Atmosphere – A E Rought
I love a book with atmosphere. Y’know…where the world building is so real, you can feel it. The weight of the author’s place presses on nerves you didn’t know you had, your chest tightens, your breath catches… Heck, you check the shadows in your room before going to sleep because the book’s world has somehow bled into yours.
Something I’ve learned… there are as many correct paths to a great book with badass atmosphere as there are writers to write them.
Some writers like quiet, a cozy corner in a coffee shop and their laptop. Some writers remind me of cats, curled in a sunny spot on a deck or porch, contentedly tip-tap-tapping away. Other writers create an atmosphere they like to write in. Many use inspiration pictures, some create boards on Pinterest.com or use music. I’m definitely—maybe a bit compulsively—one of the latter. I have a cluttered desk as the picture shows, but everything in the world falls away when I’m in my perfect writing space.
And for me, music makes it.
I hunt for just the right songs, constantly adding and taking away until the playlist creates just the right tonal ambiance where I can bury my head. Some tracks are just about the sound, some are about the lyrics, a few are for what they make me feel. One book was a crazy hodge-podge of dancehouse, old Billy Joel and groups like Godsmack. My current WIP is a total split personality, one part wistful film score, one part Chevelle, Shinedown, and Creed.
BROKEN’s playlist took a while to get right, and ended up with a couple of songs my writer friends turned me on to taking precedence.
Curious? Here’s BROKEN’s playlist:
Good to You, by Marianas Trench (J.A. Souders turned me on to MTrench)
Monster You Made, by Pop Evil
Eclipsed, by Evans Blue
Broken, by Seether, featuring Amy Lee
Somebody Like You, by Pop Evil
Sick, by Adelita’s Way
So Much, by The Spill Canvas
All Around Me, by Fly Leaf
Breaking Inside, by Shinedow
Perfect, by Burn Season (Kate Avelynn turned me on to Burn Season)
Crashed, by Chris Daughtry
Savin’ Me, by Nickelback
Dig, by Incubus
Always, by Saliva
Closer, by Burn Season
A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri
It’s Been a While, Staind
Staplegunned, by The Spill Canvas
Decode, by Paramore
You’re Not Alone, by Saosin
Fix Me, Ten Years
For overall atmosphere, I played a lot of Burn Season, The Spill Canvas, Pop Evil, Broken, by Seether, and Always, by Saliva. It made a perfect blend of moody romance for me.
I’m so neurotic about my music I will play one song over and over while writing certain scenes. While writing a scene where Alex {edited for spoilers} Josh after he {edited for spoilers} Emma, I had Sick, by Adelita’s Way on repeat. It was more about the sound, and that moment when the music kicked up a notch from the lead-in guitars—the energy and drive in the song were was just perfect.
And during the {edited for spoilers} scene, when Alex took Emma’s hand, pressed it to his chest and said {edited for spoilers}, I had Good to You, by Marianas Trench and A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri playing.
Finally, no talk about music and writing BROKEN would be complete, my beta reader insisted, without a mention of a chapter in the higher Twenties and the song Perfect, by Burn Season. Enough said.
So… Yep, I’m nuts. I play songs on repeat. (Don’t tell anyone but when the writing and the music are cosmically synced, I occasionally rock side to side like Stevie Wonder at the keyboard.) Music makes the atmosphere for me.
How about you? Do you write in silence? Do you read, or write to music?
Comments
I do write to music, usually classical or ambient, as I find lyrics can sometimes be distracting. But this is mostly to block out the sounds of other people on the train! When writing at home I’m usually OK without music.
Having said that, I can understand how music could heighten the emotion of a particular piece of writing, and I do remember being inspired by the soundtrack from the Lord of the Rings movies on one particular journey/writing session.
My one fear with spending a lot of time creating and curating playlists for writing would be that it could eat into precious writing time. Would obviously need to benefit more than it cost!
