What 13 Authors Listen To When They Write
If you are like me, a daydreamer, music can help you come up with a number of story ideas. As an undergrad in college, I wrote more than one short story heavily influenced by Lana Del Rey songs, going as far to steal little lines and images from her lyrics. A woman in my workshop caught me, writing in her critique that she enjoyed the shout out to Lana, naming the exact song I had referenced. (It was Summertime Sadness if you were wondering) To me, Lana was (and is) a goddess, her angelic voice and visceral lyrics just bursting with possibility to me. Although these stories were unsuccessful (and a little embarrassing and plagiarism??) it made me question the influence of music on other writer’s lives and what artists were capturing their attention or acting as a muse.
I asked 13 published and acclaimed authors what music helps get them in the zone or has inspired some of their recent work. Their playlists are varied and sometimes dependent on what type of project they are working on, but for most, it seems, that music is an important part of their creative process.
I compiled their recommended songs into a Spotify playlist that you can find at the bottom of this article so you can listen at your leisure. Thank you to all the wonderful writers that contributed! Check out their responses below.
Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot
Below are some songs that were on heavy rotation as I wrote Godshot. For me, the song "Angel From Montgomery" by John Prine feels like some sort of energetic companion to my novel. It evokes a mood that I felt really clearly as I wrote and imagined these characters in their lives. Many of the other songs on this list are mentioned specifically in the book. I'd say the list is sort of my California in a way. Folk and country music often inspires me to write and the song Outlaws by Joe Purdy inspired my short story "Cowboys and Angels" which appeared in Granta.
Angel From Montgomery by John Prine
What's My Age Again? by blink -182
Down to the River to Pray by Allison Kraus
Mama Tried by Merle Haggard
Great American Cowboy by Sons of the San Joaquin
Outlaws by Joe Purdy
California Love by 2Pac
Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys by Willie Nelson
Goldmine by I Draw Slow
Pale Blue Eyes by Velvet Underground
The Mother by Brandi Carlile
Dreaming of You by Selena
Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton
Fancy by Reba McEntire
Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of The Third Rainbow Girl
I like to write in the morning before the anxiety kicks in, and then a little bit again after lunch. I need music, usually the same song, playing on repeat one. I’ll listen to a song over and over again until it kind of disappears and all is left is the mood. An incomplete list of songs I have repeat ones lately:
Cellophane by FKA Twigs
Cola by Lana Del Rey
Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna
Love on the Brain by Rihanna
The Eye by Brandi Carlisle
Birds by Neil Young
Sarah Rose Etter, author of The Book of X
I tend to be drawn to simple songs when I'm writing, Too many lyrics can really mess up the rhythm of writing for me, so I usually listen to something stripped down on repeat. I'll listen to the same song over and over again as I write, especially when I'm working on short stories. It's almost an attempt to channel the mood of the song into text.
Cellophane by FKA Twigs
This song -- and the video -- are so beautiful and brutal. It perfectly captures the end of love, and the crashing back to reality after your heart has been shattered.
Two Weeks by FKA Twigs
This song is almost the flipside to "Cellophane" -- here, you've got FKA Twigs in her POWER, and the strange, erratic rhythm of this just keeps me coming back. I love this one to listen to at the gym between writing sessions.
The Sorcerer by Twain
I don't know how this ended up in my rotation - I think Spotify sent it my way, but it got very easy to write to. Simple chords, simple lyrics, stripped down, heart-wrenching. Love it.
Flatlands by Chelsea Wolfe
This song, I always come back to when I'm writing. It reminds me of a landscape every single time. I've been writing to this song for years, and I always will.
Read our interview with Sarah here
Kali Fajardo- Anstine, author of Sabrina & Corina
I write a lot to Patsy Cline, The Helio Sequence, Thelonious Monk and sometimes I’ll get caught on a song for several weeks or months while working on a piece. Ride by Lana Del Rey is one of those songs for me.
Read our interview with Kali here
Amanda Goldblatt, author of Hard Mouth
Songs I listened to while writing Hard Mouth
Make the world go away by Timi Yuro
You Make No Sense by ESG
Bee-Bee’s Song by Sonic Youth
Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory by Guided by Voices
There Goes My Gun by The Pixies
Some Things Last a Long Time by Daniel Johnston
Songs I Write/Edit To
Envelop by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
A Sea of Love by Huerco S
I’m Kin by Colleen
Triple Black by MJ Guider
Grace of Climate by Michael Vallera
Brohm Ridge by loscil
Sister by Ulla Straus
Nicht Ohne Risiko by Laurel Halo
Path by Umfang
ELLE by SOPHIE
Read our interview with Amanda here
Genevieve Hudson, author of Boys of Alabama
The albums Soundings in Fathom and After Glow by Brumes
Anything Philip Glass but especially:
Morning Passages
Etude No.2
The albums Welcome Oxygen and Ground Luminosity by Will Samson
Anything Debussy
Binaural beats and theta waves, especially by Kev Thompson
Very recently and obsessively Nils Frahm
Crissy Van Meter, author of Creatures
Gimme Shelter by Merry Clayton
Baby by Ariel Pink
Master of None by Beach House
View Crissy’s Spotify Playlist Here
Read our interview with Crissy here
Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light
Music is second only to writing in my life, but, sadly, I can’t write while listening to music. I need total, ridiculous silence and a space where I can read each line I’ve written aloud over and over (so no coffee shops either—even the sound of a distant leaf blower outside can fuck me up). That said, I do listen to music during breaks in the work day. Since so much of my stuff is about desire and innocence, I've toggled between these two songs for the last 10 years.
