Every Writer Has a Playlist

(Here's mine for The Môrdreigiau Chronicles, part the first)

OK, some writers may choose the playlist of silence, or birdsong or their kids screaming, but me? Playing music helps me enter into the scene, reminds me of all the feelings I need to communicate and in some cases, makes me write faster.

Yes, there are songs where I stop and sing along, but breaks are good for you when you’re hunched over a desk.

I have over three hours of songs on my Spotify playlist for writing The Môrdreigiau Chronicles. Three hours!

That will take way too long to explain them all, so I thought I’d break them up into sections and try to share their purpose without spoiling.

Here’s the whole playlist:

I set this onto shuffle, so it never plays right through like this and sometimes I will skip tracks if they just feel “wrong” to what I’m writing in the moment. If I skip a track too much, it comes off the playlist.

This playlist began with two older playlists from the early 2000s that I had set up to write along to: one for for the original sea dragon book idea back in the early 2000s, and the other for what will form a good chunk of book two (which involved Arthurian time travel). I updated it with more recent songs.

The first three tracks set the tone:

“Storybook” from the concept recording of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” musical is a song about make-believe and wishing for lovers like in the story books and wanting it in real life. In the musical, it is sung by the female lead who is married to The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is light and lilting and a gentle entry into the fictional romance world.

“The Course” by Ayla Nereo has a pulsing flow that I sometimes sing along to. It echoes the ecological collapse theme (which is often pushed into the background) but it is also the driving force for the main characters: will their great-grand-daughter be able to live a sustainable life? It calls down the generations and back again.

“Night Boat” by Duran Duran has one of the best openings ever, sparking that dread of the unknown and yet is certain to come. I also found it helpful for when I’m writing the “stranger in a strange land” scenes.

The next four reveal that I searched for water themes in my iTunes library: “I Don’t Hear the Ocean”, “The Water is Wide”, “The Skye Boat Song” (Outlander version), “Across the Water”.

Tracks 8 through 9 are the three movement of Vivaldi’s violin concerto in E-flat Major “La Tempesta de mare”. And this sea storm of sounds really speeds along my writing. It’s crazy how much I get written when this music comes on. It’s also a real head bop.

Tracks 11 through 13 lend a Celtic air which given the strong Arthurian element of the Mordreigiau Chronicles, are just the ticket: “The Mystic’s Dream” and “The Dark Night of the Soul” by Loren McKennitt and “Lady Marian” by Clannad.

There’s more: there are songs for attraction, romance, and heartbreak. There are some uptempo pieces to drive the writing along. I will save those for another day, along with a second Classical piece I just added because it inspired me for the prequel.

Let me know if you’d like to see more articles about my playlist or if you have any questions about my choices? We haven’t got to the Korean music or the American singer-songwriters yet!

What You’ve Missed at the Môrdreigiau Chronicles’ Substack Chat

I know, I know, having yet another account in order to read a newsletter seems a bit much. I can best describe using the website or app as holding a magazine, with contents you’ve chosen to read.

I’m using Chat for tiny updates, because (a) people want to know when on earth this thing will be finally published so I like to share my progress and (b) because I don’t want to spam your inboxes with extra email.

As a plus, you can set up your Substack account so you can read all your newsletters on the app and empty out your inbox a little.

Until next time,