How I Make Writing Playlists

I don't know about you, but music is a huge part of my writing process. 

I have playlists for every single book that I'm working on, and I don't listen to any other playlists while I'm working on that certain book. There's one album that I can't even listen to anymore because I listened to it so much while I was writing the first draft of a novel. 

However, starting a new playlist can be daunting. 

Finding exactly the right music to fit the story and the mood is hard. Sometimes I put a song on a particular playlist, and then move it to another one because I've realized that it's not the right fit for that book. 

Here are my thoughts on how to make a writing playlist, what apps to use, and where and how to find good music. 

First, let's start with how you're going to make your playlist. 

Unless you're made of money, you're probably not going to want to buy every single song that you want on your playlist. The playlists I've made for my WIP would have cost me about $40 if I bought every single song. And if they were all singles, it would be $60 (I have two full albums on the playlists). 

So, here are three options for free ways to make your playlists (that are totally legal): 

Pandora

I like Pandora. I really do. But I don't like it for writing. 

Heres why. 

Pandora is really random. Even if you thumbs up a song, you probably won't hear it for a while. Adding songs and artists to the station is sort of helpful, but often I find it adds more to the mix than I'm willing to deal with. Plus, if a happy song comes on when I'm needing a sad song, it's distracting, and I might use up all of my skips trying to get to a song that fits the mood. 

I use Pandora when I'm listening to other music, but not when I'm writing. However if you are okay with random music, some really great stations are: 

Danny Elfman Radio - dark, slightly creepy music perfect for a horror book, or maybe just a particularly scary scene 

Film Scores Radio - fast, moving music that fits a chase scene or just a really really dramatic moment. This playlist is also really great to run to =) 

Rob Simonsen Radio - this is a more laid back, cinematic station with lots of piano and less intense songs. If the book you're writing doesn't have a lot of action scenes, this would be a good bet. 

Apple Music 

You have to pay for this. 

But you get unlimited access to Apple's entire library of music. I don't think I need to explain how this would work. Just type in whatever songs you want, create a playlist, or add whatever songs or albums to your qeue. 

This is a really great option, but it costs ten dollars a month. Yes, the first three months are free, but if you're like me, and not willing to pay that money, then after three months all of your playlists are gone. 

Spotify

I'm not going to keep it a secret that this is my favorite option. Spotify is great. It's free (there are ads), but at least twice a day I get the option to watch a 30-second ad in exchange for thirty minutes of ad-free music. Sometimes I do it, but sometimes I don't, because the ads don't really bother me that much. 

I love Spotify because once you have enough songs on your playlist, it won't play suggestions, it will only pull songs from your playlist. In other words, no random songs, only ones you've selected. I don't know what the number is that once you hit it Spotify stops playing songs that aren't on your playlist, I just know it exists. 

I like to create happy and sad versions of my book playlists, and then pick whichever one I need, because, like I said before, it is distracting for me if I'm in the middle of writing a really sad scene and an upbeat song starts blasting in my ear. It kinds of gets me out of the mood and wanting to dance. You can skip songs on Spotify as well, but you will run out if you use too many. 

There is an premium version of Spotify that costs $9.99 a month, and allows unlimited access to their entire library of music. 

There are other ways to listen to music on Spotify, including Spotify Radio, and mood playlists created by Spotify. You can also listen to albums (on shuffle) or just play your favorite artist on shuffle. 

The reason I like Spotify so much is that it allows you much more control than Pandora. The only downside is that it does use more data than Pandora. 

Next, let's go over how to find good music.

This is the best tip I can give you for how to discover good music. 

Think of a movie that you watched and thought "I really like this soundtrack". Search for that soundtrack on iTunes or Amazon Music or Google or however you buy music. Then look at the recommended albums or similar albums. Whatever the official name is. You guys know what I'm talking about. 

I could literally go on for hours, clicking on recommended albums and listening to samples. 

The Music! The Feels!

If you don't want to spend hours searching for music or you've never paid that much attention to the music in movies.....here's my handy dandy list of composers and movie soundtracks to listen to, arranged by mood and genre: 

(Composer - movie soundtrack, movie soundtrack) 

Quiet, Piano and String Driven (Contemporaries or slow or intense scenes) 

All of these have some slighter songs and some really really dark sounding songs. 

