Music is important to me when I write. It helps set the mood for the story and makes it easier to start writing. It’s part of the routine of writing. I find I write better when I have music to listen to.
It has to be a particular type of music though, and the music is different for each novel. I know one novel I wrote way back when (one of those under the bed, never to see the light of day) was written to a combination of MeatLoaf’s Bat Out of Hell and seemingly the whole Chris de Burgh back catalogue. Another one had a lot of Carmina Burana in it.
Changing the music spoils the mood. No matter how much I think I can listen to something else, I have to introduce new music to the collection gradually, because if it doesn’t fit it spoils the writing flow, and then I have to get back into it.
One of the things I like is when a writer says in the introduction to their novel what music they listened to when they wrote it. Just for fun I thought I might list my own current writing music. This is for two novels —Barrain and Shared Memories, because we’re writing different drafts of these at the same time.
- Va Pensero, the Ten Tenors, from Bravo Act II
- Hoki Hoki Tona Mai, Yulia, from Bravo Act II
- Anthem, Anthony Warlow, from Chess
- Conquest of Paradise, Vangelis, from 1492
- Any Fool Could See, various, from Paris
- What Could Go Wrong?, Trevor White/John Parr, from Paris
- Trust in Your Heart, John Parr, from Paris
- Just Show Me How to Love You, Jose Cura/Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli/LSO, from Time to Say Goodbye
- The Medallion Calls, Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
- One Last Shot, Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
- He’s a Pirate, Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl
- If Only, Original cast, Whistle Down the Wind
- Lakme H2O (Flower Duet), Opera Babes, from Beyond Imagination
- Silk Road, Kitaro (but I like the LSO’s version too), from Kitaro’s Silk Road Suite)
- Hymn to New England, John Williams, from An American Journey
- Just When I’d Given Up Dreaming, Ronan Keating, from Bring You Home