Lately I’ve been having a hard time getting into “the zone”. I think a big part of this is that I’m in a bit of a murky area plot-wise where I don’t feel confident enough to surge forward, or even how much longer the draft should be. Logically I know that none of this matters right now and I can fix any pacing issues in the (many) rewrites I’m in for, but even so, it’s scary to sit down to write climactic scenes in your novel without a map. So what have I been doing to get myself in a writing state of mind? I’ve been listening to music.
I can’t listen to music with lyrics while I’m actually writing. I usually end up typing out the lyrics or getting so excited about what I’m listening to that I end up dancing and singing along. Not ideal for getting work done. But when I find the right music I can sit down, listen, and then emerge in my characters’ states of mind. Is the scene happy and sassy? Glamorous and modern? Nuanced and heartbreaking? Or just plain angry? Frequently I won’t plan my playlist ahead of time and I’ll just put my playlist on shuffle and spend time with the mini-stories that catch my interest.
I’m a big fan of listening to lyrics because right there you can have a whole tale beginning, middle, and end in just about three minutes. If the song is good, there will be enough emotional depth that you can get fully immersed in the emotions and mindset behind it without having too many details of the transgression clogging up your own story-crafting abilities. There can, however, be problems with songs that hit exactly the spot you’re looking for. I remember getting into writing mode for Untold by listening to Taylor Swift’s album Red. At a certain point while listening to the title track I remember thinking, “Why am I writing a novel when she says exactly what I mean in one song?” Another time when trying to write my annotation I found myself typing out “Remembering him comes in flashbacks, and echoes…” before I realized what I was doing. (For those of you who don’t know, those are lyrics from Red. If you haven’t, go listen to it. You’ll hear a lot of Katie and Robin’s story in there.)
Another thing I enjoy about listening to music creatively is that it can help me go back to a part of my life that I may have forgotten. When I listen to music popular when I was in high school I’m taken back to driving alone in my car, singing along loudly after a bad day, or a particularly good one. This is useful for characters younger than me, as it’s always easiest to come up with a protagonist at the same stage of life as I am. If it’s hard to remember what it was like to be sixteen, just turn on your favorite tunes from that year, close your eyes, and remember why you related.
Today is a very important day for all of this. Taylor Swift’s new album 1989 is out today, and just as soon as I can I’m darting over to Target to grab a copy. Then I will, of course, listen to it obsessively and get to know the stories that emerge. Taylor’s grown up with me, first coming into my awareness when I was sixteen and moving through life with me since then. What artist, musical or otherwise, has done that for you? Let me know in the comments.
— Amy
What I’ll be buying today. Thank you, Taylor!
I just heard a sampler of songs from Taylor Swift’s new album. The musical style is quite different from what she has done before, and I haven’t found the lyrics yet, but my first impression is that most of them are not story-songs. I’m sure some of them are about starting and ending relationships, though, which is her forte.
I was 16 in about 1963, and (early) Bob Dylan, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Peter Paul & Mary, the Supremes… would have been the soundtrack. Interesting idea that the feelings brought out when listening to these might make me remember teenage-hood better.