How Music Can Impact Your Writing + Playlist Recommendations
Music has been used as an aid for writing for as long as the two have coexisted together. I’m sure we’ve all had a designated “writing playlist” before (and if not, make one! Couldn’t hurt, right?), just as I’m sure we’ve all had a song inspire us at least once or twice, in daily life and in our writing life (which for so many of us, the two overlap anyway). Writing and music, in my unprofessional opinion, go hand in hand, and it’s always a beautiful, fruitful collaboration. As writers—whether you write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or anything else under the sun—we have so much to learn from our song-writing and composing brothers and sisters.
The first thing to do when using music as an aid is to, of course, appreciate the music you’re listening to. As a writer you want to be, at the very least, appreciated, and the least we can do is give that same appreciation to singers, songwriters, DJs, and composers alike.
If you find yourself really enjoying an artist’s music, look into the artist, their life and their work, properly. One way you can do this is by finding articles, interviews, or books about or by said artist. Finding out about their life and seeing how they’ve let it influence their art can give you ideas about how you can apply your life into parts (or the full, for you nonfiction writers out there) of your art as well. Another way you can appreciate the artist is by looking into their discography and by going through it all thoroughly. An artist’s discography is an amazing tool to fellow writers, whether both parties realize it or not. Seeing how their words flow, how they make their metaphors, and how their style progresses through time is an incredibly inspirational force.
Second, the infamous writing playlist. I have many, many playlists for writing. I have a playlist for each fictional and poetic project I work on, as well as playlists of music that just make it easier for me to sit down and concentrate on writing, and I recommend this idea to everyone I know who writes or wants to start. There’s two ways you can apply playlist making to your writing:
The specific project playlist: Finding songs and sounds to represent your words and little worlds is a beautiful—and super fun—experience. Putting songs to characters, to scenes, to relationships, to poems, to metaphors, etc. is so entertaining as well, it truly feels like making a little movie for yourself in your head. Not only does it make writing a little more fun, but it’s also such a great well of inspiration to tap into. Some songs that have been on multiple of my story/poem playlists are Mary by Alex G, Don’t Delete The Kisses by Wolf Alice, and White Ferrari by Frank Ocean.
The motivation/concentration playlist: Now this playlist mostly consists of classical music and/or wordless tracks from movies, shows, or video games. This is the one I would probably most recommend to all the nonfiction writers reading this. Having music around me has always just made it easier for me to sit down and write—or do most tasks for that matter. Writing to the soundtracks or scores of your favorite movies, shows, or video games is a very simple way to spice up your writing routine. My personal favorites to write to that I love to recommend to fellow writers are Oxenfree by scntfc, Comet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Daniel Hart, and The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The third thing I’d like to recommend is reading books by authors that were inspired by music themselves. I love my fellow writers and I’m always looking for ways to get inspired by them, so this is really a win-win for people like me.
Some musical book-ish recommendations:
Finally, the fourth thing I’d like to recommend is a total vice versa of my third: listening to music inspired by books. I love music and books so much, they are my whole life, so really anything combining the two I’m gonna be behind 110%. I have a whole playlist of songs inspired by books here, but here are five of my all time favorites:
Moon Song by Phoebe Bridgers (inspired by Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney)
Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush (inspired by, you guessed it, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë)
Soma by The Strokes (inspired by Brave New World by Aldous Huxley)
Yellow Flicker Beat by Lorde (inspired by Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins)
Love Story (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift (a retelling of the very famous Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)
I’ve had countless songs inspire and aid my writing in all my years and I truly wouldn’t be the writer I am today without music. Good luck to you and your joint writing and musical endeavors, friends.