Building a playlist can eat into my time, but it’s become such a part of who I am as a writer that I *have* to have music. It used to be all contemporary, rock, ballads, etc. This new WIP is the first for music scores, and I’m finding it quite…freeing. :)
Music is a mean motivator for me also. But I can write under any circumstances because with small kids I often have to write while at lacrosse, basketball, track and football practices. Before the Ipad I would just use a notebook then type it up at night, but now with an ipad I use a keyboard and go to town writing wherever I am. I’ve written many chapters on my laptop in my car while my husband drives us on our long vacations. I do like noise when I write complete quiet distracts me and I take too many breaks.
I once wrote a snippet in a little notepad at the circus. Noise. Activity. Flashing lights. Motorcycles in cages and women dangling by their necks. Kids squealing for toys and treats. There was music, but it was the big top variety!
Normally, if we travel and I write, it’s in a notebook. The husband is constantly asking “What are you writing?” o_O
I absolutely love writing to music. There is nothing better than being in the car (or wherever) with the radio on and a song pops on that hits so close to the emotional setting.
When that happens, I go home, find the song, then the words flow. It is wonderful.
Excellent blog post Ann. HUGS
Thanks!
My son will bring his laptop and have me listen to songs. Sometimes they’re amazingly perfect and I download them–othertimes, not so much. He tends to like the stuff where the guys are all loud and sound like they’re eating the microphone. No thanks. I don’t need someone yelling at me. >_<
I almost always have music. I’m less obsessive about it now as I’ve learned to write pretty much anywhere, and if I’m writing surreptitiously in school or waiting at a bus stop I don’t always have time or the opportunity to put music on. However, I have a billion writing playlists, on my computer, my mp3 player, etc…
I’ve got ‘Epic Writing’, which is mainly film music, eg Pirates of the Caribbean. I hand-pick the tracks, though. Then I’ve got Death Scenes, which is everything from Barber’s Adagio for Strings to the Torchwood soundtrack. Writing Music 1 is pretty much every piece of film music I can lay hands on, and Writing Music 2 is everything by Two Steps From Hell, as their music is great for writing. Celtic Playlist is for when I need a more Celtic-influenced mood.
Then I have Editing Music 1 which is music by bands and singers I like. For some reason I can edit to music with words, but I can’t really write – even if the editing is just rewriting. I suppose it’s because the mood is already more firmly established, and because I tend to be working more slowly. I also have Editing Watching music, which was music I used to edit my novel Watching – I basically stuck every song that vaguely suited the mood of the novel into the playlist.
I also have songs that particularly suit each character or scene. Like, for my character Alex, it’s anything on My Chemical Romance’s album “The Black Parade”, but especially “The Sharpest Lives” and “Famous Last Words”. For the scene at the end of my first-draft third book in the trilogy (which I intend to rewrite soon), the most perfect song for one particular chapter would be ‘Show Must Go On’ by Queen. In other words, there’s quite a lot of variety :D
Having grown up in a musical family, and playing music myself, I’ve been exposed to a LOT of different styles and composers of a more Classical nature, so I guess I find it easy to find the piece of music that’s perfect for a scene. By the way, most of the playlists named above are on Grooveshark rather than my own computer, so if anyone wants a link…. :D
Oh, I’m sorry that comment was such an essay, I didn’t realise! I guess I have a lot to say on the subject :D
No worries! I love to find someone as nuts about music and writing as me :-D It’s funny how certain songs become an auditory approximation of our characters. I had one character who was basically Godsmack’s Crying Like a Bitch, and his nemesis was their song Serenity. You’ve given me plenty to hunt up and give a listen. Thanks!
I found this post really interesting, as music doesn’t factor into my writing at all. I just listen to whatever’s at Starbucks or whatever music my husband is listening to at home. I’ve never had a dedicated playlist for a book, but I can see how it’d really help. Great post, Ann!
I will often picture scenes form my books during songs, or work out plot to appropriate music, but I have to have total silence when I write. I am too easily distracted. :)