Writing and Music

Music is one of those mediums that helps drive my writing. Whether I am working on something dark or light, I prefer to have music in place to help set the mood. Not to say I haven’t written in silence, but if I have my heroine and hero beating up bad guys I most certainly wouldn’t use some let’s-hold-hands-and-make-world-a-better-place music. Now my tastes are eclectic. At first, I always listened to R&B or even rap. But college and a cousin with an undying love for Prince (if you don’t know about the great purple one…I’m so sorry. Cue the tears and a single dove released.) revealed a vast library of music I hadn’t heard before. In particular Stevie Wonder and P-funk. I was like Flashlight, Brickhouse. Whoa! Bootay Shake!

But well, when it came to writing, I found that I couldn’t work with my standard set of music. For me, certain music evoked emotions within me that compelled me to write scenes. And well Rumpshaker from Wreckx N Effects from high school doesn’t give me those write romance/urban fantasy/ummm whatever genre feeling. And well, I write paranormal, so I need that creepy, dark stuff, or I need that light quirky stuff I heard in college like Blue’s Traveler’s Run Around. One of my favorites–I love her music, is Me’shell Ndegéocello. Her music has such feeling and I feel compelled to write. And thus the music does its job. Sometimes I don’t feel like writing, but all it takes is the right song at the right time and I feel something that makes my fingers want to get the scene out. Even if its a song I would not listen to while in the car, if it has that “vibe”, I’m more than willing to listen to it to fall into the moment. =)