Dario Marianelli - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Atonement 

Rachel Portman - Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, The Duchess

Thomas Newman - Saving Mr. Banks, The Help, Finding Nemo 

Alexandre Desplat - The King's Speech, The Imitation Game

The Age of Adaline Soundtrack Album

By the Sea Soundtrack Album

Ada and Inman, Love Theme, and Ada Plays from the Cold Mountain Soundtrack album 

Standout Songs: 

We Had Today - Rachel Portman Sweet, sweeping song that makes me imagine a romantic montage of a relationship, and then the couple parting at an airport.  With a cliche "rushing back for one final kiss" and everything. It's the romantic in me. 

Liz on Top of the Worldd - Dario Marianelli This is a beautiful, intense song. It's also on the short side. Perfect for depressing scenes with some punch to them. 

Road to Perdition - Thomas Newman Really, really nice piano driven song. Ugh so many feels. Its hopeful yet sad at the same time. Good for bittersweet resolution scenes. 

Cinematic, BIG, Fast, Moving (Mysteries, Action Adventure or chase scenes) 

Hans Zimmer - Man of Steel, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins 

John Williams - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park

Harry Gregson-Williams - The Chronicles of Narnia, X-Men Origins: Wolverine 

Alan Silvestri - The Avengers, The Mummy Returns, Night at the Museum 

Howard Shore - The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl 

Any Superhero/Marvel Movie - Captain America, Iron Man, Transformers 

Standout Songs: 

What are You Goind to do When You Are Not Saving the World? - Hans Zimmer 

This song starts slow and then builds. And man, does it build! Great for a deciding moment that leads to battle. Idk man, I'm getting ready to fight over here. This music just gets me. 

New Avengers - Avengers:Age of Ultron 

This song sounds majestic and like it should be played at the end of a rough battle. Yay for the good guy always coming out on top! 

Prime - Steve Jablonsky 

Another cool, majestic but ominous song. 

Fantasy/Sci-Fi: 

These albums/artists are specifically from video games or are independent albums released by composers directly onto the internet. A lot of them would really (in my opinion) only be suited for fantasy or sci-fi just because of the presence of vocals on lots of the songs and some of the different elements in the songs. Of course that's just my opinion, feel free to check these out even of you don't write fantasy, because there are some really great songs. 

Composers: 

Two Steps From Hell

BrunuhVille

E.S. Posthumus

Audiomachine

Video Games:

Assassin's Creed (the entire series) 

Defiance 

Call of Duty 

Halo

Standout Songs: 

Venice Rooftops - Jesper Kyd 

This is just a really, really fun song. This would be great for a chase scene (as you might be able to tell from the title). 

Heart of Courage - Two Steps from Hell 

This might sound familiar to you. It's been used in a ton of movie trailers because it's SUPER epic.

El Dorado - Two Steps from Hell

AMAZING song! It starts out with a really cool beat that almost sounds Arabic, and then turns into this great dramatic theme that makes my heart pound. MUSIC LOVE. 

More specific, individualized soundtracks: 

Tropical, exotic, Indian feel: 

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) 

He Named Me Malala 

The Hundred Foot Journey 

Punk, Electric, Modern: 

Tron:Legacy 

Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer) 

the Person of Interest soundtrack albums by Ramin Djawadi 

Inception 

CREEPY: 

Danny Elfman is really great for this. All of his compositions have this really weird vibe to them. 

Seriously. If you want creepy? Danny Elfman is the master. And he's composed so many things, I don't even need to give you another name. He's enough. 

Celtic/Irish:

Outlander and Outlander Vol. 2 Soundtracks by Bear McCreary 

I hope this gives you a head start to looking for writing music, and inspiration for creating a writing playlist. If you stuck with me all the way to the end, many hugs and a chocolate cupcake with lots of frosting to you! I know it was a super long post, but I hope it was helpful. 

Who is your favorite composer or soundtrack album to listen to? Do you listen to music at all while writing or does it distract you? See you in the comments!