Pleasure by Pure X (at 31:39)
This whole record is fuzzy and full of heat, but this song in particular really captures such soft, perpetual longing. Turn it up loud enough and you can feel the thrum in your breast bone.
The Big Ship by Brian Eno
I could set my whole life to an Eno soundtrack, but “The Big Ship” is special: it’s pure childhood—the bittersweet swells, the weird synthesizer sounds that plug right into my pleasure sensors. If “Pleasure” is a song that makes me feel lust, “The Big Ship” is a song that makes me feel wistful. Both of those feelings are absolutely critical to the kind of writing I want to do.
Read our interview with Kimberly here
Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth
While I was working on Disappearing Earth, I loved listening to Unsteady Ground by Catherine Feeny. It felt like a thesis statement for the book. I ended up making it the first song on my own playlist for the manuscript, which I would listen to to get myself in the mood to write.
Howl by Florence + The Machine
Video Games by Lana Del Rey
Tusk by Fleetwood Mac
House of the Sea by Moddi
View Julia’s Spotify Playlist Here
Read our interview with Julia here
Etaf Rum, author of A Woman Is No Man
At the Ivy Gate by Brain Crain
Read my interview with Etaf via The Book Slut here
Sarah Elaine Smith, author of Marilou is Everywhere
For me, there are two kinds of writing music. The first is a playlist of deliberately selected and emotionally keyed songs particular to the character and the story I'm working on. The songs on these playlists usually have a lot of narrative and lyrical content of their own--and that's by design, because they're usually constellated to bring me to a very specific sort of sense memory of the character. I found this a crucial strategy for working on a novel while holding a full-time job.
Back Baby by Jessica Pratt
For Marilou Is Everywhere, I spent years listening to Jessica Pratt's amazing On Your Own Love Again. I love that album, but it's moody in a way that little of my music is. It sounds sort of '70s, and it reminds me a lot of the late folk music that was always in the background when I was growing up, the child of brown rice eaters. When I'm off the clock, I gravitate toward toothache-inducing pop music like Charli XCX or esoteric no-where-ica like Alice Coltrane. But when I needed to punch in the very particular dreamy apartness of Cindy Stoat, that Jessica Pratt album got it done.
Quartz by Brian Eno
The second kind of writing music is more general, for the exploratory phase where I'm trying to find the edges of what I'm writing--I'm one of those "dive into the void" writers, and I spend a lot of time following intuition a bit blindly. The music that supports this odd state has to be both spacious and a little moody. Lots of music is one or the other. As much as I love Alice Coltrane, there's too much non-narrative motion in her songs; writing with Lord of Lords on in the background feels almost disrespectful. And much of Brian Eno, while perfectly spacious, is tonally reassuring in a way that doesn't suit me somehow. His Music for Films strikes the perfect balance, though. It carries the evocative imprint of that expectant state of sitting in a theater, watching the next and next and next images appear. And is writing so different?
Blink by Hiroshi Yoshimura
It turns out that the most intelligent recommender of my perfect spacious music is the YouTube algorithm, a fact I find alarming and difficult to reconcile myself to--although I am consoled by the goldmine of rare Japanese ambient vinyl sides which appear in its feed endlessly, like pure cold water from a spring. Composers like Hiroshi Yoshimura who worked and died in obscurity have attained an unexpected wave of present-day adoration from others like me who have left the breadcrumbs in the form of Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter listens, and while the machine's embrace of my aural imprint seriously creeps me out, Yoshimura's Green, Soundscape 1, and Music for 9 Post Cards are perfect for the sleepwalking that writing is.
Read our interview with Sarah here
Abigail Tarttelin, author of Dead Girls
My whole first book has a note at the beginning to read while listening to We’ll Live and Die in These Towns by The Enemy. I love to soundtrack my process — it totally affects the end product.
Currently, I’m listening to Into My Arms by Nick Cave and Goodbye by The Pretenders to write.
Read our interview with Abigail here
C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold
My music is thunderstorm sounds from Youtube
Listen to All These Songs on Our Spotify Playlist
About Kailey Brennan
Write or Die Tribe was created by Kailey Brennan, a freelance writer, blogger and content creator based in Plymouth, MA.
She currently writes for Read Poetry, Hire Scholars and a handful of other online platforms.
