Your Novel’s Soundtrack
By Grace Wynter | May 11, 2018 |
I know my lease is up and the bailiff’s at the door
And still I’m hanging on to the life we had before
“Chainsmoking”—Jacob Banks
I listen to white noise or instrumental music when I write because I usually find silence and music lyrics distracting. But there are times when a song’s lyrics allow me to discover things about my story I’d previously been unable to see.
At a recent writing retreat, I vowed to shake things up and break through the writer’s block I’d been experiencing with my WIP. Part of that shakeup involved excessive snacking. Surprisingly (or not), competitive snacking didn’t trigger the breakthrough. Listening to music—specifically, Jacob Banks’s “Chainsmoking” on repeat—did.
Banks’s gritty, guttural sound and spot-on lyrics so clearly captured the dynamic of my protagonist’s volatile relationship with her ex, their story began unfolding before my ears. A few hours later, I had written over 6,000 words. Many of those words are backstory that will never make it to the page, but that backstory will be the thread that runs through my characters’ emotional arcs.
That breakthrough led me to create multiple soundtracks for my WIP. I’ve created writing soundtracks before, but they’d been general “writing motivation” playlists, or I’d created them after my story was complete. This time I used the soundtracks as tools to break my writer’s block. In the process, I discovered new layers to my story. Even if you’re a diehard “silence writer” creating soundtracks might help if you’re experiencing writer’s block.
Soundtrack Your Scenes and Chapters
Characters aren’t the only things that should convey emotions; scenes and chapters should, too. When selecting a song(s) for your chapter soundtrack, think about the many words we use to describe music; soaring, thumping, uplifting, exhilarating, soulful, mournful, and sensual, to name a few. Emotionally, where does your scene start, and where does it end? Is there a song or lyric that perfectly describes your chapter’s mood? When you find that song, submerge yourself in the atmosphere it creates and allow the emotions to flow through to your writing.
Soundtrack Character Relationships
My WIP is thick with the weight of an unhealthy relationship, and Banks’s lyrics perfectly capture that tension. The guttural, boozy texture of his voice and his pleading tone allowed me to experience my characters’ interactions more intimately than I’d been able to before. Use the mood and sentiment in your song choices as a spark for your dialogue’s tone and pace.
Soundtrack Your Book’s Settings
If you’re not a fan of listening to music with lyrics while you write, consider creating a soundtrack with only sounds. This exercise may help you write richer more descriptive story settings. YouTube has hundreds of videos featuring sounds such as babbling brooks, busy city streets, insects during the summer, and birdsong. Better yet, go outside, close your eyes, and be still. Then write everything you hear, smell, and feel. The idea is to record whatever your senses present in the moment, without censoring or editing yourself.
Tools to Help You Create Your Soundtrack
If lyrics or music isn’t your cup of tea, and silence doesn’t cut it either, the Coffitivity app might be right up your alley. The free app provides ambient café sounds to help boost focus and concentration.
YouTube offers hundreds of study videos to help with focus and concentration. Their user-created playlists can also be great, especially if you subscribe to their paid, ad-free YouTube Red channel.
Pandora, Amazon Music, and Spotify are three additional apps that allow users to create and stream music playlists.
When it comes to writing, is it silence or sound for you? Have you created a soundtrack for your novel? If so, share a link in the comments. If you have a Spotify account and you’d like to listen to the soundtrack I created for my WIP, you can listen here.
[coffee]
Grace Wynter is an author, editor, and workshop facilitator. She has an MBA from Georgia State University and a Professional Certificate in Editing from the University of Chicago. She has conducted workshops for organizations such as Writer Unboxed, Wake Up and Write!, Sisters in Crime, and the Atlanta Writers Club where she is also a freelance editor for their biannual Atlanta Writers Conference. Her editing clients include traditional publishers such as Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, and Hachette, and an array of indie publishers and self-published authors. Grace is the community architect behind Tessera Creatives, an online directory that connects authors and publishers with skilled, culturally competent freelance creatives who provide services for the publishing industry.
When she’s not alternating between the Marvel and DC universes, Grace resides in Atlanta, Georgia. You can connect with her at GraceWynter.com.
