Once upon a time, music was a crutch I needed before I could write at all. Like good chocolate and tea, or the perfect writing environment, the right music was part of many little rituals to activate my reluctant muses. I don’t write to music very much these days. The muses and I have reached some compromises. Writing time is too precious to be frittered away in foreplay. My mood alters so much between scene to scene, that most music can’t keep up.
But I still plot to music.
As I sort out plot lines for both MORO’S SHIELD and MORO’S CROWN, I’m going back to the tunes I listened to while writing/revising the first book. Are some of these songs really obscure? Downright quaint? Yep, and I shamelessly cop to it. These are the things that worked for this particular story arc, for me. If you want something more contemporary, I suggest checking out Amanda Downum’s playlists for her spectacular novels. They truly rock, and she is an incredible writer: http://stillsostrange.livejournal.com/
Right now, during this session, here is my playlist: ‘Better Now’ by Collective Soul. ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Learning to Fly’ from Pink Floyd. Peter Gabriel’s ‘Solsbury Hill’ and ‘Don’t Give Up’. The entire ‘Tron: Legacy’ soundtrack from Daft Punk. Enigma’s ‘The Screen Behind the Mirror’. Queensrÿche’s ‘Silent Lucidity’. ‘Lunatic Fringe’ from Red Rider. ‘Into Dust’ by Mazzy Star. Mark Dwane’s ‘Angels, Aliens, and Archetypes’. Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells II’. Patrick O’Hearn’s ‘Indigo’, ‘Metaphor’, and ‘Between Two Worlds’. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s ‘Lend Your Love to Me Tonight’ and ‘Closer to Believing’. ‘Rhythm of Love’ by Yes. Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’. ‘Bravado’ from Rush. Tangerine Dream’s ‘Horizon/Warsaw Gate’, ‘Three Bikes in the Sky’, most of ‘Booster’, and ‘Tyranny of Beauty’ (and many more).
They provided me with excellent scene prompts before. I’ll see if they help again.