At a recent discussion in our regular DeadLies Zoom meeting, we were talking about music and the role of playlists in our writing which spurred the idea for this blogpost idea. Some of us need to be listening to music to create, while others need only birdsong and coffee to get words on a page (I’m looking at you, MGS). There is a wide variety of approaches out there, as individual as writers themselves. As a Gen-X writer, I grew up in the age of mix-tapes and playlists are my modern extension of that process.

I have certain records that always help me get in the groove of writing starting with Holy Fuck’s Latin, continuing with Kiasmos’ eponymous Kiasmos, and finishing with Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero remixes. But there are always records, and more and more in the age of streaming, songs, that are in the atmosphere that help me keep going. For example, for my National Novel Writing Month 2023 effort, Taylor Swift’s Midnights was on repeat as I pushed myself to the 50,000 word target.

I listen to music to inspire and spur me on while writing. But fellow DeadLie AKB creates playlists for her characters, imagining what they like to listen to and creating a playlist to further explore and flesh out her characters. I’ve never thought about doing that as a creative exercise and it’s one that I wouldn’t mind exploring on the next project. A couple of times I’ve created playlists before tackling NaNoWriMo but I found I didn’t listen to them as much as I thought I would, for example, in 2022 I made a playlist and ended up defaulting to my usual three albums, along with my obsession du jour, Interpol’s The Other Side of Make Believe .

Another writer I meet regularly with to write (accountability buddy) told me about YouTube playlists, and one she listens to by an individual named Yuecubed who creates specific playlists for works in progress with evocative titles like “Nostalgic for a Fairy Tale You were Once In”. They are instrumental, creating an atmosphere that swirls with creative potential. Their site describes their playlists as being “for focus and studying and background music” and led me down a YouTube rabbit hole to many others including one by Abbie Emmons titled “The World Burned Me, Now I’ll Watch the World Burn” or “Playlist for Misunderstood Writers” by Nobody. I’m fascinated as it feels like their entire job is creating content for other creatives to create content by, like romance and mystery novels as in my case.

Do you have a specific playlist for each project? Or do you prefer the white noise of a busy café? Or nature sounds? Or sweet silence? Looking forward to your comments!