Thanks, Grace. It’s easy to forget how powerfully music is connected to what I write, and often inspires it. I don’t listen when I write, I listen when I drive, which is often when my best ideas occur.
“Ghost” by the Indigo Girls has been evocative for my WIP, because the book was inspired by a friend who died some years ago.
An actor friend once said that as an actor he would reach a point on stage where emotionally he felt a need to be able to sing – there was a sense of musical rhythm to his work, without being lyrical.
I’m about to drive cross-country, and I’ll be even more thoughtful when it comes to choosing the soundtrack for my trip!
Thanks for commenting, Carol! I’ve found music-filled road trips to be amazing openers for creativity. Something about starting the long trip clears my mind of its usual thoughts and encourages more free thinking. Safe travels, and I’ll see you soon!
Good stuff, Grace. I’m with you – music has been a HUGE part of my writing journey. And I also have various types of playlists. But the two broader categories are playlists that become background as I work, and playlists of songs that inform characters and relationships.
The latter type can be hugely varying in style and musical genre. Here’s a recent oddity: old songs that pop back up and inform story. And I hear the lyrics in a completely new light. For example, I recently heard an old Aimee Mann song while I was washing windows – It Takes All KInds. The first verse lyrics hit me like a storm, as if I’d heard them for the first time.
“As we were speaking of the devil
You walked right in
Wearing hubris like a medal
You revel in
But it’s me at whom you’ll level
Your javelin…”
It was as if my heroine was talking about my MC for an upcoming scene. I must have heard this song a hundred times, but I’d never heard it like this. And I know it added dimension to the scene.
Here’s another example of an older song that I became new for me when viewed from the perspective of story. And that new perspective came through not just a song’s lyrics, but its video. I stumbled across the video for Maps, by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Again, have heard the song over a hundred times. But watching Karen O’ s powerfully emotional performance in the video perfectly informed a set of scenes between my heroine and my MC.
I’ve watched it at least a dozen times, often right before working on the scenes that pertain, and it puts me right into her mindset. But in this case, I have to see, not just hear. (Here’s a link, if anyone’s interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIIxlgcuQRU )
For me this an endlessly fascinating topic. Thanks for starting my writing Friday out on a great note, Grace.
I love your comments. They’re always so insightful. Isn’t it amazing how a song you’ve heard a thousand times will just hit you while you’re doing the most mundane things? I’ve had that Banks song in my music folder for a while and I’m sure I’ve heard it before, but that weekend was the first time I think I really heard it. And I love Maps! I haven’t listened to the song in a long time, so thanks for this reminder to check in with it. In fact, I’m playing it in the background as I type this. :-)
Sometimes I write in silence, but often I have music, and I need that music to fit the story. I listened to some songs so often while writing my first novel that even now, ten years later, when I hear those songs, I’m back in that story.
Certain songs are good ways to train my brain–okay, we’re writing now.
One writing game/challenge I did just to work through writer’s block during NaNoWriMo was to listen to music while writing, and at the start of every song, wherever I was in the story, try to work in that song’s title. In the rewrites, I took some of them out, but I actually left several in.
Now, I’ve got to tune out the internet and tune in some tunes…
Marta, song titles as writing prompts: good for all seasons, not only for NNWM!
I never thought about that, but song titles as writing prompts is a great exercise! I usually can’t work in silence because I feel as if I hear everything when I’m not supposed to be hearing anything. :-)
Grace, I love music but have never thought of using playlists as an aid to writing. Following the music would distract me too much — or so I believe. Reading your post, I’m going to give music a try after I round up suitable tracks. I use “Peaceful ocean surf” and “Whale song” as aids to falling asleep, so they would never do. My fiction is set a few decades ago, so the Beatles (Sergeant Pepper) might be just right. I’m getting all inspired just thinking about it!
I’d love to hear how it worked out for you, Anna. I think what also helped me was that once I found the song that “broke the block”, I listened to it on repeat as I wrote. The lyrics sort of fade into the background at some point and you find yourself immersed in whatever feeling the song elicited in the first place.
