Music to Match

Part Four of "How Do You Write Novels?"...

#4.      Find Your Soundtrack

This part is one of my favorites, and also one that annoys me greatly at least once a week.

When you’re writing (especially fiction), it helps to find the perfect music to match the scenes you’re working on. For example, right now I’m working on the Druid Saga, and I’m using songs from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and James Cameron’s Avatar to inspire me as I write. Both of these films have soundtracks that have both wondrous and frightening elements to them, and because they both have strong ties to nature, I find that they support my writing quite well.

Realistically, the hardest part is figuring out what music matches what you’re writing.

As a general rule, I don’t listen to music that has lyrics (at least when I’m writing). I find that the lyrics can be very distracting, whereas a good instrumental track can be incredibly inspiring and help the words to flow much easier.

The genre of epic music is perfect for writing fiction, when I can find a working soundtrack.

My discovery of epic music was something that definitely spurred on my writing and makes it a lot easier for me to reach my word goals. If you can find the perfect song to match the scene you’re writing, you’ve just found the song to put on repeat whenever you’re writing a similar scene. This works especially well for love stories.

(some of my favorites in epic music are Two Steps From Hell and Future World Music)

If you need something a little mellower, instrumental or orchestra music can make a perfect soundtrack as well. I myself am quite fond of Scheherazade.

Happy Valentine's/Single's Awareness Day, everyone! Make the best of it, no matter your relationship status. Eat some chocolate for me, eh? And stay tuned for Monday’s post!

{RA}

p.s. The daily meme, because you know we’re all addicted…