Come on baby, light my, er, fire.

Listening to: SOUL SKINNED mix

Mood: Groovy

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who knows me, but music keeps me motivated while writing. More often than not, I can be found bobbing my head, typing to the beat of a song, sometimes humming and tapping a foot. Music has served as my muse many times, especially when I’m trying to get into a particular mood for a scene. Is something heartbreaking happening in the story? Give me a song that makes me want to tear my heart out. Preparing for battle or fighting for my characters’ lives? I need something to get me pumped up, ready to swing my imaginary weapon.

Editing is a completely different story. When I’m reading through my ms to obliterate any grammar and spelling mistakes, find holes in my plot, fix dialogue, slice and dice scenes, etc., I need absolute silence. I lock myself away, turn off anything I deem a distraction, and focus. No music, no talking, no nothing. Silent like a tomb is how I get it done.

But that’s not exciting to most people besides me, so back to the music. Because that’s what I want to talk about right now, anyway.

I freely admit that I have no musical talent whatsoever. My voice cracks when I hit really high keys, my dogs stare at me funny when I sing to them (I surely can’t be that bad), and my instrumental abilities are subpar (I can play about two tolerable songs on my guitar). Still, lack of musical prowess aside, music inspires me. When I write, I listen to a wealth of random music. But then I begin to play certain songs more than others, and eventually I create a playlist for the mood of my story. The songs always end up being a mix of genres, yet they all have significance to parts of the story. Then when I’m done with the novel, and I’ve sent it out to the Powers That Be, I have a playlist to remind me of the amazing journey I took while writing it. Because that’s awesome in itself.

Do you want to know what inspired me as I wrote one of my current novels? Of course you do (or at least pretend for me)! Fabulous. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, you can find a taste of my playlist for SOUL SKINNED here. Hope you enjoy!