Benefits of an Awesome Soundtrack

 I like to listen to music while I write, but one has to set the mood correctly. Sometimes I listen to music with words and other times I can’t because I find myself accidentally writing the lyrics, oops! During battle scenes I like to listen to Marvel soundtracks and if I’m writing more in one character’s point of view I’ll listen to their “theme” song to help me write them better. Now, this doesn’t work for everyone, but it improves my writing a lot, you just have to experiment and see what works for you.

Listening to music that sets your adrenaline going and makes your heart beat faster helps greatly in writing getaway/battle/intense scenes.   

    You get a taste of what your characters are feeling as they race through the forest, dodge flaming arrows of death, or whatever they happen to be defeating at the moment. With the right soundtrack, you can picture yourself right there, in the midst of it all and that helps you write it better.

Music makes us feel deeply, and if you’re feeling deeply than you can communicate what the character is feeling better.

     If your character is feeling sad, and you’re listening to something that makes you feel sad, then you can communicate those feelings better and more intensely. Or if the character is happy or feeling at peace, it all works. If you and the character are feeling the same thing, chances are, you’ll write it out better.

Instrumental music can help a lot with blocking out background noise.

  If you have instrumental music playing then it’s a whole lot harder to hear voices in the background or dogs barking and just ordinary, everyday noises. It’s easier to picture what is going on at this point in your novel if you don’t hear your mom’s telephone conversation with her sister while trying to write. Maybe you just even have a fan blowing to block out the background noises.

Does music help you write? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

~Ashlyn Peters