How to Develop the PERFECT Writing Playlist
So you want to create a writing playlist, huh? You want something that can serve as the perfect backing track to your novel, the soundtrack to the invisible movie that lives in your head? Well you’re in luck because you’re reading the blog of the Nebraska and Star Wars lovin’ author queen of writing playlists herself.
Oh? You were looking for Rainbow Rowell? Well you found me, Maddie G., instead. Sorry.
Luckily, both Rainbow and I (in addition to our shared love of Nebraska and Star Wars) are very talented at creating writing playlists. But since she’s not available, I will just provide to you my tips on how to create the best writing playlists ever and hopefully that’ll be close enough for you to Carry On (see what I did there).
Of course, if you’re a fellow author and have your own tips on how to develop the perfect writing playlist, shoot me an email and I would love to add your contribution to this blog post (with credit!).
Choose a music platform and stick to it
Over the course of my writing career so far, I’ve worked across three different music platforms: iTunes, Google Music, and Spotify. Let me just say it sucks trying to move playlists from platform to platform. With Google Music in particular, even though it promised an easy integration with iTunes, the move somehow doubled all of the songs in my writing playlists. So I was basically listening to the same 12 songs on repeat in some cases where I was too lazy to clean everything out.
Personally, my favorite of the three is Spotify. I’ve already discussed the worth of a YouTube Premium subscription in this blog post and iTunes only really works if you’ve dedicated your life to Apple, which I have not. In fact, I’ve done the opposite and dedicated my life to Google (all hail the overlord) but that’s a story for another time.
You can use whatever platform you want to use, but I recommend sticking with it no matter what. If you want my three cents, I’ve had Spotify Premium for a little over a year now and I haven’t had a single complaint about the streaming service. It’s perfect for quickly adding new songs to playlists and it’s super intuitive to switch between devices when I’m writing/brain-storming in several different places. You can also share your playlists or specific songs on social media pretty easily which is an awesome and quick promotion for your followers to get a feel of your work before even reading a word. So my vote is for Spotify, specifically Spotify Premium, but you can use whatever works best for you too.
Keep your genres appropriate for your novel
I feel like this is a lesser known piece of advice, but the genre of your chosen writing music can really affect the voice and tone of your novel. Let’s look at the different tones of Star Wars as an example (because I love Star Wars). Every piece of Star Wars media is science fiction, but it’s science fiction with a different genre of music scoring their writing playlists. The Mandalorian is old country, Rogue One is sweeping ballads, Solo is pop, and the main Skywalker Saga is John Williams.
So when you’re writing and trying to develop a writing playlist, ask yourself: is an 80’s song appropriate here? Should I have a heavy metal song make an appearance in this writing playlist for a fluffy rom-com? How does that add to the tone of my story? Because, ultimately, this writing playlist will probably set the tone of your story one way or another.
….but also work with what’s best for getting you into your book’s head space.
Listen a fluffy rom-com with a sharp enough edge to have a heavy-metal song in the soundtrack sounds badass. Work with whatever your story calls for! Play with a mixture of genres if you need to. I honestly have the weirdest songs thrown into some playlists because I know it fits well with the story. I’ll even seek out weird songs in the obscure genre and playlists on Spotify just so I can pad out some weaker writing playlists. Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone!
Music dump! I don’t care what anyone else says, music dumping is the best method!
Some authors are adamant that you should only have 15-20 songs in your writing playlist, aka the “core” group of music that defines your novel. I, on the other hand, think that’s hecka dumb. I write for hours on end and use my writing playlist as a soundtrack for my entire session. If I don’t dump 100’s of songs into my writing playlist, I’m going to be bashing my head against the wall by the third hour of the same 20th song on repeat. A short playlist is great for promotion. Not so great for your sanity if you’re planning on using it as an actual writing playlist.
….unless you switch music platforms.
Once again, moving playlists from music platform to music platform is not fun when you have 200+ songs in each playlist. I actually gave up when I moved from Google Music to Spotify. I’ve been slowly re-building my various playlists, but I’m still 100 songs or so short of my original playlists that I had been building since 2010. It is very tragic. Do whatever you want with this knowledge.
Basically don’t follow anyone else’s rules about writing playlists
As I advise with anything related to writing: DON’T STRESS ABOUT FOLLOWING THE STATUS QUO. There’s no right or wrong way to do anything. It’s all about whatever works best for the story you’re trying to tell. Have a writing playlist only composed of your favorite band because they make you happy and you write best when you’re happy. Make a writing playlist of your enemy’s favorite songs so you can spite write the angry book of your dreams. There are literally no rules. I have some story ideas with no playlists and I have some story ideas that are only playlists. Every book is its own journey.
These little nuggets of wisdom are only supposed to help you develop your journey as you need it. Maybe they’ll help you and maybe they won’t. Again, there’s a lot of freedom with writing and the process involved with writing. Enjoy it! And also try to enjoy a Runza sandwich the next time you’re in Nebraska. Rainbow and I both recommend it*.
*I am not a spokesperson for Rainbow or Runza.
Speaking of music, did you know I have several very popular videos on YouTube about Team Starkid which is a musical theatre group on YouTube? I know. It’s wild. Check them out if you’re interested! I also talk about writing sometimes there too because I wrote a book so now I think I’m smart about writing or something idk.