Do You Make Playlists for Your WIPs?

Photo credit: William Brawley on Flickr

Once upon a time, (over two years ago, if we’re being specific) I wrote a post about my music-listening habits while writing. At the time, I listened to a lot of Pandora (specifically a K-pop station based off SHINee) and generally upbeat music.

I’m not really sure when that changed, but as of late, I’ve started doing this one band per manuscript thing. Or almost one band, anyway.

For my NA Sci-Fi, I listened to Imagine Dragons' Night Visions album on repeat, while occasionally switching to 30 Seconds to Mars’s Love Lust Faith + Dreams for more intense, dark scenes.

For my YA Fantasy after that, I listened to Fall Out Boy’s Save Rock and Roll album (again, on repeat).

For my NA Paranormal after that, I listened to a ridiculously huge Maroon 5 playlist (thanks to Spotify, I didn’t have to choose an album). Also on repeat.

And lastly, for my most recent YA Sci-Fi, I listened to Muse on repeat (mostly their The Resistance and The 2nd Law albums, with a couple other songs thrown in there).

I also started listening to music while editing, something I used to not be able to do at all, though mostly dancey upbeat music with few lyrics, like Swedish House Mafia. And that’s been a little less consistent.

At any rate, I noticed that by listening to the same band, it helps me get into a singular focus mode and I'm not often jarred out of it by a random song, which sometimes happened on Pandora (though Spotify ads were still a thing). Any song that I noticed distracted me I removed from the playlist and it wasn’t an issue again.

Maybe it’s because the songs all have a similar sound (after all, same band tends to have a similar tone throughout their music, particularly within the same album) or maybe it’s because my brain started associating those particular songs to that particular WIP, but I found it really helpful to have that same playlist going every time I wrote (and weirdly, I didn’t get sick of it—I actually still like all of those albums and bands).

I know, however, that some people even set out specific playlists for specific types of scenes, or create mixed playlists for their WIPs, and I’m curious—do you make playlists for your WIPs? If so, how do you put them together (and if not, why not)? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

Do you make playlists for your WIP? Why or why not? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)