My Writing Playlist

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Do you like to listen to music when you write?

Most of the time I don’t have music on whilst writing, but if I do I like to listen to things that help with inspiration. I have quite an eclectic taste in music, I’m a huge fan of almost anything from the ’80’s but my tastes run wide, from Katy Perry to Slipknot and everything in between. I give each character I write their own soundtrack or album, whether or not that is revealed in the story I am writing.

Here are a five of my all time favourite albums to listen to whilst writing…

1. Alisha’s Attic – Alisha Rules The World
   Alisha Rules The World
   An old favourite, so many good tracks that are full of emotion, much like my writing. I’ve been an Alisha’s Attic fan since this album came out back in 1996. I am, I feel has an especially deep connection with my writing, I spent so long feeling like no-one knew I had feelings too so I would belt out this song (yeah, I sing too, but not so much anymore) in the hope someone might be hearing the words…
2. Coldplay – X&Y
   X&Y
   My other half says I like depressing music, personally I think Coldplay have cheered up a lot since their first album but I guess there is a bit of a melancholy feel to some of their songs. On this album Fix You is my favourite track, and a karaoke favourite. I think I spend a lot of time trying to fix others, at the neglect of myself. I like to mention Coldplay in my writing sometimes, but of course you have to be careful not to use song lyrics – so hard when you want your character to be singing in the car or something!
3. Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt
   Lightning Bolt
   I have two favourite tracks on this one. Sirens, I like to listen to this one when I am writing about mermaids or ocean based stories, whilst Future Days which I would choose as my wedding song (if I ever get married again) is a good track to write romance stories to, not that I do much of that haha
4. Slipknot – 5: The Gray Chapter
   The Gray Chapter
   As anyone who has read Coffee Break Companion will know I write a lot of darker material. Slipknot is one of my favourite bands (I also love Corey Taylor’s other band Stone Sour) and metal music is what I like when I am in that dark zone. Killpop fits a lot of my darker characters who suffer mental health issues.
5. Arctic Monkeys – AM
   AM
   It was hard to decide whether I wanted to choose the AM or Favourite Worst Nightmare album here, as my favourite Arctic Monkeys song is Fluorescent Adolescent from Favourite Worst Nightmare, but on the whole I like AM better. Fluorescent Adolescent fits some of my saucier, naughtier characters quite well.  Do I wanna Know? from AM which features on driving game The Crew is a bit more haunting as with many of the tracks on this album, which fits much better with a lot of what I write, so that’s why I chose AM over Favourite Worst Nightmare.

Do you listen to anything when you are writing? or do you consider it a distraction?

Do your characters have a soundtrack or album?

How does music connect with your writing, if at all?