My Writing Soundtrack

Of all the writing advice I've ever given, I'd say the easiest, quickest, and best answer is to the often asked question, "What should I listen to when I'm writing?"

Usually, a "TLDR" answer is something that is okay, but not great. Not this time. I'll go into detail later, but if one stopped reading after this paragraph, they'd be good to go. If you want to drown out background noise and the noise in your head so that you can get down to business, the answer is Skyrim. Just type "Skyrim rainy night" in the search bar, come back to this blog, and tell me how wise I am.

First of all, Skyrim has an outstanding soundtrack. Choosing "Skyrim - Music & Ambience - Rainy Night" will give you the best of them, including my personal favorite "Secunda." The length and number of songs take a long time to repeat, so it won't feel repetitive. If you live or work where there's a lot of noise, no problem. Along with the calming, beautiful music, you'll be getting 10 Hours of nonstop, varying ambiance. The soothing sound of rain from my headphones drowns out loudness of my rambunctious little girl and her bestie cousin many times. Office and coffeeshop sounds don't have a chance.

Now that THAT'S out of the way, here are my more in depth answers.

I highly suggest you go into YouTube and create different playlists. Make a day of it. Trust me... it will save time later. Clicking "Main Character Playlist" or "Fight Scene Songs" then getting to work is quick and easy, once you've got the lists ready. For these lists, I suggest the following criteria: Songs with multiple instruments and little to no vocals, songs from soundtracks, songs accompanied by ambiance IE: wind, rain, crashing waves, or even tavern yammering. The main thing to avoid... songs you'll want to sing along to or songs with a focus on the lyrics. As much as I love Biggie, if I'm listening to a song off 'Ready to Die' while typing, I will (no lie) randomly type the lyrics of the song like a deranged stenographer. I'll never get any work done if I'm singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody. Nobody wants to see my sad impression of Brendon Urie. Lizzo gets me too hyped to sit still. If I MUST listen to a song or two with lyrics, it will be of the mellow, head bopping variety or songs that I love, but won't likely sing along to: Helio Sequence, Real Estate, Sunny Day Real Estate, Fictionist, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, or the 90% lyric-less music from bands/albums like Toe "Our Latest Number," or 80's synth music like the HOME Album "Falling Into Place," or All of this is for general writing, research, or when all of my characters are together.

Now for the future superfans, I'm gonna be specific. For the most part, I tend to listen to music depending on which of the characters are in the scene. If I'm writing Kain's perspective, I'll likely be listening to lofi hiphop. Yeah, that's even if he's in a solo fight. Because of his headspace, even when if lives are at stake Kain's mind is calm, so I'll still be vibin' to something mellow like the outro song for the anime 'Spy x Family.' Depending on the scene's mood, I'll range between the general feel of Chillhop like L'indécis - "Second Wind," or Philanthrope X Kupla – "Cycles," and the obvious choice of the late, great Nujabes who changed the game with the soundtrack of Samurai Champloo. Either way, I get into his mood and mindset more easily when my head is bopping to a chill beat.

When writing Sage, I tend to listen to fantasy songs that fall into the traveling theme. Just search "Blue Turtle" and click on one of the fantasy setting videos. You can't go wrong. Do to reasons that would be a bit of a spoiler, I can get into his head rather easily. The goal of the music is more about keeping my mind grounded in the fantasy setting. I'll often pick the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger, a Final Fantasy mix, or songs from the Dragon Age series. The only time I change the style for Sage is if he's in a fight scene. My go-to for that would be battle music from Octopath Traveler. "Tension" probably got the most play during the chase scenes and the carriage duels.

As for LaTao... don't ask why... but when I'm writing and plotting her scenes, I'm probably listening to Anime themes songs. Yup. You read that right. The more hype the scene, the more hype the music... and Anime music can get pretty hype. Basically every time an anime has a theme song that I like, I add it to my list. 3rd season of My Hero Academia, Nabari No Ou, Fire Force, Norogami, Dororo, Jujutsu Kaisen etc. If you spot me in a coffee shop and ask me what I'm listening to and it happens to be "TRY UNITE!" by Megumi Nakajima, an intro for Noragami, a song by Veltpunch, or one of the many intro songs by LiSA... (and that's a long list) I'll buy you a drink. Promise.

When I'm doing art work, I'm listening to 90's hip hop but for most of my work day, I'll be listening to all of the above. Sure, if you go with the TLDR advice, you'll be good to go. My extra advice is to make a few playlists. Have fun with it! Include a random banger that forces you into a dance break.

What about you? What music do YOU listen to when you're writing or editing away? What music gets YOU into the zone?