing, when the mood strikes me, I listen to music. This is my go to playlist... on my lap top.

 

[KeithD]

I can't work to vocals. I'm a singer myself and vocals intrude. I now work almost exclusively to silence, but when I had music background I used those "atmospheric" elevator-sound CD's with classical piano or rainforest-type sounds.

 

[AfterDusk]

I also do not listen to music while I write; my musical background draws my full attention to it and I can’t focus on writing to the extent that it needs. I do, however, use music to put me into a particular mood before I start writing and when I listen to music without vocals/minimal vocals, my mind is able to float away to a fantasy world and drift on a stream of composition.

Plus my tastes are so broad that it looks like I have musical ADD. My fallbacks are Muse, Hozier, Jack White, Kaleo, the Glitch Mob, Dvorak, Awolnation and Lynyrd Skynyrd though when I need a pick me up or a way to draw the full focus of my attention, I have a wide variety of Punjabi and Arabic music that I listen to. I find that listening to a language that I have little recognition of is very stimulating.

As I am wound tight today my tastes lean towards rage techno (what the youngins call dubstep). I can only imagine how that will translate into writing.

 

[MetaBob]

Writing is an immersive experience for me, and I find music to be a big part of what helps me sink into the full experience, and especially into what my characters are experiencing in their inner headspace. I also cite a lot of lyrics tangentially relevant to my writing, many of which show up on the "What Are You Listening To Now?" thread here. I made a playlist of all the lyrics I've cited in my writing here, and will often play it, especially as a kickstart if I'm feeling like the writing is going more slowly than it should. A particular favorite sequence, from chapters that are finished but not yet published:

Babyfather - Sade
A Case Of You (Live) - Diana Krall
Love Has No Pride - Jane Monheit
Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye
The Order Of Death - Public Image Ltd.
Lovers Rock - Sade
Nightswimming - R.E.M.
Between The Bars - Metric
Slow Life - Of Monsters And Men
Get Me On - Poi Dog Pondering
Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
Sing Me To Sleep (feat. Neko Case) - Fran Healy
Skin Graph - Silversun Pickups

 

[John988]

[This content has been removed due to a copyright violation.]

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I listen to Two Steps from Hell for my non erotica writing. I listen to various instrumental music in the background otherwise.