January 21, 2016 
Erin 
A friend of mine recently introduced me to the art of listening to music while writing. He said it helps bring him inspiration and motivation in the same way some musicians use books as inspiration for their songwriting. My friend creates a playlist of songs that match the scene he’s writing—so if he’s writing a scary scene, he’ll listen to the kind of music you might hear in a horror movie—to help him better get into the mood of the scene. While it may seem like a self-explanatory concept, there really is a finer science to it the way he sees it.
Lyrics are the most important key to inspiration. Certain word in the lyrics can trigger new thoughts, which could lead to ideas for your novel. Hopefully if you’ve picked the correct song—which is why it’s important to take seriously—those ideas will match the theme of your book. The mood of the song is important to motivation. If you’re writing an action scene, you want a song with a faster tempo. If your own heart is pumping, you’ll feel more inclined to stay in the mindset of a character that’s escaping some type of danger.
I recently tried this method, being skeptical because the process of choosing music, and not just any music but that which would appropriately match my writing, seemed like a waste of time that could be spent actually writing. I also have a very difficult time hearing people sing words when I’m trying to write down different words. However, he was so enthusiastic about his method, I had to at least try it.
And it was magic.
Because the songs I’d picked were all about the subject of my attention, the words in the lyrics didn’t send my mind spiraling off topic, and it was much easier to get into the heads of my characters when the music matched their feelings or actions. Writing became more of an interactive experience; it became not only the soundtrack for my characters but for me as I wrote. I also worked for about twice the time I usually do, and I found my writing much more imaginative than normal.
I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be using this method more, and now I’ve become so much more interested in trying out different writing methods. Any suggestions?
I have always picked music to listen to before I start writing that matches my book, but then turned it off once I began to write. Recently I’ve started listening to music while I write. It came about kind of accidentally though. My character is a singer and guitar player and she plays traditional country music (think Johny Cash, Patsy Cline, etc.). I wanted to write about a specific song so I found Patsy singing it on youtube and had a listen. And before it was over, I went back to writing with it still playing. Youtube has that usually annoying feature of playing the next video it thinks you want to see automatically (unless you remember to turn off the switch) and what happened was after that Patsy video played, another one started, and then another, and after a while, it played a Loretta Lynn video, and after a few of those, Johnny Cash. So it was automatically working its way through the songs and performers of the era I was writing about and I just left it playing low in the background. I find it really does help set the mood as I write. And sometimes something in a song will work its way into my book.