Today I have the fantastic Rachel Pattinson on my blog. She is really cool. Take it away Rachel.
If you'd asked me a few years ago what my favourite music was, I
would've answered Green Day, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy without any
hesitation. I'll admit it – I was definitely an emo in school. If it was dark,
had strong lyrics and the band had grungy-looking frontman, I was sold.
But now? My music tastes vary as much as my taste in books –
Taylor Swift, Hozier, Mumford & Sons, Christina Perri, The Pretty Reckless,
George Ezra, King Charles, Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Of Monsters and Men,
anything from the eighties - you get the picture. If it's got a good beat, I'll
listen to it. I don't really mind what genre it's from, so long as I can nod
along to it (I'm actually listening to Blondie as I write this).
While I'll always love Green Day and MCR, I began to realise that
it was only through listening to other songs and genres of music that I felt
truly inspired to write. Green Day is great for dark, emotional scenes – but
what about my romantic scenes? My happy scenes? The scene where my MC is simply
hanging out with her best friend (just before something dark and emotional
happens, obviously)? Whenever I switched on the radio, I found myself imagining
new scenes and making up conversations between characters to whatever song was
playing at the time – and that was when I realised if I wanted to get to the
heart of my story, I'd have to change my writing playlist. So it was with this
new attitude towards music that I started to write Synthetica.
I
also promised myself when I began Synthetica that I would have fun
writing it. I knew that if I didn't have fun, I would never get it finished. So
instead of pigeon-holing myself into listening to my type of music, I decided
to play anything I liked the sound of, and luckily, this gamble paid off. I
have never had as much fun writing anything, as I have writing Synthetica.
So,
without further ado, here's my (current) writing playlist*:
Heaven Knows by The Pretty Reckless
Although
I know that I'll probably change my writing playlist again for my new WIP,
there are songs that I have no doubt will remain staples for the whole Synthetica
series. There were a couple of songs that I listened to, and
immediately thought of scenes for the second and third books in the trilogy, so
I know I'll definitely be revisiting them while outlining those books.
*I've
actually cut it down to the songs I listened to the most - my original playlist
is over 2 hours long, and far far too many songs for me to list here...
Rachel Pattinson graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a
BA Hons in Publishing Media. Born and raised in the north of England, she
shares a love for anything to do with tea, cake, bread and butter, rain, the
dark, lakes, fells and Lord of the Rings. She now lives in Norfolk with her
partner in crime, and is currently working on several new projects, including
the sequel to Synthetica.
Or
follow her on Twitter: @REPattinson1
Discover
more about Synthetica:
I like your taste in music. I could definitely do some great writing to most of these songs.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that you do this too, Rachel! I turned into an alt rock girl at university after being more punk-rock for a while, but that's just when I'm generally listening to music.
ReplyDeleteEach of my stories have playlists and all of them feel different to match what I have going on in my stories.
Sadly, though, the place I was using to listen to music turned out not to pay the artists like they said they were, so they got shut down. Which means I have to start all over again. This time with iTunes Music, which is also a subscription service, but that I KNOW is legit. I really don't want this happening to me again.
This is great! I love to listen to music that suits my writing at the time. Love Green Day (I actually loved Green Day with U2 and the Saints are Coming). So many in your list are my kind of music: Avicii, Fall Out Boy mmmm :-)
ReplyDeleteThere are so many songs on your soundtrack that I just LOVE.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree—Let It Go is an awesome song. :)
Thank you so much for having me Murees :)!! I loved putting this playlist together, I'm glad people seem to like it :)!!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome!
DeleteIf you don't have fun writing it, what's the point?
ReplyDeleteMusic is a big influence for me when I write. You do have to set the proper tone. With my science fiction and space battles, I was fortunate my favorite prog rock and metal songs fit well.
I keep adding new songs to my playlist as I go. A lot of them are dark since my book is dark, but not all. I've pulled some songs out that I haven't listened to in ages. Love your playlist!
ReplyDeleteI'm rather surprised by anyone who can handle lyrics while writing. Not that I can't, it's just with all the little voices calling "Mom!" I kind of get lost.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a play list. I just never seem to get it done.
ReplyDelete