I cannot write without music playing, and though I get distracted sometimes, in the end it’s all good. I listen to mostly unknown, acoustic and moody songwriters. I have a notebook filled with snippets of lyrics I have no idea what to do with, but they strike me somehow so I make a note of them. My hiusband finds much of it depressing. I posted a few lines from songwriter Jeffrey Foucalt on FB…”Jaime’s raising babies, Jack’s out raising hell, I always said I loved you, I never said I loved you well…” And hubby responds: “That’s not a very nice song.” BAHAHA. I said, so what? Lots about life isn’t nice. So it goes with writing meaty stories. Great post, Grace, and I will check out the song you mentioned at beginning!
Ellen, I love the idea about keeping a notebook full of meaningful lyrics. I might start doing that myself! And the lyrics you posted are beautiful, sad, but beautiful. “Chainsmoking” and several other songs are a part of the Spotify playlist I posted at the end. I’d love to know what you think of the song once you’ve listened to the entire thing.
“Chainsmoking” is just my kind of music. Raw, guttural, heartfelt. Love it, and him, too! Will def. check out some more of your playlist. Seems like a good idea to start a group with writer’s tunes!!
I can’t listen to music when I work. I find it too distracting, especially if accompanied by lyrics. But I do listen to music to get into the mood of a scene. And I may listen to a piece over and over, as I work out the details of that scene.
Sometimes too, a certain song may inspire the seed for a story.
On the flip side, coming from a family of musicians I’ve written stories that help inspire a song. That is really amazing on a give and take level of artistic inspiration, because then the song will inspire me to keep on keeping on.
I’ve always had music going when I write — and I too make soundtracks for my projects! I have mixtapes (both cassette and digital) that I return to for inspiration for each one. [One current project is a magical girl story, and its soundtrack contains songs by Electric Light Orchestra. The story title (In My Blue World) is even borrowed by one of their songs.]
I find that listening to music helps me on multiple levels: not only for the influence and the inspiration, but also that it keeps me aware of the time as well. When a 40 minute album finishes, sometimes it means it’s time for me to stand and stretch, get something to eat, or stop for the day! :)
I am now rethinking the blend of music and writing.
I can write easily when there’s background noise from a coffee shop, airplane, kitchen, waiting room, etc. Like a lot of us, I can write anywhere without getting distracted.
But music in the background (or from earbuds!) seems to jumble up my thoughts when I am trying to write because I hum along or hone in on instrumental parts. Lyrics take my attention away from my own written words.
But I never thought of how music can inform a character, or contribute to the mood of a developing story.
When I write full speed it’s usually very early in the morning when maybe a birdsong can be heard. I aim for quiet times during the day, and turn OFF any music.
Now I realize I can include music as an element that will inspire, not interfere. I’m already thinking of playlist themes. TY, Amazing Grace! (Sorry – couldn’t resist adding music…)
Jeph Jerman is my favorite “white noise” musician. My go-to track is “The Now of Sound.” I keep it on repeat when I’m writing. I love how it fills up my head space and creates a void when I stop it playing.
As for music, I like to write dark stories (“Saw” type stuff), so I don’t listen to the type of music that accompanies that on the regular. But listening to post-hardcore and scream-o really helps me get in the right mindset to write when I’m having difficulty.
I love finding songs that go with my WIP! I’ve collected them into a playlist that spans over 15 hours…
Grace, I have an entire blog series about this. It started in 2011 when I was writing my first novel, about a musician. I found that random songs on the radio would suddenly crystallise into things my protagonist wanted or feared. Other music would conjure exactly the mood I was seeking for a scene. I wondered if anyone else felt like this … Seven years later, I’m still discovering them! I call it an Undercover Soundtrack – music that goes with the writer’s private creative time as they discover their book.
Really love this idea. I’ve likewise written to white noise for a long time, for the reasons you mention. But lately I’ve been thinking, my novel needs to sound like Ennio Morricone’s “The Man with the Harmonica”, and letting that shape my presentation of events.
For me, this post felt like a really excellent, pertinent way of thinking about how music can inform writing. I’ll definitely be giving it a shot.