Melodies, Moods and Makeups: Curating a Writing Playlist

If you’re anything at all like I am, you are the person that puts a great deal of thought into your writing playlists.

I imagine every author has their own approach. Maybe each character has their own mixtape of songs that give a glimpse into who they are as a person, or what they’d listen to if they were a living, breathing person. Think Quill’s Awesome Mix from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

Or each manuscript has its own selection: a writing playlist which serves as a start to finish glimpse of the themes, emotions and relationships of your novel?

Or perhaps your playlist has absolutely nothing to do with the writing itself. It’s simply a list of your personal favourites or the particular tones and sounds you need to concentrate and put you in the zone. Your playlist might say more about you as an author than it does about your work.

How does an author chose the songs for their playlist? What stood out? Did the lyrics tell us something about the character, the author, the theme of the novel or the mood of a particular scene. Was it the timbre or texture (soft for a romantic scene, a powerful moment of passion, the melancholic sounds of grief, or the heavy drums of soliders marching into battle)?

Are the songs a hint to the character. Their personality? Their actions? Their relationships?

I have four working playlists for my various manuscripts

My debut manuscript has a selection of songs that serve different purposes. Many of the songs I chose were very thematic in nature. The Barren Peace deals a lot with war, rebellion, power, fear human nature, grief and consequence. Most of these are shown in the lyrics of songs I chose, but also in heavy beats, minor keys and melancholic piano melodies. The songs were designed to inspire and invoke emotion from me as an author

There were also songs on there that were meant to convey the relationships between characters and were very purposefully chosen for their lyrics. The relational aspects included love, admiration, hero worship, rivalry, anger and fear. Of course, since the novel isn’t all doom and gloom and contain glimmers of hope, the playlist needed to reflect this too. So I included some lighter songs with more optimistic sounds and lyrics that drive the message of hope.

The writing playlist may also include elements from author research. One of my lead characters is a sitar player. It was an essential part of my research to listen carefully to the timbre and style of the instrument so I knew how to describe it on the page. I listened to classical ragas, and to more modern compositions, and included some tracks on the playlist. The sitar is often a way that character reveals her emotions so it was very important to nod to the songs that inspired this in the playlist.

My current manuscript I’m working on is taking a very different approach when it comes to the curation of the playlists. So far, the two POV characters have their own playlists. They are mostly based on the kind of songs they would listen to if they were real people (see above example about Guardians of the Galaxy). But because the songs we listen to can tell us something about who we are as people too, compiling these songs is supporting their characterisation.

I have spoken to authors who don’t curate their writing playlists based on that at all. One of my good friends who is also writing chooses to listen to instrumental music or binaural beats as a form of focus. She finds lyrics too distracting when she is in the zone. Promoting the correct form of stimulation for productivity is a perfectly valid approach when choosing a writing playlist.

Even for this one author, curating the perfect playlist is not a one size fits all approach. Whether your playlist is theme heavy, lyric driven or a character builder, the perfect writing playlist will support your journey as you write your manuscript in whatever way you need to.